Tiny Buddha: Wisdom Quotes, Letting Go, Letting Happiness In

Editor’s Note: This is a contribution by Lauren Rosenfeld

“I vow to let go of all worries and anxiety in order to be light and free.” ~Thich Nhat Hanh

My mother was what you might call a “professional worrier.” She worried with skill, power, and acumen.

She could incisively hone in on the most seemingly benign situation and find within it some kernel of trouble to worry about. Money. Health. Household. Children. Travel. Work. You name it.  She worried about it. A lot.

That is until my father was diagnosed with cancer.

When my father became ill, my mother changed radically—and apparently overnight. Faced with the potential of the greatest loss of her life, she found that she was suddenly free of the many worries that had plagued her for all those many years.

In the wake of the most terrible news imaginable, the many troubles that had been burdening her suddenly fell away like a heavy winter coat on an unexpectedly warm day.

So, strangely and without warning, in the midst of a terrifying life-threatening crisis, my mother became a more light-hearted person. Click Here to Read More…

Tiny Buddha Store

by Lori Deschene

With the holiday season fast approaching, I’ve recently received a number of emails from people interested in purchasing Tiny Buddha-themed gifts.

It seems a lot of readers discovered Tiny Buddha through friends, and wanted to share a little wisdom to say thanks.

With this in mind, I reached out to Joshua Denney, who designed the Tiny Buddha logo, to create a few quote and logo-based products you may enjoy. The result: wearable wisdom!

Share the wisdom with:

Tiny Buddha T-Shirts

Choose a T-shirt with the Tiny Buddha logo with one of several available quotes, or a shirt with just the Tiny Buddha icon in a variety of colors. Quotes to choose from:

• “No matter how hard the past, you can always begin again.” ~Buddha
• “It is better to travel well than to arrive.” ~Buddha
• “Turn your face toward the sun and the shadows will fall behind you.” ~Anonymous
• “The only time you run out of chances is when you stop taking them.” ~Anonymous
• “Tension is who you think you should be; relaxation is who you are.” ~Proverb

Tiny Buddha Tote Bags

Carry what you need in a jumbo bag adorned with the Tiny Buddha logo and one of several pieces of tiny wisdom. It’s not the destination; it’s the journey–meaning you’ll always need a good bag!

Also available:

Tiny Buddha Mugs

Get a mug with the Tiny Buddha logo and one of the five available quotes in 11 or 15 ounces.

If there’s a specific product that interests you, let me know! We’ll be adding to the Tiny Buddha store based on your feedback. For orders over $50, get free shipping by using product code FREESHIPFORU* and get 15% off everything you buy today, December 14th, using the code JINGLESALE75

Get Wearable Wisdom Here.

Shout Out for a Good Cause

Help us send a girl to school in Guatemala—without costing you a cent.

I Want Her Job, a website featuring passionate women in diverse careers, is raising money to provide education for a group of girls, aged 12–18, in Guatemala, through partnerships with nonprofits She’s the First and Starfish One-by-One.

“Like” I Want Her Job on Facebook or follow the site on Twitter; and for every new follower, the site will donate 50 cents to She’s the First.

by Janeen Paul

The yoga class I attended yesterday included a number of balances, from simple tree pose to a “floating” ardha chandrasana. I am not certain why, but I was struggling to find a steady balance on one side.

I arrived late feeling flustered, and my mind was spinning and worrying as we worked our way into the flow. I had to struggle to make my gaze steady, and I was starting to beat myself up for the wobbling on my left leg.

Then I had a realization: This is really the whole point of balancing poses, if not yoga itself. The point is simply to be with yourself, no matter where you are at that moment. Or, as Thich Nhat Hanh said: “Smile, breathe, and go slowly.”

Later, I thought a lot about balance, and how we are always trying to find it in our lives.  I talk with patients about it almost every day, and no one seems to feel they have it under control. Click Here to Read More…

by Sonya Derian

I have this morning ritual. I sit in my living room and write down all the things I love about my life.  It’s not really that elaborate. My list is usually quite simple.

This morning I wrote about how much I love my new accountant; how grateful I was that the sun came out today; how good it felt to be sore from the yoga class the day before; and how much I enjoy watching my dog play with her toy.

I do this because I know that what you focus on grows—so why not focus on growing the parts of life that I love?

I once had a teacher who would always tell me, when faced with a decision, “Choose Life”. I took this to mean: make the decision in the direction of expansion, creativity, joy—life.

