Ann Voskamp Quotes

When we direct our thoughts properly, we can control our emotions.

When we are fully conscious and aware, we actually know when we are about to overreact. When we are mindful, we have the mental space and are aware of when our moods change. When we are mindful, we are aware of when our mental models are being challenged and when expectation does not meet with reality, which can trigger an emotional response.

Negative emotions will challenge your grit every step of the way. While it's impossible not to feel your emotions, it's completely under your power to manage them effectively and to keep yourself in a position of control. When you let your emotions overtake your ability to think clearly, it's easy to lose your resolve.

There's always something going on, but thank goodness these days it's with a clear head, which helps me massively.

Emotions like guilt and shame cut you off from web of existence and that causes inflammation in the body. I would recommend that you go to a level of awareness where you can be an observer of your thoughts and emotions and use mindfulness.

When there is pain, the animal instinct is 'fight or flight' (i.e., to either strike back or run away) - reflect instead. When you can calm yourself down, thinking about the dilemma that is causing you pain will bring you to a higher level and enlighten you, leading to progress.

We cannot expect to be in control of the circumstances in our lives when we cannot control our minds for five minutes. Meditation is the daily minimum requirement that will prevent us from breaking down and falling apart at the most inopportune moments. It is the art of listening. It is a practice which enables us to tune in and fine-tune the key areas of our lives: the mind and the spirit.

After many years of training myself, strong emotions are now a trigger for me to look at something. I think that all emotions are triggers for us to grow in our level of consciousness.

Frustration is our announcement to ourselves that we need to move back into love in order to find our "center" once again.

‎"Don't bother too much about your feelings. When they are humble, loving, brave, give thanks for them; when they are conceited, selfish, cowardly, ask to have them altered. In neither case are they you, but only a thing that happens to you. What matters is your intentions and your behavior

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry: "I used to be angry every day, then every other day: next, every two, then every three days!" and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving.

At the end of the day, I can end up just totally wacky, because I've made mountains out of molehills. With meditation, I can keep them as molehills.

I loved my life, but my choices were overloading and overwhelming me. Listening to inner feelings and fulfilling some of these urges when they come along is incredibly important.

It is a challenge at times, but trying to stay centered and balanced helps me keep things in perspective.

Your heart is very much connected to your mind.

I do a lot of reading, meditating, and praying to stay as grounded as I can be in this crazy world.

Without meditation, I'd probably be dead.

The more externally chaotic the world becomes, the more we need sound internal logic, especially when it comes to our emotions.

Remain calm, serene, always in command of yourself. You will then find out how easy it is to get along.

Generally speaking, I think it's a good idea to stay conscious of any kind of energy or emotion that you're generating, whether it's at the end of a work day or just in your everyday life.

When I seemed to be irritable or sad, my father would quote the learned Dr. Knight, and then say, 'Just go to sleep.' Like all smart aleck kids, I thought the advice was silly. But as I've grown older, I've realized just how smart Knight was.

The greatest weapon against stress is our ability to choose one thought over another.

We think too much and feel too little.

There have been many occasions when I found it helpful to talk out loud to my own thoughts, ordering the unwholesome ones to go off somewhere and jump into the river.