Life’s Struggles Make Us Stronger

“Once upon a time, a man found a butterfly that was starting to hatch from its cocoon. He sat down and watched the butterfly for hours as it struggled to force itself through a tiny hole. Then, it suddenly stopped making progress and looked like it was stuck.

Therefore, the man decided to help the butterfly out. He took a pair of scissors and cut off the remaining bit of the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily, although it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.

The man thought nothing of it, and he sat there waiting for the wings to enlarge to support the butterfly. However, that never happened. The butterfly spent the rest of its life unable to fly, crawling around with small wings and a swollen body.

Despite the man’s kind heart, he didn’t understand that the restricting cocoon and the struggle needed by the butterfly to get itself through the small hole were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings to prepare itself for flying once it was free.”

“Touch your inner space, which is nothingness, as silent and empty as the sky; it is your inner sky. Once you settle down in your inner sky, you have come home, and a great maturity arises in your actions, in your behavior. Then whatever you do has grace in it. Then whatever you do is a poetry in itself. You live poetry; your walking becomes dancing, your silence becomes music.” – Osho

“Sometimes when you are going fast, especially when you feel a bit out of control, it is important to slow down and re-calibrate. Meditation is like tapping the breaks on the car, but it is the mind.” – David Scott

“Treat the earth well: it was not given to you by your parents, it was loaned to you by your children. We do not inherit the Earth from our Ancestors, we borrow it from our Children.” Chief Crazy Horse

The earth is what we all have in common. Like music and art, love of nature is a common language that can transcend political or social boundaries.

Time spent in nature is never wasted time.

“Meditation practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better, it’s about befriending who we are.” – Ani Pema Chodron

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.” – Epictetus

“The nature of illusion is that, when you see through it, it disappears.” – Mooji

“I am not a product of my circumstances. I am a product of my decisions.” — Stephen R. Covey

“Failure is a stepping stone into our greatness. It is in getting up, after falling that you learn something from the experience. You learn more from failure than from success. Allow every stumble to be a teacher and not just an obstacle. The fire of failure forges our character and burns up the innocence of our ignorance, leaving wisdom as a sweet reward.” – David Scott

“Worry is a misuse of imagination.”

“I do not try to dance better than anyone else. I only try to dance better than myself.” —Arianna Huffington

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.” — Henry Ford

“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” — Wayne Dyer

“You cannot always control what goes on outside. But you can always control what goes on inside.” — Wayne Dyer

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” — Aristotle

“If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves.” —Maria Edgeworth

“As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” —Henry David Thoreau

“The two most important days in your life are the day you’re born and the day you find out why.” – Mark Twain

“Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know.” – Pema Chodron

“Always give a little more than is expected in any relationship. In order to be irreplaceable one must make themselves indispensable.” – David Scott

“And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” —Anaïs Nin

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds.” — Edward Abbey

“Even sadness can be a blessing as grief is just love continuing in a different form.” – David Scott

“Meditation is all about the pursuit of nothingness. It’s like the ultimate rest. It’s better than the best sleep you’ve ever had. It’s a quieting of the mind.” Hugh Jackman

“In the same way that rain breaks into a house with a bad roof, desire breaks into the mind that has not been practicing meditation.” Buddha

“Meditation is a way to nourish and nurture the blossoming bliss of divinity within you.” – David Scott

“The more you meditate, the more good and healthy thoughts you will construct.”

“Meditation and Yoga add years to your life and life to your years.”

“Become the master of your own thoughts, and enjoy the ultimate pleasures of life through the beautiful art of meditation.”

“The quieter you become the more you can hear.”

“Just one small positive thought in the morning can change your whole day.” — Dalai Lama

“May the sun bring you new energy by day, may the moon softly restore you by night, may the rain wash away your worries, may the breeze blow new strength into your being, may you walk gently through the world and know it’s beauty all the days of your life.” – Apache Blessing