Elizabeth Lesser Quotes & Sayings

I don't enjoy the diminishing agility of the body!I had knee surgery and I no longer can go do three yoga classes and run. It's not as much fun, physically. But emotionally, it's way more fun. I am so much happier and contented and less agitated - I'm just calmer. So it's like everything in this human existence, it's a trade off - it's like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirit. That's a good line. I have to remember that! — Elizabeth Lesser

Fear is a sneaky thief, stealing away precious moments of your life. — Elizabeth Lesser

One of the reasons I love prayer is that it is an antidote to guilt and blame. If we are unhappy with the way we have acted or been treated, instead of stewing in self-recrimination on the one hand, or harboring ill will toward someone else on the other, prayer gives us a way out of the circle of guilt and blame. We bring our painful feelings into the open and say, "I have done wrong," or "I have been wronged." And then we ask for a vaster view
one that contains within it all the forgiveness we need in order to move forward. — Elizabeth Lesser

The greatest stories ever told trace a path through the charred and exalted landscape of romantic love. — Elizabeth Lesser

What mothers do - they act with love, at least good mothers do! They have a spirit of strong, fierce, protective energy - the way a mother would put her life on the line for her children - we need to put our life on the line for each other. — Elizabeth Lesser

The world needs women to redefine what it means to be a person of power — Elizabeth Lesser

If we do not suffer a loss all the way to the end, it will wait for us. It won't just dissipate and disappear. Rather, it will fester, and we will experience its sorrow later, in stranger forms. — Elizabeth Lesser

Was I a dreamer, looking for an elusive happiness that real life could never deliver? Or were we meant to know the rapture of being alive, even at the cost of breaking the rules? — Elizabeth Lesser

It's not always about survival, this life we are given; it's usually so much easier than that. It's about trusting the eternal life force that is flowing within us-letting that force lead the way through all of the inevitable changes we will face across the span of our time here on Earth. — Elizabeth Lesser

I heard the term "mamisma" when describing Speaker of the House [Nancy] Pelosi, how she was speaking from that place which is kind of like a strong mother. Like when your mom says like, "put that down!" you know that is coming from a place of both love and strength. And at this critical stage in human history we need both action and caring. — Elizabeth Lesser

Approach change with an understanding of the process and an openness to the pain. — Elizabeth Lesser

I believe that educating people to awaken into full consciousness is the most important thing we can do. — Elizabeth Lesser

I have built up so much stuff , I am afraid I would cry forever, or have to go to sleep for weeks, or I would want to make some changes, and it is all just so overwhelming that we just keep going and going and going. It's a problem. It creates all kinds of illnesses of the physical and mental kind. — Elizabeth Lesser

My years as a mystic have made me question almost all my assumptions. They've made me a proud I-don't-know-it-all. — Elizabeth Lesser

Not only must we follow the golden thread towards spiritual freedom, but we must also unravel the garden-variety twine that is wrapped tightly around our hearts and minds. — Elizabeth Lesser

I would say to women, always question what you're empowering yourself for and what are you claiming power for. — Elizabeth Lesser

Every day we have the opportunity to make our relationships be on the outside what they really are on a spiritual level. — Elizabeth Lesser

The part of me that is both a spiritual seeker and a social activist meet in this understanding of enlightened power coming from a deep, genuine well within each person. — Elizabeth Lesser

Every day we're given a choice: We can relax and float in the direction that the water flows, or we can swim hard against it. If we go with the river, the energy of a thousand mountain streams will be with us ... if we resist the river, we will feel rankled and tired as we tread water, stuck in the same place. — Elizabeth Lesser

We don't need any more teachers. We don't. We need friends. — Elizabeth Lesser

Over and over, we are broken on the shore of life. Our stubborn egos are knocked around, and our frightened hearts are broken open - not once, and not in predictable patterns, but in surprising ways and for as long as we live. — Elizabeth Lesser

Don't persuade, defend or interrupt. Be curious, be conversational, be real. And listen. — Elizabeth Lesser

A broken heart is not the same as sadness. Sadness occurs when the heart is stone cold and lifeless. On the contrary, there is an unbelievable amount of vitality in a broken heart. — Elizabeth Lesser

I think the main problem people have getting older, whether they know it or not, is that you're closer to dying. And we may fixate on not wanting to look a certain way, but it really is just the clock ticking, that it means, "Oh, I am not immortal!". — Elizabeth Lesser

Many women hear the word "feminine" and feel like it's a noose around their neck. "Don't hold me to a mode of behavior because I'm a woman and you think this is how a woman should act," kind of thing. — Elizabeth Lesser

It's like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirirt. — Elizabeth Lesser

I have noticed if I pull from fear or despair about the state of the world, I get tired, ineffective, afraid and sometimes mean-spirited. — Elizabeth Lesser

