May Sarton Quotes

I've always been fortunate in that I've been able to put myself in my own zone and relax. It comes naturally. I'm lucky to be that way

I don't know if I'm relentlessly cheerful... more consistently relaxed.

I always forget how important the empty days are, how important it may be sometimes not to expect to produce anything, even a few lines in a journal. A day when one has not pushed oneself to the limit seems a damaged damaging day, a sinful day. Not so! The most valuable thing one can do for the psyche, occasionally, is to let it rest, wander, live in the changing light of a room.

Yoga is the practice of quieting the mind.

I need solitude, which is to say, recovery, return to my self, the breath of a free, light, playful air.

Because I'm not writing all the time (thank goodness), my mind is sometimes pleasantly blank.

Solitude bears the same relation to the mind that sleep does to the body. It affords it the necessary opportunities for repose and recovery.

Switch clicking off in my head, turning the hot light off and the cool night on and — [He looks up, smiling sadly.] — all of a sudden there's—peace!

For my mind, I try to reduce stress by finding quiet time and meditating.

I don’t think there’s ever what could be called a "chilled state" in my head.

If the pace and the push, the noise and the crowds are getting to you, it's time to stop the nonsense and find a place of solace to refresh your spirit

Yoga is mind wave quieting.

You get those occasional moments when you're absolutely calm, and you've just done something that would have scared you shitless earlier that day, and you've just done it like it was nothing. I find that very relaxing.

Breathe and don't try to be perfect.

Relaxation is the absence of worry.

Every night empty your mind of unhappy thoughts as you empty your pockets and come alive.

Try a little harder, and meditation comes. You do not feel the body or anything else. When you come out of it after the hour, you have had the most beautiful rest you ever had in your life. That is the only way you ever give rest to your system. Not even the deepest sleep will give you such a rest as that.

Meditation means: remain as relaxed as you are in deep sleep and yet alert. Keep awareness there; let thoughts disappear but awareness has to be retained. And this is not difficult: it is just that we have not tried it, that's all. It is like swimming: if you have not tried it, it looks very difficult; it looks very dangerous too. And you cannot believe how people can swim because you simply drown! But once you have tried a little bit it comes easily; it is very natural.

When the mind is allowed to relax, inspiration often follows.

So, in meditation practice, the best way to get somewhere is to let go of trying to get anywhere at all.

It feels good. Kinda like when you have to shut your computer down, just sometimes when it goes crazy, you just shut it down and when you turn it on, it's okay again. That's what meditation is to me.

Meditation calms the mind, and when the mind is in a state of restful awareness, the body relaxes too.

No one needs to know that you've shut the world out and are meditating as you stroll down the street. Twenty minutes to a half-hour every day is a good amount of time to restore a sense of serenity.

In this modern world where activity is stressed almost to the point of mania, quietness as a childhood need is too often overlooked. Yet a child's need for quietness is the same today as it has always been--it may even be greater--for quietness is an essential part of all awareness. In quiet times and sleepy times a child can dwell in thoughts of his own, and in songs and stories of his own.

The cure for too much to do is solitude and silence.