Karen Bender Quotes

Almost every morning I write in my journal. I've been keeping it for a long time - I've filled more than 50 books. I write about what's going on in my personal and spiritual life or what's going on at work. It helps me keep things in perspective, especially when things get crazy or I get stressed or we have obstacles.

The challenge in my life really is keeping the balance between feeling creatively energized and fulfilled without feeling overwhelmed and like I'm in the middle of a battlefield.

My experiences in the military, the private sector, and as a congressional staffer were at times almost enough to drive me crazy. Writing offered the all-too-often-cited creative outlet.

I am on sabbatical as of right now, been too busy to think of about my OWN needs as of late.

My personal life, my normal life, is so important to me. To be able to go back to my personal life and leave characters behind is important; I don't keep them with me.

I don't think your personal life has anything to do with your professional life. They are separate things. Whatever is happening at home shouldn't be carried to work. Everyone has his/her own journey. Some revel in the fact that they derive that from personal contentment, and others draw it from extreme sorrow.

My private life is perfect. If your private life and your life outside football is good, then it is good on the field for you.

I probably shouldn't treat interviews as therapy sessions, but I don't keep a diary, so these end up being my way of keeping track of where I'm at and letting it all out.

When I wasn't working I didn't know what to do with myself and sort of didn't exist, in a way, when I wasn't working, so I was like two different people. I am not like that anymore.

In therapy I have learned the importance of keeping spiritual life and professional life balanced. I need to regain my balance.

I worked through cancer twice. I probably worked through it too much the last time. This time, I found myself saying, 'Well, I don't feel well. I think I'll take the day off.' I think I did that even a little bit more than I needed to.

I feel better when I'm working. I tend to not know who I am when I'm not working. That worries me a little bit... I've been fortunate to be so busy, but I haven't developed any other skills.

I think that's part of my evolution: realizing that I can say 'no' to things, even when I'm faced with that lull that comes between projects, and I get anxious because I feel like I need to be constantly working.

I think I used to sort of segregate things. Work was this and life was this and exercise was this. And I feel as I get older, or I become more relaxed, I feel like wellness is my whole being.

You have to find ways to find that center, to find that balance, to find sanity, because again, we are getting bigger, and people look at us that way. We have to find that new balance.

I firmly believe everyone needs to have balance in their life.

It's impossible to leave our emotions and experiences outside the work place - they inform us and make us who we are.

I was almost teaching myself through writing without even realizing it. It's like therapy. You can hear my progression as a person and how much happier I became, which is really cool for me to hear because I'm proud of myself.

There are times when you might have a bad training session or a bad day, and although I would often go to a team-mate to have a chat if that were the case, it's also great to have the option of expressing your thoughts in a journal if you don't want to bother anyone.

I journal at the end of every day and just keep track of how things are going.

I think it is up to each one of us to find the time and strike a balance between work and our personal life.

I think one of the things that happened to me in the last couple of years in the WWE where I realized how unhappy I was in that environment, was that I realized that I needed variety and balance in my life.

It's getting harder to make decisions to work for the sake of working. Like everybody, I'm trying to find things that are extremely challenging or mean something to me deeply. Sometimes something like The Tourist comes up and it's just fun, but it's not as easy to find projects that I have to do. I have to be home and I have to do other things, but I don't have to work as much.

I'm far from perfect. I'm still learning. I overworked myself, and I paid the price. I consider the breakdown a breakthrough. I needed to hit rock bottom. I needed to understand the cost of pushing so hard; fighting so hard against the system.

Most of us, like the assembly line worker, have jobs that are too small for our spirit. Jobs are not big enough for people.