I can only do what I do with a spirit of humor, and faith and give the controls over to something else. — Elizabeth Lesser

Sometimes to speak as a woman is to cry, and to speak from our emotional, intuitive knowing, as opposed to graphs and charts and vertical lines. And that's scary - that's scary to do. And the fallout from it can be brutal. — Elizabeth Lesser

What will matter is the good we did, not the good we expected others to do. — Elizabeth Lesser

We're all bozos on the bus, so we might as well sit back and enjoy the ride. - WAVY GRAVY — Elizabeth Lesser

The conversation people need to have is no longer about women assuming positions of leadership within the existing power structure, it's about the power structures themselves, it's about how to go about assuming power, how to change the structures. — Elizabeth Lesser

My understanding of God is an experience. God is. That's all I know. In the Biblical tradition, it would be expressed as, "Be still and know that I am God." God is the "I am" energy. Something huge is at play here - cosmic creativity, consciousness, God, whatever you want to call it. I do believe that it's a guided ride. We're on a guided tour of the universe. — Elizabeth Lesser

I was just a kid when I started doing this,yoga, meditation, natural foods, acupuncture - things like were seen as practically voodoo. And today you can go into any hospital and they'll have massage, and Chinese medicine, and therapy, and a prayer room. — Elizabeth Lesser

I think if you asked people "what's the biggest problem in your life?" They'd say, "I just don't have time for anything!" And at our fingertips, if it isn't e-mail, it's our Blackberry, and it's our iPods and telephones - we never stop. We never take those moments to stop the stimulus to find out "what's going on in there? What's really happening?" And then things start to build up. And then we are almost afraid to slow down. — Elizabeth Lesser

I do think in general, women have a value system. And it's that value system that I think is feminism. Not "men are bad, women are good, let's get women empowered" - it's let's get this value system, which is about the capacity to feel and empathize with life, and therefore to protect it. — Elizabeth Lesser

When women hear each other's stories, told from the heart, it gives us inspiration to keep on going. — Elizabeth Lesser

The great loneliness- like the loneliness a caterpillar endures when she wraps herself in a silky shroud and begins the long transformation from chrysalis to butterfly. It seems we too must go through such a time, when life as we have known it is over- when being a caterpillar feels somehow false and yet we don't know who we are supposed to become. All we know is that something bigger is calling us to change. And though we must make the journey alone, and even if suffering is our only companion, soon enough we will become a butterfly, soon enough we will taste the rapture of being alive. — Elizabeth Lesser

Power is just using energy in a wise way to get things done. Power has been misinterpreted to mean getting my way on the backs of other people. Getting whatever I want, forgetting that there are other beings and species and energies involved. — Elizabeth Lesser

Meditation practice is like piano scales, basketball drills, ballroom dance class. Practice requires discipline; it can be tedious; it is necessary. After you have practiced enough, you become more skilled at the art form itself. You do not practice to become a great scale player or drill champion. You practice to become a musician or athlete. Likewise, one does not practice meditation to become a great meditator. We meditate to wake up and live, to become skilled at the art of living. — Elizabeth Lesser

I'm interested in helping women become courageous in being exactly who they are. Because the only way to change anything is to do it from your genuine self. — Elizabeth Lesser

Beautiful quality that women have, which is we like to get together and gab. It's time to elevate that aspect of being a woman. — Elizabeth Lesser

First we love within, then we love the world. — Elizabeth Lesser

If humanity does not evolve spiritually - each one of us and collectively - our species won't make it. So following that back to each individual - every day you are faced with choices. — Elizabeth Lesser

I think as women and men become more conscious, the terms "woman/man" begin to lose meaning. — Elizabeth Lesser

Life's always changing. We always are being called to adapt. — Elizabeth Lesser

I hope this is the lesson we women really commit to memory - we learned that it doesn't work to try be someone other than who you really are. — Elizabeth Lesser

I'm very committed to my family and my town. My biggest local commitment are my children, my husband, my home and my grandchildren. — Elizabeth Lesser

Adversity is a natural part of being human. It is the height of arrogance to prescribe a moral code or health regime or spiritual practice as an amulet to keep things from falling apart. Things do fall apart. It is in their nature to do so. When we try to protect ourselves from the inevitability of change, we are not listening to the soul. We are listening to our fear of life and death, our lack of faith, our smaller ego's will to prevail. To listen to your soul is to stop fighting with life
to stop fighting when things fall apart; when they don't go our away, when we get sick, when we are betrayed or mistreated or misunderstood. To listen to the soul is to slow down, to feel deeply, to see ourselves clearly, to surrender to discomfort and uncertainty and to wait. — Elizabeth Lesser

