reminder: you can love people and simultaneously not allow them to harm you - Yung Pueblo

heaviness comes from hanging on tightly to emotions that were always meant to be ephemeral. it is not easy to let go, especially when all we know is attachment. we want things to last forever and we turn difficult moments into long-lasting pain simply because we have not learned to let go. we have not learned that the beauty of living comes from the movement of change. letting go does not mean that we forget, and it does not mean that we give up. it just means that we are not letting our present happiness be determined by things that happened in the past or by things we wish to happen in the future.

Serenity is possible when we are no longer carrying the ever-growing baggage of mental images, fueled by craving or aversion, everywhere we go.

The real you is not your initial reaction. The real you is your response that comes after your reaction. The real you is the one who can weave out of the grasp of the past and produce an authentic response that is based in the present.