Truth Talk

“Language speeds and strengthens connections in the brain when we are processing sensory information. But newer research shows that when our access to emotional language is blocked, our ability to interpret incoming emotional information is significantly diminished. Likewise, having the correct words to describe specific emotions makes us better able to identify those emotions in others, as well as to recognize and manage the emotional experiences when we feel them ourselves.”

“Cynicism is a powerful anesthetic we use to numb ourselves to pain, but which also, by its nature, numbs us to truth and joy, Grief is healthy. Even anger can be healthy. But numbing ourselves with cynicism in an effort to avoid feeling those things is not.”

“By using repetition, images, and other strategies - all of which communicate truths in ways that are not cognitively or propositional - marketing forms us into the kind of persons who want to buy beer to have meaningful relationships, or to buy a car to be respected, or buy the latest thing to come along simply to satisfy the desire that has been formed and implanted in us. It is important to appreciate that these disciplinary mechanisms transmit values and truth claims, but not via propositions or cognitive means; rather, the values are transmitted more covertly...This covertness of the operation is also what makes it so powerful: the truths are inscribed in us through the powerful instruments of imagination and ritual.”

Liturgies aim our love to different ends precisely by training our hearts through our bodies.

It’s the oldest religious shortcut in the book: the easiest way to make oneself righteous is to make someone else a sinner.

“The effectiveness of action depends on the source from which it springs. If it is coming out of the false self with its shadow side, it is severely limited. If it is coming out of a person who is immersed in God, it is extremely effective.”

“The longer psychological abuse lingers in the shadows, people will continue to have their lives silently and slowly ruined.

“The problem is that when we use avoidance to cope, we only strengthen our anxiety and we usually end up experiencing more of whatever we were trying to flee from in the first place. The path forward is to see our avoidance and anxiety as a signal to act. An opportunity to choose what’s true over what’s comfortable. A chance to step into courage while holding ourselves with compassion. It’s our moment to write our bravest ending yet.”

“You must realize that when you defend yourself, you are really defending your walls. There is nothing else to defend in there. There is just your awareness of being and the limited house you built to live in. What you are defending is the house you built to protect yourself. You are hiding inside. If something happens to challenge the walls of your psyche, you get highly defensive.

“When you close down and protect yourself, you are pulling a shell around the part of you that is weak. This is the part that feels it needs protection even though no physical attack is taking place. You are protecting your ego, your self-concept. Although a situation may present no physical danger, it may cause you to experience disturbance, fear, insecurity, and other emotional problems. So you feel the need to protect yourself.

“You will get to a point in your growth where you understand that if you protect yourself, you will never be free. It’s that simple. Because you’re scared, you have locked yourself within your house and pulled down all the shades. Now it’s dark and you want to feel the sunlight, but you can’t. It’s impossible. If you close and protect yourself, you are locking this scared, insecure person within your heart. You will never be free that way.”

Basically, you re-create the outside world inside yourself, and then you live in your mind...All of this helps to create a semblance of control. If your mind doesn’t do this, you simply become too uncomfortable. Reality is just too real for most of us, so we temper it with the mind.

“I’ve never found that a lot of wisdom comes through people who have planted themselves dogmatically somewhere or other. I have found that a great deal of wisdom comes into the world through people who creatively hold the tension of opposites on difficult and complex issues. Their outstretched arms, nailed in the truth on both sides, make them look like the crucified, who was a living icon of the opposites of human and divine, heaven and earth, male and female soul, hanging between the good thief and the bad thief, which is the two parts of all of us. That is a magnificent image of transformation.”

You want to feel secure, but this will never be possible unless you are secure with yourself. Today, focus on becoming more self-affirming by developing a realistic belief in yourself and your abilities.

As I grow in my faith and learn to love God and others well, the soil of my life is being tilled again and again. Each time it has been broken into pieces, it has been prepared for new growth. For roots to run deep. For tender shoots to thrive.