(some of these quotes show no author not because they are unknown, but because they are unknown to me)
"Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself (or herself)."
~ Leo Tolstoy
"You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete."
~ Buckminster Fuller
"The overall commentary on what I'm doing is saying, "Hey look! I get to create whatever persona I want to, and it's all up to me. And the truth is, we are all basically the universe-pretending to be humans for a brief moment of time."
~ RuPaul
"Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there."
~ Will Rogers
"After climbing a great hill, one only finds that there are many more hills to climb."
~ Nelson Mandela
"You can make a mountain recede by simply walking toward it."
~ Marilyn Wallner
"Assume a virtue if you have it not."
~ William Shakespeare, "Hamlet"
"To go out of your mind once a day is tremendously important because by going out of your mind you come to your senses."
~ Alan Watts
"Learn to love hills and they will love you back."
"It's easier to go down a hill than up it, but the view is much better at the top."
~Henry Ward Beecher
"It's a hill, get over it!"
"The clock isn't slower you're just faster." ~ Adidas
"Running
hills breaks up your rhythm and forces your muscles to adapt to
different stresses. The result? You become a stronger runner."
~Eamonn Coughlin
(He ran a 4 minute mile at the age of 41)
"Luck is preparation meeting the moment of opportunity."
~Martin Luther King
"I love myself unconditionally, right now."
(My client Amanda's favorite mantra...right now)
"Those who think they have not time for bodily exercise will sooner or later have to find time for illness." ~ Edward Stanley
"Death
says, "Play it safe." Life says, "Risk it." At the vital edge
something dangerous calls my name. What will I risk to stay alive?"
~Sam Keen,
Author of Learning to Fly
"Nothing is constant but change."
"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission. "
~ Neil Kendall
"Set patterns, incapable of adaptability, of pliability, only offer a better cage. Truth is outside of all patterns."
~ Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do
"It is health that is real wealth; not pieces of gold and silver."
~ Mahatma Gandhi
"Whether a man is healthy or unhealthy depends on himself."
~Mahatma Gandhi
"The curing of your disease does not rest ultimately in the hands of any doctor."
~Mahatma Gandhi
"Attention to health is life's greatest hindrance."
~ Plato
"We do not stop exercising because we grow old--we grow old because we stop exercising."
"If you want time to pass more slowly, do a plank!"
~Monica
"There
is no easy way (to exercise). Believe me, if there were, I would have
bought it. And it would be one of my favorite things!" ~ Oprah Winfrey
"I don't always go to the gym or run everyday, but when I do, I make sure everyone on Instagram knows about it!" ~ Unknown
"My doctor told me to stop having intimate dinners for four unless there are three other people." ~ Orson Welles
"I'd rather be a failure at something I enjoy than a success at something I hate." ~ George Burns
"My religion is kindness."~ Dali Lama
"Curious people are interesting people; I wonder why that is."
~ Bill Maher
"As a man thinks, so he is."
" I've
missed more than 9,000 shots in my career. I've lost almost 300 games.
26 times, I've been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed.
I've failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I
succeed." -Michael Jordan
"Everyone plays hurt, tell me when you're injured"~ Bill Parcells, Football coach
"If there is no mind-body connection then why do we get Diarrhea when we get nervous?" ~ Sarah Silverman
"Dying is easy; living takes work, goals, and challenges."~ Jack LaLanne...fitness guru
(BTW...he lived a healthy and vigorous life until 95 and was sick for
one week then died peacefully of respiratory failure due to pneumonia.)
"Exercise to stimulate, not to annihilate." ~ Lee Haney
"Because we are what we are we may become what we will." ~Thomas Troward
"I must be willing to give up what I am in order to become what I will be." ~ Albert Einstein
"Because I am what I am, I may be what I will to be."
"We are ourselves the very power which we seek."
"The thought of power produces power."
"All beauty is the expression of living power."
"He who seeks beauty will find it."
"In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different." ~ Coco Chanel
"I eat not so I can live longer, but so I can live better." ~ Monica
"To keep the body in good health is a duty, otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear." ~ Buddha
"Remember, you are not a human garbage disposal, therefore, it is not necessary to clean your plate!"
"Your liver pays dearly now for youthful magic moments" ~ Cake
"Eat until you are not hungry as opposed to eating until you are full."
