My Favorite Inspiring Quotes
Tribute to Wayne Dyer (1940-2015)
Commentary by Peter Shepherd
On August 29th, Wayne Dyer passed on. He has been a leading figure for nearly 40 years in the New Thought movement - a century-old spiritual school of thought that believes God is everywhere, individuals have the divine spirit within themselves, and one’s thinking has the power to change one's world or heal disease. Here are some quotes of his to not only remember a phenomenal human being, but to help motivate and inspire you to continue his legacy...
“When you dance, your purpose is not to get to a certain place on the floor. It's to enjoy each step along the way.”
It's about the journey, not the destination, and living in our present experience rather than just in the hopes - or fears - the future may bring.
“How people treat you is their karma; how you react is yours.”
They are responsible for themselves, your responsibility lies with what you do and say and feel, in other words.
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.”
Your attitude, your response, is your choice. For you, subjectively, it changes everything.
“Love is the ability and willingness to allow those that you care for to be what they choose for themselves without any insistence that they satisfy you.”
Love is never possessive - that's something else, ego in fact, not love.
“Stop acting as if life is a rehearsal. Live this day as if it were your last. The past is over and gone. The future is not guaranteed.”
This is a famous quote of his. The future starts now, like: right now! We can't keep putting today off until tomorrow, and expect to be be happy.
“Freedom means you are unobstructed in living your life as you choose. Anything less is a form of slavery.”
If you don't express your will freely, do what you want - what the real you wants - you are effectively trapped in somebody else's design. It's your life!
“It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.”
Again, we have the choice. We think we don't, but we do.
“The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don't know anything about.”
We usually think that we know best, without even really listening to alternative possibilities. Don't be blinkered - it may seem like the easy path but we are the ones that suffer in the end.
“Everything you are against weakens you. Everything you are for empowers you.”
Resistance and fear pull you down. Acceptance and love raise you up.
“Our lives are a sum total of the choices we have made.”
Our choices lie behind everything we do, think, feel, believe, accept, resist, fear... and the list goes on.
“Peace is the result of retraining your mind to process life as it is, rather than as you think it should be.”
Acceptance doesn't mean to like or agree, it means to acknowledge things as they are, to work from there. Not to pretend otherwise or turn your back.
“With everything that has happened to you, you can either feel sorry for yourself or treat what has happened as a gift. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep you from growing. You get to choose.”
We can choose to accept and learn and be grateful, or we can choose to be right and blame others and separate ourselves. As Wayne says...
“When the choice is to be right or to be kind, always make the choice that brings peace.”
Here’s some further reading on this theme...
How To Forgive Someone Who Has Hurt You ~ by Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
Forgiving others is essential for spiritual growth. Your experience of someone who has hurt you, while painful, is now nothing more that a thought or feeling that you carry around. These thoughts of resentment, anger, and hatred represent slow, debilitating energies that will dis-empower you if you continue to let these thoughts occupy space in your head. If you could release them, you would know more peace. Here I share how to forgive someone who has hurt you in 15 steps... Continues
