Living from Your Heart

I will greet this day with love in my heart.
And how will I do this?
Henceforth will I look on all things with love and be born again.
I will love the sun for it warms my bones;
yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit.
I will love the light for it shows me the way;
yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars.
I will welcome happiness as it enlarges my heart;
yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul.
I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due;
yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge.
- Og Mandino

It is only with the heart that one can see rightly;
what is essential is invisible to the eye.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

The key to forgiveness is to forgive from the heart -
not from the mind.
- Sheri Rosenthal

The heart is always right -
if there's a question of choosing between the mind and the heart -
because mind is a creation of the society.
It has been educated.
You have been given it by the society, not by existence.
The heart is unpolluted.
- Osho

All that is real is seen with the heart.
- Vivian Greene

Further reading: Honor Your Heart

Changing Your Heart

Listen To Your Heart

Your Heart's Longing

Follow Your Heart

An Open Heart

Faith in Humanity

You must not lose faith in humanity.
Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty,
the ocean does not become dirty.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

We cannot despair of humanity,
since we ourselves are human beings.
- Albert Einstein

Compassion is not a relationship between the healer and the wounded.
It's a relationship between equals.
Only when we know our own darkness well
can we be present with the darkness of others.
Compassion becomes real when we recognize our shared humanity.
- Pema Chodron

One way or another, we all have to find
what best fosters the flowering of our humanity
in this contemporary life,
and dedicate ourselves to that.
- Joseph Campbell

A generous heart, kind speech,
and a life of service and compassion
are the things which renew humanity.
- The Buddha

Today's affirmation:
I choose acceptance and compassion toward all humanity.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Prayer of St. Francis of Assisi

Progress of the Human Mind

We are most like God when we forgive

We are One

Acceptance

Humanity

Compassion

Take Action Today

You can't cross the sea merely by
standing and staring at the water.
- Rabindranath Tagore

Freedom lies in being bold.
- Robert Frost

You are what you do, not what you say you'll do.
- Carl Jung

Be the change you want to see in the world.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

There's a difference between knowing the path and walking the path.
- the character Morpheus in the movie The Matrix

Action is our greatest weapon against fear.
Left to molder, fear grows upon itself,
but in the face of action,
fear is left in the dust.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Believe and Take Action

Create Your Future

Do What You Can Do

Inaction - The Greatest Mistake

Participate in Life

How Much Do You Want It?

Action

Begin Now

Change Quotes

The Problem with Advice

Advice is what we ask for when we already know the answer
but wish we didn't.
- Erica Jong

I always pass on good advice.
It is the only thing to do with it.
It is never of any use to oneself.
- Oscar Wilde

A friend encourages your dreams and offers advice -
but when you don't follow it,
they still respect and love you.
- Doris Wild Helmering

Don't follow any advice, no matter how good,
until you feel as deeply in your spirit as you think
in your mind that the counsel is wise.
- Joan Rivers

Most people when they come to you for advice,
come to have their own opinions strengthened,
not corrected.
- Josh Billings

Further reading: Meddling - 5 Questions To Ask Yourself Before Offering Helpful Advice

Don't Take It Personally

Advice

Regrets

Opinions

Be Yourself

Always be a first-rate version of yourself,
instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
- Judy Garland

 Be simply yourself and don't compare or compete.
- Lao Tzu

No one can give you better advice than yourself.
- Cicero

When I'm trusting and being myself...
everything in my life reflects this
by falling into place easily, often miraculously.
- Shakti Gawain

Trust your own inner guidance.
Have faith that your steps are
carrying you toward your dreams.
Keep your eyes on the heavens
and believe that your feet will carry you well.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Believe in Yourself

Today is Your Day

My Own Person

Appreciate Yourself

Be Yourself

Self Esteem

Thyself

Self Respect

The Least Of These

If we have no peace,
it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to each other.
- Mother Teresa

Our prime purpose in this life is to help others.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

I expect to pass through this world but once.
Any good therefore that I can do,
or any kindness that I can show to my fellow-creature,
let me do it now.
Let me not defer or neglect it,
for I shall not pass this way again.
- William Penn

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink:
I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me:
I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
...
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.
Matthew 25:35-40

