Anne Lamott Quotes

If you have grasped the purpose of life there is no point in trying to make life into something it is not or cannot be.

Anything in life that we don't accept will simply make trouble for us until we make peace with it.

I once considered writing a book called I'm not OK and you're not OK, and that's OK.

What would it be like if I could accept life--accept this moment--exactly as it is?

The process of radical acceptance is to accept that a story has appeared in the mind, and then deepen the attention to see clearly what's happening in the body, to regard those feelings and sensations with kindness and acceptance, and to notice how they come and go.

When you live in complete acceptance of what is, that is the end of all drama in your life.

If I could change the way I live my life today, I wouldn't change a single thing.

There can only be a relationship between human beings when we accept what is, not what should be.

Accepting the reality of our broken, flawed lives is the beginning of spirituality not because the spiritual life will remove our flaws but because we let go of seeking perfection and, instead, seek God, the one who is present in the tangledness of our lives.

Fear is nonacceptance of what is.

Feelings come and feelings go. There is no need to fear them and no need to crave them. Be open to your feelings and experience them while they are here. Then be open to the feelings that will come next. Your feelings are a part of your experience. Yet no mere feeling, however intense it may seem, is your permanent reality.

The full and joyful acceptance of the worst in oneself may be the only sure way of transforming it.

On this sacred path of Radical Acceptance, rather than striving for perfection, we discover how to love ourselves into wholeness.

All you realy need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.

When I tried this morning, after an hour or so of unhappy thinking, to dip back into my meditation, I took a new idea with me: compassion. I asked my heart if it could please infuse my soul with a more generous perspective on my mind's workings. Instead of thinking that I was a failure, could I perhaps accept that I am only a human being--and a normal one, at that?

I used to feel for years and years and years that I was very remiss not to have written a novel and I would question people who wrote novels and try to find out how they did it and how they had got past page 30. Then, with the approach of old age, I began to just think: “Well, lucky I can do anything at all.

As for our inner level of obstacle, perhaps the only enemy we have is that we don't like the way reality is now and therefore wish it would go away fast. But what we need to acknowledge is that nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.

Just pausing for two to three breaths is a perfect way to stay present. This is a good use of our life. Indeed, it is an excellent, joyful use of our life. Instead of getting better and better at avoiding, we can learn to accept the present moment as if we had invited it, and work with it instead of against it, making it our ally rather than our enemy.

About being grateful for what you have instead of yearning for what you think you want.

Radical Acceptance: Embracing Your Life with the Heart of a Buddha.

Wherever you are is always the right place. There is never a need to fix anything, to hitch up the bootstraps of the soul and start at some higher place. Start right where you are.

A body shouldn't heed what might be. He's got to do with what is.

Everything is as it is at any moment. There's no way of arguing, because you are arguing with reality - the isness of this moment. You can argue with it, but that's suffering.

When we stop opposing reality, action becomes simple, fluid, kind, and fearless.

No matter where you are on your journey, that's exactly where you need to be. The next road is always ahead.