Geneen Quotes & Sayings

My closet was full, yet I was always focused on the sweater I didn't have, or on the next pair of boots. I wasn't allowing myself to take in what I had. I could never experience what "enough" was. — Geneen Roth

I live between fearing doom and wishing for it. — Geneen Roth

Pay careful attention to the bodily sensations that you recognize as hunger. When you feel yourself starting to get hungry, sit down for a few minutes (and if you can't sit down, stand still). Where in your body do you experience hunger? In your throat? Your chest? Your stomach? Your legs? How is this sensation different from the sensation, let's say, of excitement? Or loneliness? What happens to you when you feel yourself getting hungry? Do you feel that you need to eat immediately? — Geneen Roth

The big horrible thing isn't the plane crash or the earthquake or the diagnosis. When those things occur, we act, we know what to do. We live or we die. Hell is what we do in the meantime. It is the ways we starve our souls as we prepare for the future that never comes as planned. The true disaster is living the life in your mind and missing the one in front of you. — Geneen Roth

Imagine not being frightened by any feeling. Imagine knowing that nothing will destroy you. That you are beyond any feeling, an state. Bigger than. Vaster than. That there is no reason to use drugs because anything a drug could do would pale in comparison to knowing who you are. To what you can understand, live, be, just by being with that presents itself to you in the form of the feelings you have ... — Geneen Roth

But replacing hunger for divine connection with Double Stuf Oreos is like giving a glass of sand to a person dying of thirst. It creates more thirst, more panic. — Geneen Roth

Weight loss does not make people happy. Or peaceful. Being thin does not address the emptiness that has no shape or weight or name. Even a wildly successful diet is a colossal failure because inside the new body is the same sinking heart. — Geneen Roth

Awareness, not deprivation, informs what you eat. Presence, not shame, changes how you see yourself and what you rely on. — Geneen Roth

The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success: Concentration, Discrimination, Organization, Innovation and Communication. — Harold S. Geneen

Do you want my one-word secret of happiness? It's growth - - mental, financial you name it. — Harold Geneen

The worst disease which can afflict business executives in their work is not, as popularly supposed, alcoholism; it's egotism. — Harold S. Geneen

People come and go, pain comes and goes. But so does joy. And if our hearts are closed because we don't want to suffer, they won't be open enough to recognize the joy as it flies by. — Geneen Roth

You can deal with the loneliness one night at a time. But what you can't deal with is the idea of loneliness, the fear of it. — Geneen Roth

It matters whether you see yourself as someone who is capable of effecting change or whether you see yourself as someone whose voice does not count. It matters whether you treat yourself with reverence or with carelessness. Every bit of work you do on yourself matters. Every time you choose love, it matters. — Geneen Roth

If LOVE could talk to you about your relationship with food, what would it say? — Geneen Roth

Every company has two organizational structures: The formal one is written on the charts; the other is the everyday relationship of the men and women in the organization. — Harold S. Geneen

If your desk isn't cluttered, you probably aren't doing your job. — Harold S. Geneen

No matter what we weigh, those of us who are compulsive eaters have anorexia of the soul. We refuse to take in what sustains us. We live lives of deprivation. And when we can't stand it any longer, we binge. — Geneen Roth

We eat the way we live. — Geneen Roth

When I come upon a man who has a gleaming, empty, clear desktop, I am dealing with a fellow who is so far removed from the realities of his business that someone else is running it for him. — Harold Geneen

If you treat your feelings with as much love as you treat your dog or your cat or your child you'll feel as if you were living in heaven. — Geneen Roth

It's not life in the present moment that is intolerable; the pain we are avoiding has already happened. We are living in reverse. — Geneen Roth

The truth is that it's not about the weight. It's never been about the weight. When a pill is discovered that allows people to eat whatever they want and not gain weight, the feelings and situations they turned to food to avoid will still be there and they will find other more inventive ways to numb themselves. — Geneen Roth

If you don't believe in God, it may help to remember this great line of Geneen Roth's: that awareness is learning to keep yourself company. And then learn to be more compassionate company, as if you were somebody you are fond of and wish to encourage. I doubt that you would read a close friend's early efforts and, in his or her presence, roll your eyes and snicker. I doubt that you would pantomime sticking your finger down your throat. I think you might say something along the lines of, 'Good for you. We can work out some of the problems later, but for now, full steam ahead! — Anne Lamott