Further reading:  How Helping Others Helps You

The Good Samaritan

Commitment To Service

Helping Others

Feed Just One

Encourage Others

The Dog Who Came to Dinner (an old parable retold)

Generosity

Service

Personal Transformation

At all times and under all circumstances,
we have the power to transform the quality of our lives.
- Werner Erhard

Personal transformation can and does have global effects.
As we go, so goes the world, for the world is us.
The revolution that will save the world
is ultimately a personal one.
- Marianne Williamson

The most important of all revolutions,
a revolution in sentiments, manners and moral opinions.
- Edmund Burke

Revolution begins with the self, in the self.
- Toni Cade Bambara

Transformation in the world happens when people are
healed and start investing in other people.
- Michael W. Smith

Further reading: What is Transformation?

The Power of Transformation

A Great Future

Personal Growth

Inner Strength

Quality

Who You Are

Tell me who admires and loves you, and I will tell you who you are.
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Every decision you make - every decision - is not a decision about what to do.
It’s a decision about Who You Are.
When you see this, when you understand it, everything changes.
You begin to see life in a new way.
All events, occurrences, and situations turn into opportunities
to do what you came here to do.
- Neale Donald Walsch

The privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.
- Joseph Campbell

Life is without meaning.
You bring the meaning to it.
The meaning of life is
whatever you ascribe it to be.
Being alive is the meaning.
- Joseph Campbell

It's not in the DOing, it's in the BEing.
Whatever you do or don't do in your lifetime,
your greatest contribution
to current and future generations
will be the happiness and joy
you generated and radiated to those around you.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Free Will

Being You

Take Charge of Your Life

Are You a Prisoner?

Difficult Choices

Character

Choice

Decisions

Enthusiasm and Passion

Don't die with your music still inside you.
Listen to your intuitive inner voice and find what passion stirs your soul.
- Wayne Dyer

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no passion to be found playing small -
in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living.
- Nelson Mandela

Wherever you go, go with all your heart.
- Confucius

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Powerful Dreams Inspire Powerful Action.
When you can taste, smell, and touch your dreams, you can enroll the world.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Live With Enthusiasm

Optimism

Don't Wait - Begin Today

How to Motivate Yourself

Boldly Sail the Storms of Life

Commitment

Perseverance

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.
It turns what we have into enough, and more.
It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity.
It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.
Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.
- Melody Beattie

Expressing gratitude seems like a cosmic invitation
for all kinds of thankfulness and appreciation to pour in.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

We tend to forget that happiness doesn't
come as a result of getting something we don't have,
but rather of recognizing and appreciating what we do have.
- Frederick Koenig

The struggle ends when the gratitude begins.
- Neale Donald Walsch

The way to happiness is what I call Zero-Based Gratitude.
Each day be happy and grateful for what you have,
independent of yesterday and of other people.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Give thanks, and release your troubles.

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Regarding Gratitude and Life

The Power of Gratitude

The Truly Rich

Appreciating Our Blessings

Count Your Blessings

Being Blessed

Gratitude and Thanksgiving

Appreciation

An Unknowable Future

Know that the greatest fear is fear of the unknown.
Seek to meet the unknown with courage and a sense of adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

In this world there is always danger
for those who are afraid of it.
- George Bernard Shaw

The challenge before us is to savor the unknown
and delight in the taste of possibility.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Faith:
When you walk to the edge of all the light you have
and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown,
you must believe that one of two things will happen:
...
There will be something solid for you to stand upon,
or, you will be taught how to fly
- Patrick Overton - from his book of poems: The Leaning Tree, 1975
[Widely mis-attributed to Barbara J. Winter, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, and others]

Life is lived in the mists -
little is fully visible, less is certain.
Yet rejoice in the unknowing,
and let all of life be a wonderful adventure.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Eight Rules for Living Your Greatest Life

Not Knowing

Life's Surprises

The Edge of All We Know

Our Challenge

Discovery and adventure, rather than fear

Adventure

Change

Worry

Presidents Day 2014

We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children.
- Jimmy Carter (39th President of the United States)

I never considered a difference of opinion in politics, in religion,
in philosophy, as cause for withdrawing from a friend.
- Thomas Jefferson (third President of the United States)

Men are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds.
- Franklin D. Roosevelt (32nd President of the United States)

