Create YOUR OWN Inspirational and Motivational Quotes Here!

@UndomesticGoddess

Oh, I forgot to post Obs' quote at the Group Support Forum:

"To beat all the odds, you have to make attempts. And to make every attempt, every step and try counts. Go for it!" -- Obs

What a powerful quote, right? Please post some more here @ASilentObserver!

Thanks in advance and God bless!

The following quote is something I came up with that was responsible for getting me out of a pretty nasty depression about 10 years ago:

"When words stop working, I am free to drop them and create my own."

The ideas embedded in this aren't original/unique to me. The initial groundwork was laid by me reading a bunch of Buddhist/Zen stuff, and then the major breakthrough came from reading some stuff by Ludwig Wittgenstein. Here is an explanation of the significance/relevance:

1) Thought/effort has a breaking point

There are some types of problems that are paradoxical in that they can't be solved through normal thought/effort. These problems have the quality that the very act of trying to solve them is itself a new instance/example of the original problem. Therefore, normal problem-solving effectively creates a feedback loop where the problem feeds on itself. The harder you try to fix it, the worse the problem becomes.

2) This has significant implications in a mental health context

This phenomenon is very relevant to mental health issues. What's interesting is how many seemingly positive/healthy things can be put to destructive purposes. Some examples that have been problematic for me personally:

• Trying to be non-judgmental
• Trying to be honest
• Trying to be natural
• Trying to be relaxed
• Trying to worry less
• Trying to be positive
• Etc.

An illustration of this in action, using "positivity" as an example:

• Let's say someone has an ideal that goes something along the lines of "Being a positive person is a good/valuable thing. I want to try to be more positive".
• Let's also imagine that this person experiences some initial thought T0 that involves noticing some very minor/trivial experience of suffering that maybe contradicts their personal ideal of positivity
• Upon noticing T0, the person has a new thought T1 that involves a negative reaction to the presence of T0: "Ugh, I'm supposed to be positive, but look at me feeling this way"
• Shortly after, the person has a new thought T2 that likewise involves a negative reaction to the presence of T1: "Ugh, but there I go again being so critical of myself. Why am I so negative?"
• This continues in a loop (i.e. new thought T3 reacting to T2, new thought T4 reacting to T3, etc.) until either the person's attention gets distracted or they exhaust the energy/willpower required to sustain the self-torture.

One irony is that I think the people who are most passionate about things like personal growth or self-awareness would likely persevere the longest and cause themselves the greatest amount of suffering.

3) It is acceptable to abandon thought/effort

For the longest time, I felt like I had an obligation to continue struggling with thoughts in this way and trying to solve unsolvable problems. Otherwise, my thinking was that it would amount to me running away from reality, failing to take responsibility, being intellectually dishonest, giving up on myself, etc.

The insight that I got from reading Wittgenstein that helped me feel comfortable dropping my thoughts was the idea that language is a human invention. Words aren't identical to the reality that they aim to describe. ("The map is not the territory" -Alfred Korzybski) And in other contexts, if an invention stops working, then well... you just get rid of it and come up with something else that works better.

Words cut up reality into parts like someone taking a pizza and cutting it into slices. There might be some ways of cutting the pizza that are more common or practical than others. But in actuality, there's really nothing stopping you from cutting the pizza into some other different arrangement... like octagons, dozens of thin strips, hundreds of tiny squares, or getting rid of the cutting tool entirely and ripping it apart your bare hands into misshapen chunks... The decision to cut a pizza into normal-looking slices is just a somewhat arbitrary convention that has the appearance of being a hard rule when it's actually a voluntary choice. What matters about this is that sometimes the usual way of cutting the pizza isn't optimal or doesn't work for what you need to be able to do.

So, my conclusion is that if I try to think about a problem in a "normal" way and find myself getting stuck/lost/miserable, there's nothing requiring me to continue. If my usual thinking stops being helpful, sometimes I can find more benefit through all kinds of other alternative methods that either don't involve words, distort words beyond recognition, or utilize lots of irrational/intuitive elements that might seem ridiculous/irrelevant to someone who is operating strictly from a cognitive/solution-oriented perspective (e.g. meditation, prayer, poetry, music, art, divination, cooking, etc.).

***

My next quote that is basically a generalization of some of what I've described above. (Again, the thinking behind it isn't originally mine--inspired by reading about William James and Pragmatism.)

"Do what works. Whatever does not work can be discarded."

Below are a couple other quotes that feel like they offer a semi-decent argument for unconditional positive regard on the basis of enlightened self-interest. The idea is that my own identity is constantly shifting and fluctuating ("No man ever steps in the same river twice." -Heraclitus). So over the course of my existence I will probably pass through a lot of different states. At some point, I'm going to resemble each and every one of the things that I've judged/hated in other people. When that happens, my own judgmental mindset could potentially make it more difficult for me to accept/forgive/process whatever is happening in myself ("Judge not, that ye be not judged." -Matthew 7:1).

"Whatever I say I am, I will cease to be. Whatever I say I am not, I will become."
"Whatever judgments I make of others will be directed against myself."

These are few of my mottos that I’ve had since grade school. They’ve got me through rough times. Right now my life has been pretty awful, but when I take the time to remember my morals and ideas I can push through another day of hell.

When Lights Go Dim Keep Life Bright

Tears Are Never In Vain

Brother By Bond Not By Blood

Realism Doesn’t Motivate Dreamers (meaning: pursue your passion)

If I Didn’t Learn the First Time, You Know Where To Find Me (keep trying, and do what you love)

And I also still use an inside joke from grade school, which usually lifts my spirits. My friends and myself were talking, somewhere along the line I lost track of the conversation. The last thing I heard was ‘starfish’. So I yelled:

Wait, You Left Me On Starfish!

From then on we said starfish anytime anything confused us.

Which kneecap hurts the most.

@UndomesticGoddess This is amazing UG. Thank you. You might want to share them in Sharing Circle or Steps Towards Healthy Habits Sessions as well with other community members. They may find it inspiring to read. Or maybe you use some of these quotes in your sharings and participation

@UndomesticGoddess I like this!

Mine is:

Be stubborn in the pursuit of your passion

- Laiba