If family and society tell you its unfeminine, not really womanly, to be aggressive, to speak up, to have strong opinions, to take up space, then women won't trust their own voice, because to be heard and to be influential, you've got to have a way to sing out with passion and love and self-trust
to sing out your song for everyone to hear. — Elizabeth Lesser

So much of what we do each day is a diversion from what our lives are really about. A traumatic event is like a knife slicing through our diversionary tactics and exposing the vein of truth - the truth of what we really want, of how we really feel, of the wrongs we have visited upon each other, of the love we crave from each other. — Elizabeth Lesser

And then there's the sticky question of "What is the self?" Is it merely a bundle of neural impulses held together by flesh and gravity for a tiny flash of time? And when the flash burns out, does our body turn to dust and our personal ego dissolve into the cosmic soup? Or is each one of us more substantial than that? Are we spiritual beings having a human experience? Does our soul continue once released from the confines of body and ego? And when, as human beings, we listen for guidance from our authentic core, is it really the eternal soul whose song we hear? — Elizabeth Lesser

When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead. — Elizabeth Lesser

I accept that life is uncertain
that the goal is not to become more certain about anything but to relax more into the mystery of not knowing what will come next. And then, miracle of miracles, out there in the deep and uncertain water, I come into a peaceful knowing
a faithful wisdom that surpasses control and certainty. — Elizabeth Lesser

Life actually is this mystery and gift. And every moment of it can be full of real radical joy and wakefulness. And for some reason in our most difficult times, we have the best chance to wake up. Many people will tell you that their divorce or illness or loss of job was the wake up call. — Elizabeth Lesser

May you listen to the voice within the beat even when you are tired. When you feel yourself breaking down, may you break open instead. May every experience in life be a door that opens your heart, expands your understanding, and leads you to freedom. If you are weary, may you be aroused by passion and purpose. If you are blameful and bitter, may you be sweetened by hope and humor. If you are frightened, may you be emboldened by a big consciousness far wiser than your fear. If you are lonely, may you find love, may you find friendship. If you are lost, may you understand that we are all lost, and still we are guided - by Strange Angels and Sleeping Giants, by our better and kinder natures, by the vibrant voice within the beat. May you follow that voice, for This is the way - the hero's journey, the life worth living, the reason we are here. — Elizabeth Lesser

Recognition of the harm that patriarchy has caused to people and the planet does not mean that men are wrong and women are right; rather it is a call for new organizational forms and for relishing gender differences within a context of equality. — Elizabeth Lesser

I really knew how to speak - from my female voice, that "different voice" that Carol Gilligan so presciently described many years ago in her groundbreaking book. Because if we try to speak in a voice that isn't ours, we lose our power. — Elizabeth Lesser

To be spiritual is to be genuine in everything you say and do, come what may. — Elizabeth Lesser

It is such a teaching in itself for us, all of us, every moment when we're with anyone. — Elizabeth Lesser

The Persian poet Rumi says, The breeze at dawn has secrets to tell you. Don't go back to sleep. You must ask for what you really want. — Elizabeth Lesser

First we forgive ourselves, then we forgive others and life itself. — Elizabeth Lesser

Look for a way to lift someone up. If that's all you do, it's enough. — Elizabeth Lesser

When you approach spirituality as an adventure of being alive, you start as you would any adventure
with a sense of mystery and not-knowing. Instead of searching for answers that make you feel safe, you set out into the vastness of life and death, with a willingness to continually grow. You open up to the possibility that your ordinary life is an extraordinary adventure, and that your joys and sorrows have meaning. Spiritual practice becomes your rudder, offering direction and insight and discretion as you venture into the unknown. — Elizabeth Lesser

It seems to be almost a law of physics, that the winds of change awaken fear and fundamentalism. — Elizabeth Lesser

Grief is good ... it is a sign of how well we have loved. — Elizabeth Lesser

Whatever is happening, whatever is changing, whatever is going or not going according to my plans - I release my hold on all of it. I leave behind who I think I am, who I want to be, what I want the world to be. I come home to the great peace of the present moment, — Elizabeth Lesser

Rumi says: Out beyond ideas of wrong doing and right doing There is a field. I'll meet you there. — Elizabeth Lesser

If we can stay awake when our lives are changing, secrets will be revealed to us-secrets about ourselves, about the nature of life, and about the eternal source of happiness and peace that is always available, always renewable, already within us. — Elizabeth Lesser

To banish the Hideous Damsel's darkness is to sterilize one's chance at the evolution she brings. — Elizabeth Lesser

People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive ... so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive. - JOSEPH CAMPBELL — Elizabeth Lesser

There's something in our makeup and in our bodies that really wants to luxuriate more in just the joy of being alive and not always consuming, creating, building. There's something inside of us that wants desperately to stop and experience and just be
not just always do. — Elizabeth Lesser