Worry is the interest paid by those who borrow trouble.
- George Washington (first President of the United States)

With self-discipline most anything is possible.
- Theodore Roosevelt (26nd President of the United States)

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman,
before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air.
- John Quincy Adams (sixth President of the United States)

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie,
deliberate, contrived and dishonest,
but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic.
- John F. Kennedy (35th President of the United States)

Nothing is more important in our national life
than the welfare of our children.
- Harry S. Truman (33rd President of the United States)

Further reading: Abraham Lincoln (16th United States President)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (34th President of the United States)

William J. Clinton (42nd President of the United States)

John Adams (second President of the United States)

Theodore Roosevelt

John F. Kennedy

Giving Thanks for the Small Miracles

Our "Rainbows and Butterflies" are the small miracles of our life -
the little things that are so easy to overlook,
yet so awe inspiring when we take a moment
to notice and to pay attention.
Give thanks for the rainbows, for the butterflies,
for all God's creatures - large and small,
for the bright blue sky and the soft fog and the gentle rain,
for the tree veiled in the season's first frost,
for the baby's laugh,
for the touch of a hand and the whispered "I love you."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Miracles occur naturally as expressions of love.
The real miracle is the love that inspires them.
In this sense everything that comes from love is a miracle.
- A Course in Miracles

A coincidence is a small miracle in which God chooses to remain anonymous.
- Anonymous

If the only prayer you ever say in your entire life is thank you, it will be enough.
- Meister Eckhart

Today's affirmation: I see the miracle in all of life. I am thankful for all creation.

Further reading: Zero-Based Gratitude

Celebrating Rainbows and Butterflies - the Small Miracles of Our Life

Everything is a miracle

CELEBRATION

A List of Gratitudes

Thanks

Gratitude

Getting Better

Never mind what others do;
do better than yourself,
beat your own record from day to day,
and you are a success.
- William J. H. Boetcker

To leave the world a bit better ...
to know that one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

First ask yourself: What is the worst that can happen?
Then prepare to accept it.
Then proceed to improve on the worst.
- Dale Carnegie

Patience, persistence, and perseverance.
A little more each day, a little better each day.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Today's affirmation:
Every day in every way I am getting better and better.
- Émile Coué

Further reading: Simply Do Your Best

Daily Habits

Climb Every Mountain

Daily Motivation

No one is in control of your happiness but you

Try Daily Journaling

Self Improvement

Self Esteem

Valentine

Some people come into our lives and quickly go.
Some people stay for awhile, and move our souls to dance.
They awaken us to a new understanding,
leave footprints on our hearts,
and we are never, ever the same.
- Flavia Weedn

Love is not a mere sentiment.
Love is the ultimate truth at the heart of creation.
- Rabindranath Tagore

I love you not only for what you are,
but for what I am when I am with you.
I love you not only for what you have made of yourself,
but for what you are making of me.
I love you for that part of me you bring out.
- Roy Croft

You are my ground and you are my rainbow.
You are my butterfly and you are my ecstasy.
You are the start of my journeys and always my destination.
You are my home - the place to which I always return.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

The greatest lovers are like twin blooms,
each reflecting the passion and the glory of the other.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Happy Valentine's Day - I love You Just the Way You Are

The #1 Secret of Great Relationships

Renewing Love

What is Love?

Sweet Love Quotes

How to Avoid Falling in Love With Love

Cherish This Moment

We have only this moment,
sparkling like a star in our hand -
and melting like a snowflake.
- Marie B. Ray

We can only be said to be truly alive in those moments
when our hearts are conscious of our treasures.
- Thornton Wilder

Be happy for this moment.
This moment is your life.
- Anonymous

Start living now.
Stop saving the good china
for that special occasion.
Stop withholding your love
until that special person materializes.
Every day you are alive is a special occasion.
Every minute, every breath, is a gift from God.
- Mary Manin Morrissey

Do not dwell in the past,
do not dream of the future,
concentrate the mind on the present moment.
- The Buddha

Today's affirmation:
I live every moment, and I live joyfully.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Living Deeply

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

The Edge of All We Know

Enjoy Your Life

Live Fully

Today

Living Now

Live Life to the Fullest

Enjoying Life

Abraham Lincoln

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?
- Abraham Lincoln (February 12, 1809 - April 15, 1865)

