Najwa Zebian Quotes

I was waiting for someone to unveil me. To save me. But the hardest, yet most liberating truth, was that I needed to unveil myself. I could easily hide behind my words and hope that someone out there would understand me. But I knew I couldn’t hide anymore.

Whatever your brain is looking for, your eyes will see. If you are looking for the positive, you’ll see it. And if you’re looking for the negative, you’ll see it. It’s a matter of what you choose to see.

Don’t break a bird’s wings and then tell it to fly. Don’t break a heart and then tell it to love. Don’t break a soul and then tell it to be happy. Don’t see the worst in a person and expect them to see the best in you. Don’t judge people and expect them to stand by your side. Don’t play with fire and expect to stay perfectly safe. Life is about giving and taking. You cannot expect to give bad and receive good. You cannot expect to give hate and receive love. So if you’re willing to see positive change in your life, you must be willing to be that change itself.

If someone chooses to take advantage of your vulnerability and not honor the promise that they made to keep a safe space for your vulnerability, that’s on them. It’s not on you. And it doesn’t mean you are powerless. Your power is like a well that never runs out of water. People may drink from it. People may take way too much at a time. But you are the source of that power.

Sometimes forgiving yourself takes the form of you telling the story as you experienced it, not as someone else wrote it. Instead of “He first did this, then this, then that,” you are saying “I did, I felt, I…” And this is not to lay blame on you…it’s to make you the narrator of your own story.

The love she had for me was so pure and healing.

The ultimate remedy for fear is self-trust. But how do I trust myself? By seeing yourself as the leader of your life.

(For books that take an in-depth look at trauma, read Waking the Tiger: Healing Trauma by Peter A. Levine and Ann Frederick, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk, What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry, MD, PhD, and Oprah Winfrey, and The Myth of Normal: Trauma, Illness & Healing in a Toxic Culture by Gabor Maté, MD.)

I’m sure you’ve heard that you can’t change the people around you, but you can change the people around you.

Maybe you are too understanding. Stay that way. Empathy is a super power.

You don’t wait for someone to come change your life or save you. You don’t wait for someone to pick up your mess along the way. You do that yourself. And when you don’t pick up the mess, you take responsibility instead of blaming others. You trust yourself as the leader of your life and act in accordance.

Every day, tell yourself this:

Keep your heart kind
no matter how dark the world gets.
You own only yourself.
You can only control your actions.
Keep your heart beautiful.
The world needs that.

I say it to myself
too.

What's driven by shame, is sustained by shame.

Isolation becomes a natural part of your healing journey because you know that you are experiencing it as a result of a choice you made for yourself, a choice that brings you closer to the life you want.

I no longer wanted to be controlled. I wanted to control my own life. Not just control, but lead.