What feels like such a painful loss now will become something beautiful later on. You cannot escape your destiny. You can certainly try. People do so every day. They hold on tight, and the river just dries up. — Elizabeth Lesser

We don't need anymore empowered people who are all about the ego. — Elizabeth Lesser

How quickly I judge, and therefore diminish their humanity. — Elizabeth Lesser

Some people, who are deeply involved in an organized, traditional religion, find it very difficult to accept that their way isn't the only way. And that their sacred text isn't the only text and it must be taken literally. — Elizabeth Lesser

I hope we have learned throughout centuries of revolution and reaction that it's really a shift in consciousness that we need. And I think there is a shift in consciousness among our human species. I think the human species is evolving, spiritually. — Elizabeth Lesser

Even if your difficult time comes at you out of the blue - like cancer - even those times, opens your heart to the magic and power of life, and gives you this inner commitment to live every moment. — Elizabeth Lesser

It is the acceptance of death that has finally allowed me to choose life. — Elizabeth Lesser

We are able to choose what we want - you don't have to accept one thing from one tradition. It's a melting pot. — Elizabeth Lesser

The secret in life is enjoying the passage of time. - RICHIE HAVENS — Elizabeth Lesser

That is what happens when you put your soul in charge of your life. You dare to claim the sky. That sky is different for everyone. For one person, maybe the sky is having a baby, being a parent, growing a family. But for another it's never having kids; it's traveling the globe; it's saving the world... You know your sky. And if you don't, it's because you haven't listened closely enough. — Elizabeth Lesser

His grief at your leaving is also his fear of losing the power he has had for lifetimes. Those days are over for him, and he is in turmoil. But if you are to help him on his soul's quest, you will leave him. It is your job
your sacred contract
to free him, and to free yourself. — Elizabeth Lesser

To turn back is one kind of death; to go forward is another. — Elizabeth Lesser

I pray that each one of us stays awake as we fall. I pray that we choose to go into the abyss willingly and that our fall is cushioned by faith
faith that at the bottom we will be caught and taught and turned toward the light. I pray that we don't waste precious energy feeling ashamed of our mistakes, or embarrassed by our flaws. After years of teaching, I know only a few things for sure. One of them is this: We are chunks of dense matter that need to be cracked open. Our errors and failings are chinks in the heart's armor through which our true colors can shine. — Elizabeth Lesser

I didn't want to become anything other than my most vibrant, peaceful, and grateful self. — Elizabeth Lesser

Learn respect for the feeling function: Become aware of and undo some of your (improper) cultural training so that you grant the moods and messages of the heart the same respect that you give the thoughts and ideas of the mind. — Elizabeth Lesser

When we slow down, quiet the mind, and allow ourselves to feel hungry for something that we do not understand, we are dipping into the abundant well of spiritual longing. — Elizabeth Lesser

I recommend learning how to come into the presence of stillness and vastness. Learn any form of meditation. Spend twenty minutes every day if possible, in meditation, listening to the crazy monkey mind inside you, and learning how to still the thoughts and discover that big, deep soulful part of yourself. — Elizabeth Lesser

We think that maybe feminism isn't appropriate anymore, since Western women have really made enormous strides. But check out the rest of the world if you'd like to not be able to sleep tonight. — Elizabeth Lesser

The real work of feminism is to empower a woman and to give her language to express a new value system for the world. The new feminism must create both the process by which we generate influence and the influence itself. — Elizabeth Lesser

If men and women were equal, everybody would have the same values.Because at this point in time, many women feel compelled to care for the children, feel empathetically into another person's reality, more so than many men who often are on more of a straight-shooting path towards achievement come what may. — Elizabeth Lesser

When there is nothing left to lose, we find the true self - the self that is whole, the self that is enough, the self that no longer looks to others for definition, or completion, or anything but companionship on the journey. — Elizabeth Lesser

If you have fathered a child, if you have given birth, if sex is a source of healthy pleasure, thank your pelvis and your reproductive organs for allowing you to feel the creative rhythms of life. — Elizabeth Lesser

Grief is an expression that you loved well. — Elizabeth Lesser

We must pay attention to the voice that calls us out of the safety zone. — Elizabeth Lesser

Life is like a school; one can learn, one can graduate, one can skip a grade or stay behind. — Elizabeth Lesser

See what's happening to our sisters around the world. I'm very interested in the protection of women globally. — Elizabeth Lesser

Every catastrophe can hand us exactly what we need to awaken into who we really are. — Elizabeth Lesser

I think the gender story will become less fraught with hard edges - and not that we'll have androgyny, but that men and women will move more fluidly into each other's domains. — Elizabeth Lesser