Dan Harris Quotes & Sayings
Enjoy the top 52 famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Dan Harris.
Famous Quotes By Dan Harris
We are constantly murmuring, muttering, scheming, or wondering to ourselves under our breath," wrote Epstein. " 'I like this. I don't like that. She hurt me. How can I get that? More of this, no more of that.' Much of our inner dialogue is this constant reaction to experience by a selfish, childish protagonist. None of us has moved very far from the seven-year-old who vigilantly watches to see who got more." There were also delightful passages about the human tendency to lurch headlong from one pleasurable experience to the next without ever achieving satisfaction. Epstein totally nailed my habit of hunting around my plate for the next bite before I'd tasted what was in my mouth. As he described it, "I do not want to experience the fading of the flavor - the colorless, cottony pulp that succeeds that spectacular burst over my taste buds." Prior — Dan Harris
What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, "respond" rather than simply "react." In — Dan Harris
In fact, when you're mindful, you actually feel irritation more keenly. However, once you unburden yourself from the delusion that people are deliberately trying to screw you, it's easier to stop getting carried away. — Dan Harris
But if we can achieve a deeper understanding of "suffering," of the unreliability of everything we experience, it will help us appreciate the inherent poignancy of everything in the world. "It's like we've been enchanted," he says. "We've been put under a spell - believing that this or that is going to be the source of our ultimate freedom or happiness. And to wake up from that, to wake up from that enchantment, to be more aligned with what is true, it brings us much greater happiness. — Dan Harris
Mindfulness is an inborn trait, a birthright. It is, one could argue, what makes us human. — Dan Harris
Meditation suffers from a towering PR problem. ... If you can get past the cultural baggage, though, what you'll find is that meditation is simply exercise for your brain. — Dan Harris
Seeing a problem clearly does not prevent you from taking action, he explained. Acceptance is not passivity. Sometimes we are justifiably displeased. What mindfulness does is create some space in your head so you can, as the Buddhists say, "respond" rather than simply "react." In the Buddhist view, you can't control what comes up in your head; it all arises out of a mysterious void. We spend a lot of time judging ourselves harshly for feelings that we had no role in summoning. The only thing you can control is how you handle it. — Dan Harris
Make the present moment your friend rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment. — Dan Harris
There's actually a term for this - "hedonic adaptation." When good things happen, we bake them very quickly into our baseline expectations, — Dan Harris
Another stereotype I spent a lot of time batting down: that Christians were all spittle-spewing hatemongers. I met a few of those in my travels, of course, but they struck me as a distinct minority. Wonbo and I - two nonreligious New Yorkers, one of them gay, the other gay-friendly - were never treated with anything short of respect. Often, in fact, what we found was kindness, hospitality, and curiosity. Yes, people would always ask whether we were believers, but when we said no, there were never gasps or glares. They may have thought we were going to hell, but they were perfectly nice about it. — Dan Harris
When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions. — Dan Harris
With uncontrived sincerity he said, "I want to know you." That was one of the nicest things anyone had ever said to me. — Dan Harris
She nailed the method for applying mindfulness in acute situations, albeit with a somewhat dopey acronym: RAIN. R: recognize A: allow I: investigate N: non-identification "Recognize — Dan Harris
A big part of (Janice) Marturano's success in bringing mindfulness to this unlikely venue was that she talked about it not as a "spiritual" exercise but instead as something that made you a "better leader" and "more focused," and that enhanced your "creativity and innovation." She didn't even like the term "stress reduction." "For a lot of us," she said, "we think that having stress in our lives isn't a bad thing. It gives us an edge. — Dan Harris
rather than your enemy. Because many people live habitually as if the present moment were an obstacle that they need to overcome in order to get to the next moment. And imagine living your whole life like that, where always this moment is never quite right, not good enough because you need to get to the next one. That is continuous stress. — Dan Harris
If you don't waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. When you are wisely ambitious, you do everything you can to succeed, but you are not attached to the outcome - so that if you fail, you will be maximally resilient, able to get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fray. — Dan Harris
The Sufi Muslims say, "Praise Allah, but also tie your camel to the post." In other words, it's good to take a transcendent view of the world, but don't be a chump. — Dan Harris
Is this useful?" It's a simple, elegant corrective to my "price of security" motto. It's okay to worry, plot, and plan, he's saying - but only until it's not useful anymore. — Dan Harris
best solutions often come when you allow yourself to get comfortable with ambiguity. — Dan Harris
Turns out, it's pretty simple to win people over, especially in tense situations, if you're able to take their perspective and validate their feelings. — Dan Harris
There was something important being overlooked, they argued, in the mainstreaming of meditation - a central plank in the Buddhist platform: compassion. — Dan Harris
But it was in this moment, lying in bed late at night, that I first realized that the voice in my head - the running commentary that had dominated my field of consciousness since I could remember - was kind of an asshole. — Dan Harris
It was the longest, most exquisite high of my life, but the hangover came first. — Dan Harris
I had long assumed that ceaseless planning was the recipe for effectiveness, but Marturano's point was that too much mental churning was counterproductive. When you lurch from one thing to the next, constantly scheming, or reacting to incoming fire, the mind gets exhausted. You get sloppy and make bad decisions. I could see how the counterintuitive act of stopping, even for a few seconds, could be a source of strength, not weakness. — Dan Harris
When you have one foot in the future and the other in the past, you piss on the present. — Dan Harris
We live so much of our lives pushed forward by these "if only" thoughts, and yet the itch remains. The pursuit of happiness becomes the source of our unhappiness. Joseph — Dan Harris
All we can do is everything we can do. (David Axelrod) — Dan Harris
it is entirely possible to be depressed without being conscious of it. When you're cut off from your emotions, he said, they often manifest in your body. — Dan Harris
Overall, compassionate people tended to be healthier, happier, more popular, and more successful at work. Most — Dan Harris
Dalai Lama: "If a scientist confirm nonexistence of something we believe, then we have to accept that."