In my morning ritual, after writing everything I love about my life—after I’ve gotten into a juicy state of appreciation—I then direct the energy forward by writing what I want in my life.

It might be limited traffic if I’m going to be on the road that day, or gaining clarity on something I need an answer to. Or it might be inspiration for a project I’m working on or money flowing to pay my taxes.

Or it might be something more universal–I want the Haitians to have shelter and a roof covering their heads before the monsoon.

We are so conditioned to be at the effect of our lives, that we often forget the power we wield to be the cause. Sometimes the simple act of stating what we want begins the process of creating that end. This is why making a decision is so powerful. Click Here to Read More…

by Axel Gjertsen

“Every day may not be good, but there’s something good in every day.” ~Unknown

I was in a motorbike accident in 1987. Believe it or not, it was on September the 11th. The physician in the emergency room delivered the bad news and told me the right knee cap had cracked. That day changed my life forever.

How could I accept that I wouldn’t ever be able to run again?

The physical injury took years to heal, and a lot of time passed before I slowly started to accept my new situation. In the meantime, I got depressed.

Life Can Be Beautiful

That might seem like an ironic heading coming after the preceding line, but hear me out. Life is beautiful every time you’re able to accept something that has gone wrong. When you can feel good on the whole even though things aren’t going your way you know emotional freedom. What more could you ask for?

The opposite would be the guy who shouts in despair, “Not again, for God’s sake!” when his sports car breaks down in the middle of nowhere or needs thousands of dollars of work on that car. Neither is a fun situation to be in. But what about people that don’t even have food to eat?

It’s all about perspective, isn’t it? Are you looking at life through Ray Bans or from a refugee camp? We must learn to see and appreciate what we have and shift our attention from what we’ve lost. Click Here to Read More…

by Sonya Derian

“When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.” ~Lao Tzu

Ever since my birthday in December, I’ve been changing things up. I think it’s good once in a while to take inventory and make new decisions.

You don’t always have to analyze why you decided to do something, or where you went wrong, or where it all started. Sometimes, you can just stand where you are, decide you want something different and then do something about it.

I realized in doing this, even though change can be scary, it can sometimes feel downright refreshing!

The thing we sometimes don’t realize is how in charge of our lives we really are. We think change has to come from the outside—that we have to be the recipients of change. Something needs to happen to us before do something about it.

You have to lose weight because your blood pressure is too high. You have to look for a new job because you got laid off. You have to move because your job requires it.

But what if you initiated the change in your life because it was simply time? Click Here to Read More…

by Lori Deschene

Update: The winners have already been chosen for this giveaway. Subscribe to The Tiny Buddha List to learn about future contests!

One of the founding principles behind Tiny Buddha is that simple wisdom, when applied, can have a huge effect on happiness, mindfulness and peace–not just for you, but also for the people around you.

The most helpful ideas might not seem so simple in the context of our complex lives; but oftentimes we make things more complicated than necessary by filtering them through a negative attitude, or thinking too much and applying too little.

That’s makes The Dalai Lama’s Little Book of Wisdom so compelling: it’s simultaneously profound and simple. It provides some of the most helpful of the Dalai Lama’s teachings in palatable, bite-size chunks.

Having had a copy on my nightstand for over a year, I couldn’t have been more excited to receive three copies to give away to readers.

The book offers insights about finding contentment, dealing with anger and emotions, transforming the mind, and more; and concludes with a question and answer section that addresses how to apply Buddhist wisdom to real life.

Many of the highlighted passages in my copy have come to you via the Tiny Buddha Twitter stream, and more likely will down the line.

As the book flap reads: Click Here to Read More…

by Lori Deschene

“You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.”  ~Unknown

You can’t turn on the radio without hearing a song about love, whether it’s the TMI kind that unfolds in a country song, the innocent kind described in pre-adolescent pop, or the idealized kind a singer either just found or recently lost.

Whether you believe love conquers all or you’re slightly more cynical, odds are you know loving and being loved gives life a whole new meaning.

You can spend time alone and enjoy it, but your world expands by leaps and bounds when you see it both through your eyes and the eyes of people you love. You can do fulfilling work, but it’s more powerful when you feel a sense of purpose connected to people, those you know and those you don’t.

When you think about finding love, you’re probably more concerned with finding a long-term partner than love in general, in the faces of babies, the smiles of strangers, and all that idealized-sounding jazz. This post is partly about that, but it’s not limited to romantic love.

