John Bradshaw Quotes

Children are natural Zen masters; their world is brand new in each and every moment.

Hell, in my opinion, is never finding your true self and never living your own life or knowing who you are.

It's okay to make mistakes. Mistakes are our teachers — they help us to learn.

Since the earliest period of our life was preverbal, everything depended on emotional interaction. Without someone to reflect our emotions, we had no way of knowing who we were.

True love heals and affects spiritual growth. If we do not grow because of someone else's love, it's generally because it is a counterfeit form of love.

Our sadness is an energy we discharge in order to heal. "ﾂｦSadness is painful. We try to avoid it. Actually discharging sadness releases the energy involved in our emotional pain. To hold it in is to freeze the pain within us. The therapeutic slogan is that grieving is the "ﾂ鷲ealing feeling.'

The capacity for love that makes dogs such rewarding companions has a flip-side: They find it difficult to cope without us. Since we humans programmed this vulnerability, it's our responsibility to ensure that our dogs do not suffer as a result.

To be shame-bound means that whenever you feel any feeling, need or drive, you immediately feel ashamed. The dynamic core of your human life is grounded in your feelings, needs and drives. When these are bound by shame, you are shamed to the core.

It's essential to tell the truth at all times. This will reduce life's pain. Lying distorts reality. All forms of distorted thinking must be corrected.

To truly be committed to a life of honesty, love and discipline, we must be willing to commit ourselves to reality.