No man stands so tall as when he stoops to help a child.
- Abraham Lincoln (attributed)

When I do good, I feel good.
When I do bad, I feel bad.
That's my religion.
- Abraham Lincoln

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
- Abraham Lincoln

If you look for the bad in people
expecting to find it, you surely will.
- Abraham Lincoln

I have always found that mercy bears
richer fruits than strict justice.
- Abraham Lincoln

Further reading: War

Character

Being Big - Standing Tall

Conflict

Death - Sympathy

Leadership

Keep Moving

Achievement seems to be connected with action.
Successful men and women keep moving.
They make mistakes, but they don't quit.
- Conrad Hilton

Life is like riding a bicycle.
To keep your balance you must keep moving.
- Albert Einstein

Keep moving. Don't stop. But don't rush.
Don't race around.
Sure and steady gets you there every time.
- Neale Donald Walsch

You make a mistake, you keep going.
- Linda Gray

True courage is taking another small step each day
toward achieving your vision.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Perseverance

Keep Going

One More Mile

Be Unstoppable

You Can Do It

Never Give Up

Reality = Facts + Emotions

Common sense is the knack of seeing things as they are,
and doing things as they ought to be done.
- Josh Billings

There's a world of difference between truth and facts.
Facts can obscure truth.
- Maya Angelou

Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.
- Aldous Huxley

All that is real is seen with the heart.
- Vivian Greene

You have a choice about the perspective you take on life.
See tragedy, and the world is tragic -
see beauty, and the world is beautiful.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Reality = Facts + Emotions
Read my article What Is Reality?

Further reading: Dream To Reality

Seeing, Really Seeing

Perspective

Emotions

Reality

Facts

Creating the world that could be

As we become purer channels for God's light,
we develop an appetite for the sweetness that is possible in this world.
A miracle worker is not geared toward fighting the world that is,
but toward creating the world that could be.
- Marianne Williamson

It is the quality of our work which will please God
and not the quantity.
- Mohandas (Mahatma) Gandhi

Whatsoever we beg of God, let us also work for it.
- Jeremy Taylor

What you are is God's gift to you;
what you become is your gift to God.
- Anthony Dalla Villa

Lord, make me an instrument of thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
- St. Francis of Assisi

Further reading: When is Your Best Good Enough?

Believe in People; Believe in Yourself

Being an Open Channel

Miracles

St. Francis of Assisi

God (quotes about)

How Much Do You Want It?

Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.
- Bill Cosby

If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up.
Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it.
- Michael Jordan

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, Begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it, Begin it now.
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

It doesn't matter if you try and try and try again,
and fail.
It does matter if you try and fail, and fail to try again.
- Charles Kettering

Believe in yourself. Have faith in your abilities.
Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers
you cannot be successful or happy.
- Norman Vincent Peale

Further reading: How to Motivate Yourself

Nothing to look forward to

Be Unstoppable

Motivation

Make It Happen

Daily Motivation

Fear

Take Action

Begin Now

Again Tomorrow

Courage doesn't always roar.
Sometimes courage is the quiet voice
at the end of the day saying,
"I will try again tomorrow."
- Mary Anne Radmacher

You have to accept whatever comes
and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage
and with the best that you have to give.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

Courage is doing what you're afraid to do.
There can be no courage unless you're scared.
- Eddie Rickenbacker

The best remedy for those who are afraid, lonely or unhappy
is to go outside, somewhere where they can be quiet,
alone with the heavens, nature and God.
Because only then does one feel that all is as it should be.
- Anne Frank

Today's affirmation:
I make friends with my fear. I am unstoppable.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Endurance

Take Action - Now

You Can Do It

Feeling Stuck?

