We fear the future because we are wasting today. 

The biggest wall you have to climb is the one you build in your mind: Never let your mind talk you out of your dreams, trick you into giving up. Never let your mind become the greatest obstacle to success. To get your mind on the right track, the rest will follow.

Suffering usually relates to wanting things to be different than they are.

The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.

I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.

The most powerful words in the universe are the words you say to yourself.

The point of power is always in the present moment.

Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.

Monkey mind is actually a Buddhist term that refers to a mind that is restless, agitated, confused, or that is hard to control.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.

Every moment of your life is either a test or a celebration.

As long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, play, and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift.

True happiness is to enjoy the present, without anxious dependence upon the future, not to amuse ourselves with either hopes or fears but to rest satisfied with what we have, which is sufficient, for he that is so wants nothing. The greatest blessings of mankind are within us and within our reach. A wise man is content with his lot, whatever it may be, without wishing for what he has not.

Changing the destructive things you say to yourself when you experience the setbacks that life deals all of us is the central skill of optimism.

Habits of pessimism lead to depression, wither achievement, and undermine physical health. The good news is that pessimism can be unlearned, and that with its removal depression, underachievement, and poor health can be alleviated.

Our preoccupation with goals, results, and the quick fix has separated us from our own experiences.

How do we keep our inner fire alive? Two things, at minimum, are needed: an ability to appreciate the positives in our life – and a commitment to action. Every day, it's important to ask and answer these questions: ‘What's good in my life?’ and ‘What needs to be done?

I can feel guilty about the past, apprehensive about the future, but only in the present can I act. The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

If you live in a past dream, you don't enjoy what is happening right now because you will always wish it to be different than it is. There is no time to miss anyone or anything because you are alive. Not enjoying what is happening right now is living in the past and being only half alive. This leads to self pity, suffering and tears.

The time is now, the place is here. Stay in the present. You can do nothing to change the past, and the future will never come exactly as you plan or hope for.

“Where are you? Here
What time is it? Now
What are you? This moment.”

If you take care of the minutes, the years will take care of themselves.

Being calm is a skill that starts with proper breathing. Dr. Tully taught me that breathing deeply and regularly is not only the key to remaining calm, but also instantly connects us to a higher vibration.

Life is too short to be in a hurry. If we are always on the go, we are reacting to the exigencies of day-to-day life rather than allowing ourselves the space to create a happy life.

Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.

Acceptance means no complaining, and happiness means no complaining about the things over which you can do nothing.

There are two days in the week about which and upon which I never worry. Two carefree days, kept sacredly free from fear and apprehension. One of these days is yesterday…and the other day I do not worry about is tomorrow.

Negativity affects you negatively 100% of the time...The first step to getting out of the hole is to stop digging.

But the rational mind usually doesn't decide what emotions we "should" have!

Don't give in to your fears. If you do, you won't be able to talk to your heart.

Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

The key to success is to focus our conscious mind on things we desire not things we fear.

Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.

What a liberation to realize that the “voice in my head” is not who I am. Who am I then? The one who sees that.

Anxiety about outcome is the single most intrusive inhibitor to effective performance.

If you are depressed you are living in the past.
If you are anxious you are living in the future.
If you are at peace you are living in the present.

Remember, there’s no greatness in the future. Or clarity. Or insight. Or happiness. Or peace. There is only this moment.

The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.

Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.

Do not let what you cannot do interfere with what you can do.

Don't let yesterday take up too much of today.

Life is a series of moments. The quality of attention and action that we bring to each moment determines the quality of our lives.

Where are you? Here
What time is it? Now
What are you? This moment.

Yesterday is a memory and tomorrow is a dream. Today is the day to make your mark – to make a difference.

Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace and gratitude.

Open your eyes and see how many gifts there are to unwrap. Notice the presence of your presents. It’s not your life that is disappointing: it’s your mind.

When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100 percent of the time.

When I argue with reality, I lose—but only 100 percent of the time.

Remember, today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday.

It isn't what you have, or who you are, or where you are, or what you are doing that makes you happy or unhappy. It is what you think about.

Everybody in the world is seeking happiness—and there is one sure way to find it. That is by controlling your thoughts. Happiness doesn't depend on outward conditions. It depends on inner conditions.

Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit.

Focus on the moment, not the monsters that may or may not be up ahead.

The more we try to avoid the basic reality that all human life involves pain, the more we are likely to struggle with that pain when it arises, thereby creating even more suffering.

The mind loves telling stories; in fact, it never stops.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

The fear of failure, the fear of being imperfect (perfectionism), and the fear of impossible expectations (being overwhelmed) that prevent us from acting on and attaining humanly possible goals and relationships.

I believe that half the unhappiness in life comes from people being afraid to go straight at things.

Worry is not true thought. Worry is a misuse of the imagination.

Excellence can be achieved only today—not yesterday or tomorrow, because they do not exist in the present moment. Today is the only day you have to flex your talents and maximize your enjoyment. Your challenge is to win in all aspects of life. To reach that goal, you need to set yourself up for success by winning one day at a time. Procrastination is no match for a champion.

We must set intentions for who we are, for what roles we wish to serve, for how we’ll relate with the world. Without a vibrant awareness, we cannot connect with others or ourselves, nor can we meet the demands of the hour with grace. For this, we now declare: WE SHALL MEET LIFE WITH FULL PRESENCE AND POWER.

Socrates used to say that death is like some prankster in a scary mask, dressed as a bogeyman to frighten small children. The wise man carefully removes the mask and, looking behind it, he finds nothing worth fearing.

Procrastination expert Rita Emmett explains: “The dread of doing a task uses up more time and energy than doing the task itself."

What would you do if you weren’t afraid?

