Fetal Position

When you sense that your dark night is one of pregnancy and oceanic return, you could react accordingly and be still. Watch and wonder. Take the human embryo as your model. Assume the fetal position, emotionally and intellectually. Be silent. Float in your darkness as if it were the waters of the womb, and give up trying to fight your way out or make sense of it.

from the book Dark Nights of the Soul by Thomas Moore

We live in a culture that prioritizes individualism above all else. We are taught to become individual citizens who live independent, separate lives from our neighbors. However, all the major spiritual traditions tell us the exact opposite, that we are all made of the same spiritual energy. If you have ever had an experience of universal love, where the feeling that you are an individual slips away and you feel merged with and at peace with everything, then you probably have not yet had a full experience of this kind of love, which many Radical Remission survivors describe as "the deepest love there is".

from the book Radical Remission by Kelly Turner

Reality is Reality

All our lives we're told, You can do anything you set your mind to! But you can't. If that were true, we'd all be movie stars, pro athletes, and presidents. Personally, I'd be this year's Super Bowl MVP.
This form of self-delusion was launched as a major crusade in psychology in 1950s, with the advent of the power-of-positive-thinking movement. It was a good idea, but some people now take positive thinking all the way to la-la land. They say things like, "You create your own reality." Sorry. Not on this planet. You create your own perception and your own meaning, but reality is reality.

From the book What Happy People Know, by Dan Baker