Become Centered

At the center of your being you have the answer;
you know who you are and you know what you want.
- Lao Tzu

When you become centered, suddenly there is great freedom
because you know you are not the mind and you are not the body.
- Osho

A mind at peace, a mind centered and not focused on harming others,
is stronger than any physical force in the universe.
- Wayne Dyer

Breathe deeply and slowly. Let yourself become centered - shutting out distractions. Breathe in eternal peace, and let your body fill with unconditional love.

Further reading: Five 30-Second Emotional Releases to De-Stress at Work
     

Action, Not Anger, Not Violence

Raging is easy but is neither good for your sanity, nor the best way to effect change.
- Mariella Frostrup

Mariella Frostrup's words are the best advice, the only rational advice, whether the crisis is Misogyny, Racism, Climate Change, Political Corruption, or personal issues.

The limitation of riots, moral questions aside,
is that they cannot win and their participants know it.
Hence, rioting is not revolutionary but reactionary
because it invites defeat.
It involves an emotional catharsis,
but it must be followed by a sense of futility.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Change of any sort requires courage.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Violence, even well intentioned,
always rebounds upon oneself.
- Lao Tzu

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed it is the only thing that ever has.
- Margaret Mead

Non-violence means avoiding not only external physical violence
but also internal violence of spirit.
You not only refuse to shoot a man,
but you refuse to hate him.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Prepare for the unknown by studying how others in the past have coped
with the unforeseeable and the unpredictable.
- George S. Patton

Be resolute in your goals, but flexible in your tactics.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Until You Take Action, What You Want Holds No Power
            

Pray For People Who Have Wronged You

Love people who hate you. Pray for people who have wronged you.
It won’t just change their life, it will change yours.
- Mandy Hale

Hatred paralyzes life; love releases it.
Hatred confuses life; love harmonizes it.
Hatred darkens life; love illumines it.
- Martin Luther King Jr.

If you want to make peace with your enemy,
you have to work with your enemy.
Then he becomes your partner.
- Nelson Mandela

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln

You have heard that it was said,
"Love your neighbor and hate your enemy."
But I tell you: Love your enemies
and pray for those who persecute you.
- Jesus (Matthew 5:43-44)

The practice of forgiveness is our most important
contribution to the healing of the world.
- Marianne Williamson

Further reading: Categorizing People

Life is a Reflection

Go and Do Likewise

Fear and Love

On the Unworkability of Vengeance

Fix the Environment

Consider this very deep Alexander Den Heijer quote in the context of children/families/schools, of our criminal justice system, of government employees, ...

When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.
- Alexander Den Heijer

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens
reflect the kind of care they get.
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

There can be no keener revelation of a society's soul
than the way in which it treats its children.
- Nelson Mandela

Education is the most powerful weapon
which you can use to change the world.
- Nelson Mandela

None of us got where we are solely by
pulling ourselves up by our bootstraps.
- Thurgood Marshall

Generally speaking, punishment makes men hard and cold;
it concentrates; it sharpens the feeling of alienation;
it strengthens the power of resistance
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Bars can't build better men, and misery can only break what goodness remains.
- Stuart Turton

It is said that no one truly knows a nation until one has been inside its jails.
A nation should not be judged by how it treats its highest citizens, but its lowest ones.
- Nelson Mandela

Gardening is all about optimism.
I put a seed in the ground.
I consistently tend it,
confident I will see the results, in time,
of the nurture I have provided.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Further reading: Be Grateful, Pay It Forward
   

Not Fears, But Hopes and Dreams

Do not anticipate trouble,
or worry about what may never happen.
Keep in the sunlight.
- Benjamin Franklin

Life only appears to be rushing toward us.
Perhaps life is not as threatening as it appears.
Perhaps the greatest threat to our serenity
is our fear of the future - our fear of the unknown.
Perhaps, as Franklin D. Roosevelt said,
"The Only Thing We Have to Fear Is Fear Itself."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams.
Think not about your frustrations, but about your unfulfilled potential.
Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in,
but with what it is still possible for you to do.
- Pope John XXIII

There are no hopeless situations;
there are only men who have grown hopeless about them.
- Clare Boothe Luce

Sometimes good things fall apart
so better things can fall together.
- Marilyn Monroe

When you say a situation or a person is hopeless,
you are slamming the door in the face of God.
- Charles L. Allen

Further reading: Not Fair, But Joyful

Life: Mystery and Riddle

How to Stop Worrying

Welcome the Unknown

An Unknowable Future

The Edge of All We Know