The problem with fantasy is the greatest benefit of fantasy: it prevents us from living in the present moment. — Geneen Roth

Its not so much that we believe what we see, but that we see what we believe — Geneen Roth

You will stop turning to food when you start understanding in your body, not just your mind, that there is something better ... Truth, not force, does the work of ending compulsive eating. — Geneen Roth

The relentless attempts to be thin take you further and further away from what could actually end your suffering: getting back in touch with who you really are. Your true nature. Your essence. — Geneen Roth

Hell is wanting to be somewhere different from where you are. Being one place and wanting to be somewhere else ... Wanting life to be different from what it is. That's also called leaving without leaving. Dying before you die. It's as if there is a part of you that so rails against being shattered by love that you shatter yourself first. (p. 44) — Geneen Roth

The process is the goal. — Geneen Roth

You are not a mistake. You are not a problem to be solved. But you won't discover this until you are willing to stop banging your head against the wall of shaming and caging and fearing yourself. (p. 84) — Geneen Roth

In the business world, everyone is always working at legitimate cross purposes, governed by self interest. — Harold Geneen

Business is many things, the least of which is the balance sheet. It is a fluid, ever changing, living thing, sometimes building to great peaks, sometimes falling to crumbled lumps. — Harold Geneen

Chocolate, I am sure, is the concrete manifestation of love. — Geneen Roth

Women look at their bodies, and they're never thin enough. The financial advisors that I've talked to say they ask their clients, "How much money do you need in order to feel secure?" "X amount." Then, as soon as the client got the amount, it would double automatically. — Geneen Roth

The obsession will end when you love yourself enough to stop hurting yourself. Who doesn't want to take care of what they love? — Geneen Roth

Weight (too much or too little) is a by-product. Weight is what happens when you use food to flatten your life. Even with aching joints, it's not about food. Even with arthritis, diabetes, high blood pressure. It's about your desire to flatten your life. It's about the fact that you've given up without saying so. It's about your belief that it's not possible to live any other way
and you're using food to act that out without ever having to admit it. (p. 53) — Geneen Roth

For some reason, we are truly convinced that if we criticize ourselves, the criticism will lead to change. If we are harsh, we believe we will end up being kind. If we shame ourselves, we believe we end up loving ourselves. It has never been true, not for a moment, that shame leads to love. Only love leads to love. — Geneen Roth

After initial needs are met-enough food, shelter, comfort-there is no correlation between money and happiness. That's a difficult thing for people to believe. — Geneen Roth

Treat yourself as if you already are enough. Walk as if you are enough. Eat as if you are enough. See, look, listen as if you are enough. Because it's true. — Geneen Roth

It's never been true, not anywhere at any time, that the value of a soul, of a human spirit, is dependent on a number on a scale. We are unrepeatable beings of light and space and water who need these physical vehicles to get around. When we start defining ourselves by that which can be measured or weighed, something deep within us rebels.
We don't want to EAT hot fudge sundaes as much as we want our lives to BE hot fudge sundaes. We want to come home to ourselves. (p. 174-5) — Geneen Roth

People often mistake tenderheartedness for indulgence, as if being kind to themselves leads to lethargy - sitting around the house all day eating bonbons and wearing muumuus and pink rollers. This is simply not true. I often hear a variation on this statement: "If I'm not intolerant of my shortcomings, how can I ever expect to change them?" And the answer is, By doing the opposite of what you think you need to do to change. By being kind to yourself. — Geneen Roth

Separate the desire to be thin from the desire to be cherished. — Geneen Roth

Your body is the piece of the Universe youve been given. — Geneen Roth

Ask: is what I'm doing and thinking right now bringing me closer to myself or farther away? Opening my heart or closing it? You have a choice. — Geneen Roth

I feel like it's been important for me to use my own personal experiences with food and money to help people to not feel ashamed. I felt so much shame about my own experiences. — Geneen Roth

You can't be stuck if you're not trying to get anywhere. Which, to me, means that when you stop fighting with the way things are, magic happens. You relax, open, and any action you take comes from alignment with what's true. — Geneen Roth

When you decide that you need to lose twenty pounds because you are disgusting at this weight or that you need to meditate every day or go to church on Sundays because you will go to hell if you don't, you are making life decisions while you are being whipped with chains. The Voice-induced decisions - those made from shame and force, guilt or deprivation, cannot be trusted. They do not last because they are based on fear of consequences instead of longing for truth. Instead, ask yourself what you love. Without fear of consequences, without force or shame or guilt. What motivates you to be kind, to take care of your body, your spirit, others, the earth? Trust the longing, trust the love that can be translated into action without the threat of punishment. Trust that you will not destroy what matters most. Give yourself that much. — Geneen Roth