"I
am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my Imagination. Imagination
is more important than knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination
encircles the world."~ Albert Einstein
"Logic will get you from A to Z; imagination will get you everywhere."
~ Albert Einstein
"Everything you can imagine is real." ~ Pablo Picasso
"Imagination is the beginning of creation. You imagine what you desire, you will what you imagine and at last, you create what you will."
~ George Bernard Shaw
"We are what we pretend to be. So we must be careful of what we pretend to be." ~ Kurt Vonnegut
"Fake it until you make it." ~ Unknown
"Yes:
I am a dreamer. For a dreamer is one who can only find his way by
moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest
of the world." ~ Oscar Wilde
"To succeed in life you need two things: ignorance and confidence."~ Mark Twain
"The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is knowledge of our own ignorance."~ Benjamin Franklin
"Accidentally
consumed five biscuits when I wasn't paying attention.Those biscuits
are wily fellows.They leap in like sugary ninjas." ~ Charles Dickens
Thanksgiving tip: "Don't forget to set your scales back 10 lbs tonight."
"Give away the most valuable internal gifts you have, and you will get more of the same."
"To get strong, use the strength you have; the more you give, the more you get!"
"Because
your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is
beyond the powers of man; but if anything is in the powers and province
of man, believe that it is within your own compass also."~ Marcus
Aurelius (Roman emperor from 121-161)
"Nothing can cure the soul but the senses, just as nothing can cure the senses but the soul."~ Oscar Wilde
"The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."~ Oscar Wilde
"A man is the product of his thoughts, what he thinks, he becomes."~ Mahatma Gandhi
"Life is like riding a bicycle; in order to keep your balance, you must keep moving." ~Albert Einstein
"Lack
of activity destroys the good condition of every human being, while
movement and methodical physical exercise save it and preserve it".
~Plato
"I like to say that
exercise is like taking a little Prozac or a little Ritalin at just the
right moment," says John J. Ratey, MD, an associate professor of
psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and author of A User's Guide to the
Brain. "Exercise is really for the brain, not the body. It affects
mood, vitality, alertness, and feelings of well-being."
"Fitness - if it came in a bottle, everybody would
have a great body." ~Cher
"A man's health can be judged by which he takes two at a time pills or stairs." ~ Joan Welsh
"Thought
determines the quality of the action. We are at the liberty to direct
our thoughts. Direct your thoughts carefully to the highest principles
and you can escape the entangled web of cause and effect."
"It never gets easier, you just go faster."
~Greg LeMond
"I thought of that while I was riding my bicycle."~Albert Einstein, in reference to the Theory of Relativity
"It
is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you
remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high
hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of
country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle." ~Ernest Hemingway
"When the spirits are low, when the day appears dark, when work becomes monotonous, when hope hardly seems worth having, just mount a bicycle and go out for a spin down the road, without thought on anything but the ride you are taking."
~Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
"At Google, we got this idea that we should just provide free bikes to everyone..."
~ Larry Page
"The secret to mountain biking is pretty simple. The slower you go the more likely it is you will crash"
~ Julie Furtado...championship mountain biker and creator of the Santa Cruz, Women's specific mountain bike
"Not
letting a hill stop you on a bike is one of life's greatest
achievements, and serves as an example that you can conquer more in life
than you previously imagined." ~ Monica
"The sound of a car door opening (on a bike) in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked. ~Amy Webster
"Be a vehicle for change."
"However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act upon them."~ Buddha
"What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them." ~ The Bible
"Man is made by his belief. As he believes so he is." ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"It's all in your mind"
"There is not just one path, but many. Choose the right path for you, but be willing to take detours now and then."
~Me
"The light inside will illuminate the path outside."
~Monica
"The more powerful the light inside, the further it will reach."
~Monica
"A lighthouse illuminates the dark water above the sea. Be the lighthouse." ~ Monica
"Whether you like it or not, your mind will always produce thoughts which will produce results. We are the sum total of our thoughts. It rests with you to decide what type of thoughts and results you WILL produce. Good or bad; you decide"
~Monica Monedero
"The
sea washes away the stains and wounds of the world and we must descend
in order to ascend. Through the depths of the sea there is purification
for the soul."
~ From Euripides...and me:)
"Artists
never see things as they are, but merely what they want them to be. We
are all artists. Decide what your work of art will be." ~ Monica..