Dan Harris: "So if scientists come up with something that contradicts your beliefs, you will change your beliefs?"
Dalai Lama: "Oh yes. Yes. — Dan Harris
So if scientists come up with something that contradicts your beliefs, you will change your beliefs?" "Oh yes. Yes. — Dan Harris
I suspect that if the practice could be denuded of all the spiritual preening and straight-out-of-a-fortune-cookie lingo such as "sacred spaces," "divine mother," and "holding your emotions with love and tenderness," it would be attractive to many more millions of smart, skeptical, and ambitious people who would never otherwise go near it. — Dan Harris
It's like, you write a book, you want it to be well received, you want it to be at the top of the bestsellers list, but you have limited control over what happens. You can hire a publicist, you can do every interview, you can be prepared, but you have very little control over the marketplace. So you put it out there without attachment, so it has its own life. Everything is like that. — Dan Harris
Much of our inner dialogue is this constant reaction to experience by a selfish, childish protagonist. — Dan Harris
On the one hand, I was utterly convinced that the continuation of any success I had achieved was contingent upon persistent hypervigilance. I figured this kind of behavior must be adaptive from an evolutionary standpoint - cavemen who worried about possible threats, real or imagined, probably survived longer. On the other hand, I was keenly aware that while this kind of insecurity might prolong life, it also made it less enjoyable. — Dan Harris
In his books, Tolle repeatedly denigrated the habit of worrying, which he characterized as a useless process of projecting fearfully into an imaginary future. "There is no way that you can cope with such a situation, because it doesn't exist. — Dan Harris
I was always hurtling headlong through the day, checking things off my to-do list, constantly picturing completion instead of calmly and carefully enjoying the process. — Dan Harris
Your demons may have been ejected from the building, but they're out in the parking lot, doing push-ups.) — Dan Harris
Prepare like no other, know that there was nothing left for you to do when it's all said and done. This way a loss is just a stat. The better man will always win if he prepared like no other. — Dan Harris
Perhaps the most powerful Tollean insight into the ego was that it is obsessed with the past and the future, at the expense of the present. We "live almost exclusively through memory and anticipation," he wrote. We wax nostalgic for prior events during which we were doubtless ruminating or projecting. We cast forward to future events during which we will certainly be fantasizing. But as Tolle pointed out, it is, quite literally, always Now. (He liked to capitalize the word.) The present moment is all we've got. We experienced everything in our past through the present moment, and we will experience everything in the future the same way. — Dan Harris
The Price of Security is Insecurity--Until It's Not Useful — Dan Harris
Happiness, it turns out, is a skill-one that you can train, just like you train your body in the gym. This is the next big public health revolution. Get on board. — Dan Harris
You can do your best and then, if things don't go your way, still become unconstructively upset, in a way that hinders your ability to bounce back. Dropping the attachment is the real trick. — Dan Harris
...didn't need to waste so much time envisioning some vague horribleness awaiting me in my future. — Dan Harris
Add it all up, and some prominent Obama supporters are now saying that it paints a picture of an opposition driven, in part, by a refusal to accept a black President. — Dan Harris
Secrets and Reinventing the Body, Resurrecting the Soul — Dan Harris
(Although I tried to always keep in mind something a friend had once told me: "Your demons may have been ejected from the building, but they're out in the parking lot, doing push-ups.") At — Dan Harris
The ego is constantly comparing itself to others. It has us measuring our self-worth against the looks, wealth, and social status of everyone else. Did this not explain some of my worrying at work? — Dan Harris
Striving is fine, as long as it's tempered by the realization that, in an entropic universe, the final outcome is out of your control. If you don't waste your energy on variables you cannot influence, you can focus much more effectively on those you can. When you are wisely ambitious, you do everything you can to succeed, but you are not attached to the outcome - so that if you fail, you will be maximally resilient, able to get up, dust yourself off, and get back in the fray. That, to use a loaded term, is enlightened self-interest. — Dan Harris
If everything in this world was in constant decay, why expend so much energy gnashing my teeth over work? — Dan Harris
It's neuroscience that would say that our capacity to multitask is virtually nonexistent. Multitasking is a computer-derived term. We have one processor. We can't do it. — Dan Harris