Once you discover freedom, you want to capture it, never let it go. — Geneen Roth

The professional's grasp of the numbers is a measure of the control he has over the events that the figures represent. — Harold Geneen

Chocolate ... is not something you can take or leave, something you like only moderately. You dont like chocolate. You dont even love chocolate. Chocolate is something you have an affair with. — Geneen Roth

Your relationship to food, no matter how conflicted, is the doorway to freedom. — Geneen Roth

Live as if they know that they are worth their own time. Live as if they deserve to take care of their bodies. Live as — Geneen Roth

We are using the food as a doorway to understanding the rest of our lives. — Geneen Roth

You are not your past, not your habits, not your compulsions. When you get to know who you are, anything becomes possible. — Geneen Roth

Staying requires being curious about who you actually are when you don't take yourself to be a collection of memories.When you don't infer your existence form replaying what happened to you, when you don't take yourself to be the girl your mother/father/brother/teacher/lover didn't see or adore. When you sense yourself directly, immediately, right now, without preconception, who are you? — Geneen Roth

The way you eat is inseparable from your core beliefs about being alive. Your relationship with food is an exact mirror of your feelings about love, fear, anger, meaning and transformation. — Geneen Roth

Take time to thank your body. — Geneen Roth

Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions. — Harold S. Geneen

If you try to lose weight by shaming, depriving and fearing yourself, you will end up shamed, deprived, and afraid. Kindness comes first. Always. — Geneen Roth

Compulsive eating is basically a refusal to be fully alive. No matter what we weigh, those of us who are compulsive eaters have anorexia of the soul. We refuse to take in what sustains us. We live lives of deprivation. And when we can't stand it any longer, we binge. The way we are able to accomplish all of this is by the simple act of bolting
of leaving ourselves
hundreds of times a day. — Geneen Roth

The best way to inspire people to superior performance is to convince them by everything you do and by your everyday attitude that you are wholeheartedly supporting them. — Harold S. Geneen

The purpose of a spiritual path or religion is to provide a precise and believable way into what seems unbelievable. — Geneen Roth

Ninety-nine percent of all surprises in business are negative. — Harold Geneen

No act of love is ever wasted. — Geneen Roth

mothering is our first preverbal template for an existence in which we feel welcomed or rejected, loved or abandoned, many of us have fused our relationship with our mothers with our concepts of God. — Geneen Roth

It is much more difficult to measure nonperformance than performance. — Harold S. Geneen

There have been many articles about the top regrets that people have when they're dying. They are always, "I missed the ordinary moments." We miss those ordinary moments, and yet, that's what we're trying to distract ourselves from at the same time. — Geneen Roth

For every diet there's an equal and opposite binge (bulimia which is binging and purging is another way of depriving yourself). — Geneen Roth

Healing is about being awake. Being broken and whole at the same time. — Geneen Roth

Meditation develops the capacity to question your mind. Without it, you are at the mercy of every thought, every desire, every wave of emotion. — Geneen Roth

We eat the way we eat because we are afraid to feel what we feel. — Geneen Roth

Performance stands out like a ton of diamonds. Nonperformance can always be explained away. — Harold S. Geneen

The problem isn't that we have bodies; the problem is that we're not living in them. — Geneen Roth

What you pay attention to grows. Pay attention to your loveliness, your magnificent self. Begin now. — Geneen Roth

We're always looking for the Big Love, the Big High, the next Big Thing to happen. We miss what's in front of us. — Geneen Roth

When you don't want to be where you are, you create suffering for yourself. Change happens through acceptance, kindness and relaxation
not resistance, not warfare, not fights. — Geneen Roth

When you believe without knowing you believe that you are damaged at your core, you also believe that you need to hide that damage for anyone to love you. You walk around ashamed of being yourself. You try hard to make up for the way you look, walk, feel. Decisions are agonizing because if you, the person who makes the decision, is damaged, then how can you trust what you decide? You doubt your own impulses so you become masterful at looking outside yourself for comfort. You become an expert at finding experts and programs, at striving and trying hard and then harder to change yourself, but this process only reaffirms what you already believe about yourself
that your needs and choices cannot be trusted, and left to your own devices you are out of control (p.82-83) — Geneen Roth

