Pema Chodron Quotes

Well, it starts with being willing to feel what we are going through. It starts with being willing to have a compassionate relationship with the parts of ourselves that we feel are not worthy of existing on the planet. If we are willing through meditation to be mindful not only of what feels comfortable, but also of what pain feels like, if we even aspire to stay awake and open to what we're feeling, to recognize and acknowledge it as best we can in each moment, then something begins to change.

It's important to cultivate a tolerance and patience with uncomfortable feelings. It's best to feel them.

The rage is still there but I found the right kind of channel, because it's tied to a love, it's tied to a struggle for justice. And most importantly, for me, it's tied to a recognition that I am a cracked vessel.

When you feel good is when you're not afraid to feel the worst.

Our pain is a part of who we authentically are.

I'm very sensitive and I'm quite a soft person, and I cry a lot when things upset me.

I talk a lot about strength, faith and love, but I don't ever talk about the fact that I am one of the most sensitive people in my family. That might be the most shocking, because you always see me fighting the good fight, with the strong face on, but I am the most emotional.

I play damaged people a lot. I'm a Cancer. And I say that tongue and cheek, but I wear my heart on my sleeve. I'm a very emotional woman.

I was a different kind of kid, oversensitive and all that.

I must learn to love the fool in me - the one who feels too much, talks too much, takes too many chances, wins sometimes and loses often, lacks self-control, loves and hates, hurts and gets hurt, promises and breaks promises, laughs and cries.

I think we're all sensitive; everyone has a certain way about themselves that people don't like to let their emotions out too often. I think people tend to suppress them and hold them in, so I think there's a bit of that in me.

One of the biggest things I learned was that it's OK to be nervous and admit that you're having a hard time.

Nothing anybody's said or written about me ever bothers me, except when it does.

It's OK to feel pain and experience it. I'm not trying to fix myself. My suffering has given me so much.

I am an emotional person, but I am not embarrassed by that.

All our failures are ultimately failures in love.

If we begin to get in touch with whatever we feel with some kind of kindness, our protective shells will melt, and we'll find that more areas of our lives are workable. AS we learn to have compassion for ourselves, the circle of compassion for others-what and whom we can work with, and how-becomes wider.

Someone needs to encourage us not to brush aside what we feel. Not to be ashamed of the love and grief that it arouses in us. Not to be afraid of pain. Someone needs to encourage us: that this soft spot in us could be awakened, and that to do this would change our lives.

Only love can break your heart.

You can accept or reject the way you are treated by other people. But until you heal the wounds of your past, you are going to bleed.

You think you're being broken but you're really being broken open...and that's where the healing happens, in those broken places...if you'll allow it.

In deep self-acceptance grows a compassionate understanding. As one Zen master said when I asked if he ever gets angry, 'Of course I get angry, but then a few minutes later I say to myself, 'What's the use of this,' and I let it go.'

Bad love is better than no love at all, at least you know you're alive.

The transformative power of love is not fully embraced in our society because we often wrongly believe that torment and anguish are our ‘natural’ condition.

I handle emotional pain by trying to understand that it's going to be painful and to allow for it instead of fighting it. Doesn't make it any easier, though.