You act like mortals in all that you fear, and like immortals in all that you desire

They lose the day in expectation of the night, and the night in fear of the dawn.

When, instead, your goal is to focus on the process and stay in the present, then there are no mistakes and no judging. You are just learning and doing. You are executing the activity, observing the outcome, and adjusting yourself and your practice energy to produce the desired result. There are no bad emotions, because you are not judging anything.

We think too many thoughts at once, most of them the same thoughts we had yesterday and the day before. We are impatient with life, and anxious.

Action is the cure for fear.

Are you paralyzed with fear? That’s a good sign. Fear is good. Like self-doubt, fear is an indicator. Fear tells us what we have to do. Remember one rule of thumb: the more scared we are of a work or calling, the more sure we can be that we have to do it.

It is not that we have too little time to do all the things we need to do, it is that we feel the need to do too many things in the time we have.

Remember that this moment is not your life, it’s just a moment in your life. Focus on what is in front of you, right now. Ignore what it “represents” or it “means” or “why it happened to you.

The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It's our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.

Under pressure people can perform fifteen percent better or fifteen percent worse.

Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.

Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire.

We are like children building a sand castle. We embellish it with beautiful shells, bits of driftwood, and pieces of colored glass. The castle is ours, off limits to others. We’re willing to attack if others threaten to hurt it. Yet despite all our attachment, we know that the tide will inevitably come in and sweep the sand castle away. The trick is to enjoy it fully but without clinging, and when the time comes, let it dissolve back into the sea.

We can spend our whole lives escaping from the monsters of our minds.

Hope and fear come from feeling that we lack something; they come from a sense of poverty. We can’t simply relax with ourselves. We hold on to hope, and hope robs us of the present moment. We feel that someone else knows what's going on, but that there's something missing in us, and therefore something is lacking in our world.

Courage is not absence of fear; it is control of fear, mastery of fear.

Fear is the natural enemy of the great competitor.

When risk is a challenge, fear becomes a compass—literally pointing people in the direction they need to go next.

When feeling lonely or anxious, most of us have the habit of looking for distractions, which often leads to some form of unwholesome consumption -- whether eating a snack in the absence of hunger, mindlessly surfing the Internet, going on a drive, or reading. Conscious breathing is a good way to nourish body and mind with mindfulness.

All the wonders of life are already here. They’re calling you. If you can listen to them, you will be able to stop running. What you need, what we all need, is silence. Stop the noise in your mind in order for the wondrous sounds of life to be heard. Then you can begin to live your life authentically and deeply.

While walking, for example, if we are talking or thinking at the same time, we get caught up in the conversation or thoughts we’re having and get lost in the past or the future, our worries or our projects. People can easily spend their entire lives doing just that. What a tragic waste! Let us instead really live these moments that are given to us. In order to be able to live our life, we have to stop that radio inside, turn off our internal discourse. How can we enjoy our steps if our attention is given over to all that mental chatter? It’s important to become aware of what we feel, not just what we think. When we touch the ground with our foot, we should be able to feel our foot making contact with the ground. When we do this, we can feel a lot of joy in just being able to walk. When we walk, we can invest all our body and mind into our steps and be fully concentrated in each precious moment of life.
In focusing on that contact with the earth, we stop being dragged around by our thoughts and begin to experience our body and our environment in a wholly different way. Our body is a wonder! Its functioning is the result of millions of processes. We can fully appreciate this only if we stop our constant thinking and have enough mindfulness and concentration to be in touch with the wonders of our body, the Earth, and the sky.

Our state of mind can turn even neutral comments into fighting words, distorting what we hear to fit what we fear.

We'd like to imagine we can make evil disappear in one, decisive victory. But evil won't cooperate, it reappears endlessly. You attain Goodness by transforming it every time it returns. That's what Goodness is: the ceaseless commitment to transform evil.

The future may bring you darkness, but it can't take away your ability to create light.

The thing I had to learn, and I keep learning this lesson in my life every day, is how to take fear’s power and use it to become better. 

A mind that is racing over worries about the future or recycling resentments from the past is ill equipped to handle the challenges of the moment. By slowing down, we can train the mind to focus completely in the present. Then we will find that we can function well whatever the difficulties. That is what it means to be stress-proof: not avoiding stress but being at our best under pressure, calm, cool, and creative in the midst of the storm.

All negative thoughts – anger, fear, passion, compulsive craving -- tend to be fast. If we could see the mind when it is caught in such thoughts, we would really see it racing. But positive thoughts like love, patience, tenderness, compassion, and understanding are slow - not turbulent, rushing brooks of thinking, so to speak but broad rivers that are calm, clear, and deep.

Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death. Most of us have fear in one form or another; and where there is fear there is no intelligence.

You can never become a great man or woman until you have overcome anxiety, worry, and fear. It is impossible for an anxious person, a worried one, or a fearful one to perceive truth; all things are distorted and thrown out of their proper relations by such mental states, and those who are in them cannot read the thoughts of God.

You can’t concentrate on doing anything if you are thinking, “What’s gonna happen if it doesn’t go right?

We are all of us not merely liable to fear, we are also prone to be afraid of being afraid, and the conquering of fear produces exhilaration.…The contrast between the previous apprehension and the present relief and feeling of security promotes a self-confidence that is the very father and mother of courage.

Those who live in fear of failure, or hardship, or embarrassment will never achieve their potential.

This won’t last forever, but it’s wonderful while it’s happening.

A close relationship is a powerful light force, and like any strong light it casts a large shadow. When you stand in the light of a close relationship, you must learn to deal with the shadow.

All the excuses in the world won't change one simple fact: that fear is a sign to do whatever it is you fear—and do it quickly.

The demon that you can swallow gives you its power, and the greater life’s pain, the greater life’s reply.