Encouragement for Hard Times

Be Yourself

It Might Have Been

For all sad words of tongue and pen,
The saddest are these, "It might have been".
- John Greenleaf Whittier

He who spends time regretting the past,
loses the present and risks the future.
- Quevedo

I rest in the light of forgiveness.
I forgive myself and others for that
which is done (and better left undone)
and also that which is not done (and better if done).
I give myself permission to enjoy this moment without guilt.
I freely release all uncertainty, regret, and fear.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Regret is an appalling waste of energy,
you can't build on it - it's only good for wallowing in.
- Katherine Mansfield

Mistakes are the portals of discovery.
- James Joyce

Live life with no regrets and no resentments.
Whatever happened in the past,
forgive yourself and others. Choose love.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to get over regrets and resentments

Never Second Guess Yourself

Simply Do Your Best

Do What You Can Do

Appreciate Yourself

Forgiveness

Mistakes

Regret

A Happy Life

A happy life consists not in the absence,
but in the mastery of hardships.
- Helen Keller

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance;
the wise grows it under his feet.
- J. Robert Oppenheimer

Be happy for this moment.
This moment is your life.
- Anonymous

Happiness doesn't depend on any external conditions,
it is governed by our mental attitude.
- Dale Carnegie

Laugh when you can,
apologize when you should,
and let go of what you can't change.
Life's too short to be anything... but happy.
- Anonymous

When you feel worried and depressed,
consciously form a smile on your face and act upbeat
until the happy feeling becomes genuine.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: The Secret of Happiness

Ten Little Tips to Feel Happier Right Now

Living a Life You Love

Sharing Happiness

Feel Good

Happiness

Cheer Up

Comforting Words

Family Love

Love begins at home, and it is not how much we do...
but how much love we put in that action.
- Mother Teresa

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

The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

What is our family?
We touch our full hearts and see ourselves
reflected whole in each other's eyes.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

Families are like fudge... mostly sweet with a few nuts.
- Anonymous

The magic words for a great family are,
"I love you just the way you are."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: A Parent's Gift

Joy at Home

Where There is Love, Nothing is Missing - a Parable

Let today be a day to have gratitude for your family

Family Time

Families

Love

A Single Step

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
- Lao Tzu (Chinese Proverb)

Take the first step in faith.
You don't have to see the whole staircase,
just take the first step.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

The first step towards the solution
of any problem is optimism.
- John Baines

Today... maybe I can take one step
on that profoundly complex path to peace.
- Mary Anne Radmacher

A little simplification would be
the first step toward rational living.
- Eleanor Roosevelt

The first step in the evolution of ethics
is a sense of solidarity with other human beings.
- Albert Schweitzer

Believe in yourself,
in your vision for your future
and in your ability to take a small step
each day toward achieving your vision.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Don't Wait - Begin Today

How to Motivate Yourself

One More Step

Choose Your Habits, Choose Your Life

Step by Step

Later is Never

More Motivational Articles

No Enemies

No one is to be called an enemy,
all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm.
You have no enemy except yourselves.
- St. Francis of Assisi

 Conflict cannot survive without your participation.
- Wayne Dyer

Never succumb to the temptation of bitterness.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.

In the practice of tolerance,
one's enemy is the best teacher.
- Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama

Few are the giants of the soul that actually feel
that the human race is their family circle.
- Freya Stark

An "enemy" is a mirage -
an image of self reflected on the sands of Hell.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Lord, grant comfort, joy and health
to those I call friend,
to those I call "enemy,"
and to those I have cursed by my indifference.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: Enemies

The Universal Sacrament of Compassion

Conflict

Go and Do Likewise

Anger

Forgiveness

Unity

Compassion

Peace

Is your glass of life half empty? Or half full?

Keep a grateful journal.
Every night, list five things you are grateful for.
- Oprah Winfrey

He is a wise man who does not grieve
for the things which he has not,
but rejoices for those which he has.
- Epictetus

The enlightened give thanks
for what most people take for granted.
- Michael Beckwith

I don't think of all the misery
but of the beauty that still remains.
- Anne Frank

Is your glass of life
half empty?
Or half full?

Seeing my glass of life as mostly full
triggers an amazing cycle of transformation
Appreciation for the abundance of life incites gratitude -
which brings on that warm comfortable
feeling of joy and satisfaction with life.
Gratitude for abundance also creates increasing abundance.
Being truly grateful for the abundance that
is now in my life causes an ever greater abundance
to flow in my direction.
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie

Further reading: How to Think Positive

Zero-Based Gratitude

Accentuate the Positive

How to be Positive Around Negative People

The Bright Side

Attitude is Everything

Positivity

Think Positive, Act Positive, Believe Positive