Uncertainty will always be part of the taking charge process. — Harold Geneen

It's the nature of hearts to break. It's in their job description. When a heart is doing what it's supposed to be doing, it holds nothing back. And sometimes it gets broken. — Geneen Roth

The highest art of professional management requires the literal ability to 'smell' a 'real fact' from all others. — Harold Geneen

When we give up dieting, we take back something we were often too young to know we had given away: our own voice. Our ability to make decisions about what to eat and when. Our belief in ourselves. Our right to decide what goes into our mouths. Unlike the diets that appear monthly in magazines or the thermal pants that sweat off pounds, unlike a lover or a friend or a car, your body is reliable. It doesn't go away, get lost, stolen. If you will listen, it will speak. — Geneen Roth

Bingeing is such an emotionally frenetic activity that no other concerns can exist in the same space. It is a hell that people who are food-sensitive are familiar with; and, because it is known, it is therefore not so terrifying as some of the problems that are outside our control. Problems like divorce, illness, death. — Geneen Roth

When you believe in yourself more than you believe in food, you will stop using food as if it were your only chance at not falling apart. When the shape of your body no longer matches the shape of your beliefs, the weight disappears. And yes, it really is that simple. — Geneen Roth

After you've looked at normal women's bodies, look at yourself in the mirror. Stand there for at least three minutes, once a week, for six weeks. Every time you notice a stretch mark, a sag, a wrinkle, say to yourself, "This is what living looks like. This is what loving looks like." And you will be telling the truth. — Geneen Roth

All any feeling wants is to be welcomed with tenderness. It wants room to unfold. It wants to relax and tell its story. It wants to dissolve like a thousand writhing snakes that with a flick of kindness become harmless strands of rope. — Geneen Roth

We start eating, watch television, surf the Internet, or go shopping and buy something. That gives us a rush of feeling, some adrenaline and excitement. — Geneen Roth

I think we all have a hunger that's hard to name. A lot of people who come to my retreats have never named it before, or else they've named it in church, but they can't actually see the connection between what they're doing with food and this yearning. I call it "the flame" that they have: They yearn for big answers to live a big life. But they have to start with the most basic fears. — Geneen Roth

Come back to yourself. Return to the voice of your body. Trust that much. — Geneen Roth

Being hungry is like being in love: if you don't know, you're probably not, — Geneen Roth

You don't need a scale to tell you whether you're allowed to like yourself today. You are. You belong here. No matter what you weigh, you deserve joy and happiness. — Geneen Roth

How you eat is how you live. — Geneen Roth

And if you worry that not finishing the food on your plate is a slap in the face of all the hungry people everywhere, you are not living in reality. The truth is that you either throw the food out or you throw it in, but either way it turns to waste. World hunger will not be solved by finishing the garlic mashed potatoes on your plate. — Geneen Roth

And.. are you willing to go all the way? To understand that food is only a stand-in for love and possibility and spirit? Because if you aren't, you will get caught up in gaining and losing weight for the rest of your life. But if you are willing, then the portal to what you say you want is truly on your plate. — Geneen Roth

If there are any cages in this marriage, it is I who have built them. And I who hold the key to their locks. — Geneen Roth

In the business world, everyone is paid in two coins: cash and experience. Take the experience first; the cash will come later. — Harold S. Geneen

To discover what you really believe, pay attention to the way you act
and to what you do when things don't go the way you think they should. Pay attention to what you value. Pay attention to how and on what you spend your time. Your money. And pay attention to the way you eat. — Geneen Roth

People get old, get sick and die. Or they die suddenly. Or their deaths drag on forever. My friend Tory is dying a slow, excruciatingly painful death of bone cancer. Eight friends have died of breast cancer. Polar bears are dying. Honeybees are vanishing. The oceans are drying up. There is a part of me that wants my money back. That wants to say, 'I didn't sign up for this. I don't like the way this whole thing is set up and I won't participate in it. — Geneen Roth

Love includes vulnerability, surrender, self-valuing, steadiness, and a willingness to face - rather than run from - the worst of ourselves. — Geneen Roth

Most of us are so enthralled with the scary tigers in our minds--our stories of loneliness, rejection, grief--that we don't realize they are in the past. They can't hurt us anymore. — Geneen Roth