Pema Chodron Quotes

It's not the problem that causes our suffering; it's our thinking about the problem.

When we believe in our thoughts, when we tell ourselves a story, we suffer. 'My husband doesn't respect me.' 'I should be thinner.' Those are stories. When there's no story, there's no suffering.

Attitudes are capable of making the same experience either pleasant or painful.

It is not things in themselves which trouble us, but our opinions of things.

We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.

When something happens to you, suffering doesn't begin. Suffering begins at the instant you label a bad thing - as something that is wrong.

The truth is that there is no actual stress or anxiety in the world; it's your thoughts that create these false beliefs. You can't package stress, touch it, or see it. There are only people engaged in stressful thinking.

Happiness depends more on how life strikes you than on what happens.

All of our problems start in our minds.

One person's trauma is another's loss of innocence.

Our attitude towards suffering becomes very important because it can affect how we cope with suffering when it arises.

Most of our stress and suffering come not from events, but from our thoughts. Reframe from negative thoughts, and stress subsides.

Suffering is optional. You’re gonna have some pain but it doesn’t have to make you suffer.

Two types of voices command your attention today. Negative ones fill your mind with doubt, bitterness, and fear. Positive ones purvey hope and strength. Which one will you choose to heed?

What a person thinks about determines what he is.

It's not what happens in life that bothers us. It's what we're believing about it that bothers us.

Everything hangs on one's thinking.

Evidence is conclusive that your self-talk has a direct bearing on your performance.

When I believed my thoughts I suffered.

You do not 'suffer' if you decide 'that's the way it is' rather than 'why is it this way?'

There is no actual stress or anxiety in the world, your thoughts create these false beliefs.

Yes, hardships come. But I see in my life and in the lives of others how often something that does not have to be held as a hardship is dealt with by the mind as though it is.

The primary cause of unhappiness is never the situation but your thoughts about it.

It isn't the things that are happening to us that cause us to suffer, it's what we say to ourselves about the things that are happening. The truth you believe and cling to makes you unavailable to hear anything new.

Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.