If you want to feel more connected to people, this post is for you. If you’d like to feel understood, accepted, supported, and appreciated, this post is for you. If you’re ready to do things differently to feel the type of love your cynicism might tell you isn’t real, yes, this post is for you.

With a little help from Whitney, Celine, and more, I give you 8 tips to find love: Click Here to Read More…

by Lori Deschene

“Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” ~Unknown

Maybe someone hurt you physically or emotionally. Maybe you’ve survived something else traumatic–a natural disaster, a fire, an armed robbery. Or maybe you’ve just come out of a trying situation, and though you know you’ll eventually recover, you still feel pain that seems unbearable.

Whatever the case may be, you’ve been scarred, and you carry it with you through many of your days.

Most of us can relate on some level to that feeling. Even people who excel at taking personal responsibility have at least one story of having been hurt. Though some of us have endured more serious situations, you really can’t quantify or compare emotional pain.

To a teenager who just had her heart broken, the pain really seems like the end of the world. In fact, Livestrong estimates that every 100 minutes, a teenager commits suicide–and that the number of suicides in high-income families is the same as in poor families. Presumably, not all of those teens have suffered incomprehensible tragedies. What they have in common is pain, born from different adversities and circumstances.

When you’re hurting some people might tell you to “Suck it up and deal” as if that’s a valid solution. They may say “It’s all in your head” and assume that reasons away the pain. But none of that will help you heal and find happiness from moment to moment.

Like everyone, I’ve been hurt–in both profound and trivial ways. I’ve dealt with it using the following ideas: Click Here to Read More…

by Lori Deschene

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” ~Gandhi

Both the industrial and digital revolutions promised increased productivity, meaning people could work less and live a more balanced life. We all know that’s not how history has played out.

Even as technology advances, we work longer hours than ever—and ironically, struggle financially and accrue more debt with each passing year.

If you haven’t noticed adverse effects on your personal relationships or the other areas of your life, you’ll likely keep plowing full-steam ahead—and only stop when you have a compelling reason.

So here’s my proposition: work as often as you damn well please! It’s your life; these are your moments to fill and hopefully enjoy. But if you find yourself feeling stressed or detached from the present moment—if you sense life is passing you by as you complete spreadsheets and eat at your desk—you may benefit from one of these ideas to slow down throughout the day: Click Here to Read More…

by Robbie S. Ward

“Living with the immediacy of death helps you sort out your priorities in life. It helps you to live a less trivial life.” ~Sogyal Rinpoche

Sitting in the ICU waiting rooms during recent months waiting to visit Mama, my life slowed down more than I can remember in recent memory. I had a lot of time to think about what I’ve done with my life in recent years.

Many things that seemed important at the time all of sudden seemed trivial. I realized how much my life had gotten out of control. I wasn’t a drug addict or alcoholic, but I had wasted many opportunities.

Sitting in the hospitals, I met parents whose children would probably die soon. Mama was transferred to another hospital before I found out. I met a woman whose husband was close to dying but made sure she spent every moment with him. I met families gathered during hard times.

Sometime between the visitation periods, I realized I won’t ever accomplish what I want in life if I didn’t change course. I have tried to do everything at full throttle at the same time. Focusing on too many projects at one time worked for a while but things seemed to fall break down on me. Click Here to Read More…

by Melissa Kirk

“It is better to travel well than to arrive.” ~Buddha

I have this thing about road trips. I love them, can’t get enough of them. I could never step on another airplane for as long as I live and be perfectly fine with that—but I love having all the experiences that can only happen on the road.

Like my mom and I sleeping in our car in the parking lot of a closed motel on our way to Sedona, Arizona. We foolishly decided to forego the hotel strip outside of Phoenix and look for something more “quaint” – until, at 3 am, we realized we were in the middle of nowhere and the quaintest thing around were saguaro cactuses.

There’s something wonderful about having the experience of arriving somewhere understanding exactly what it took to get there; understanding the land, the people, the culture, and the weather in a way you can’t experience flying.

There’s also something about exploring the winding roads of my own country that intrigues me. The small differences and similarities are fascinating – driving from Tahoe City and ending up, after 3 hours on the road, in a tiny, one-horse town in Nevada eating BBQ and drinking beer with cowboys—these experiences keep the mind fresh and life interesting. Click Here to Read More…