If you have made it through the above quotes, then perhaps you may be interested in something I wrote to myself in my journal a few years back.
At one point in my life, I both wrote and painted. However, lately, I have been wrapped up in my business and being a single mom and simply surviving. I recently went through a significant family event, and at the same time was in a bike accident that both physically and mentally challenged my will to live. If I wasn't working, I felt tired and like I wanted to sleep all the time. I decided to read Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius because I have often turned to his writings when in despair. As usual, his words hit directly to whatever was needed in the moment. "Be cheerful also, and seek not external help nor the tranquility which others give. A man then must stand erect, not be kept erect by others." ~ Marcus Aurelius.
After reading this, I thought, 'instead of reading what others recommend, why don't I look back at my previous writings'. In looking back, I found the following excerpt from my journal. It helped me more than I can possibly relay in words. I wanted to share it here in case someone reading it may also be led to somewhere within their own self to find answers within themselves. This is not meant to be taken as if I know all the answers. It was meant to help me when I felt down and needed to uplift myself. At some point in time, we all need to find our own way, sometimes with the assistance of others, but never allowing someone else's beliefs to take over our own beliefs. Always be careful to make sure it is the real You who is directing your journey.
Notes to me and for me
Whatever a person's intention is will eventually emerge in their world. There are some things we know to be true at a deep level. This deep level is where true consciousness lives. Intention is what is most likely to have a profound effect on our lives. It is not in the words, but in the intention or feeling behind the words. If we meditate on our true intention, and wait for the answer to come from within, this will give us our connection to this source. Then ask ourselves further, is this a selfish intention? Or is there a way I may be of use to others with my intention. Then, we must act on our intention to bring it into the world. Sometimes, we desire things that may seem superficial in the beginning. However, there is a beautiful tapestry to our life stories and sometimes, too, superficial beginnings grow into deep rooted endings. They are like the acorn that grows into a tree. Often we hope that we play a large role in someone's life, but it is egotistical to think that we can be that great of an influence by ourselves. We are only part of something larger that works in synchronicity with various levels of vibration; a subtle vibration that acts as what we may call our conscience. Yet, at the "non-local" level, everyone is important, and everyone is loved. We are never singled out because we are one. If the universe is indeed expanding, there is a beautiful symphony being played out in each moment of everyday and in everyone's lives. Each day we decide how we will move forward. There is no wrong way. However, if the decision each individual makes does not assist in the expansion of a beautiful tapestry of the universe then that individual may fall down. A sort of collapse of their universe. They can start again, and try to rebuild. There will be small collapses and large ones. We do not know the overall intention of the "non-local" consciousness. We may feel the answer when we are ready, or we may simply have to make a decision without really knowing and only go by the clues in our world. We have the free will to choose. We construct our world using this energy. It has no will of its own. It all comes together, and when we follow our path with our good intentions, that is all we can do.
Through meditation, or prayer, we can override resistance. There will always be resistance, this is how we know we are growing. When we meet this resistance, go within and find our answers (or clues). The same story is being told over and over again. Think of The Kabbalah, The Tao, The Bible, The Bhagavad Gita, The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Joseph Campbell's the Power of Myth, Greek Mythology, Fairy Tales etc...It's the story of good versus evil. But what is the evil? The evil may only be that separation we feel from each other. If we desire only to be loved then why would we only want what is good for the individual as opposed to what's good for all? If we start small and seek to help ourselves and all those we touch, this is one of those beginnings mentioned above. The story goes on.
Eventually we realize this story is love...a deep love of life and all it encompasses. It sounds simple. However, we must learn to experience this love deeply, and help to expand it as well. It needs to include all. It is not by preaching, but by participating and reading the clues we are given everyday in the smallest ways. The veil is lifted through love. Higher love that begins at a lower level. We must participate at the lower level to climb the staircase toward building a greater good. If not for the greater good then the universe collapses and we start again. There is not one path here on earth; there is not one answer here either; there are many paths and many answers. If we choose love as our guide, it will help us with the right answer for ourselves.
Love helps us to feel warm and safe because we know we are part of something larger and stronger than ourselves, and when we participate in this type of love by giving it whenever possible, we are part of the beauty instead of standing outside, and observing its grace.
