Alan Cohen Quotes

Upgrade your past by seeing it with appreciation.

What a doctor or healer tells you is a reflection of the beliefs and expectations you hold. Change your beliefs and you change the prognosis. Who is the doctor? The mind of the patient.

No one is too busy to do what they actually prefer.

The more you invest in your happiness, the more happiness will invest in you.

The more you live by external shoulds, the farther you drift from the power inherent in your own spirit.

Anger is the ego's way of cloaking fear to make what is frail seem formidable.

Be clear on where you are and where you want to go and you will get there. It can be the best year of your life.

The Key to a healthy "no" is to remember the "yes" that the "no" is making space for.

A life without change is not a life; it is a stagnant pool ...

When confronted with a situation that appears fragmented or impossible, step back, close your eyes, and envision perfection where you saw brokenness. Go to the inner place where there is no problem, and abide in the consciousness of well-being.

Newspaper ads for lost pets and earthquakes that soon follow. Other studies indicate a higher rate of last-minute cancellations for airplane flights that crash. While we may be tempted to look outside ourselves for advice, we are all quite brilliant and know a lot more about our path and destiny than we recognize.

The spiritual path is not one of attainment, but of return.

Real humility is not about denying the gifts you are offered; it is accepting them.

Preparing to live your dream is postponing it. You are either living it, or not.

Keeping your commitment to your purpose does not depend on other people keeping theirs.

Fantasy is often closer to reality than what most people accept as reality.

We learn early on that, in order to be a winner, you have to believe in yourself. You have to have the confidence to make things happen. And you have to have personal pride.

You cannot be other than you are. Thank God.

The same Source that gave you the idea, will give you the means to see it through.

After a certain point you quit trying to prove yourself to anyone and you simply live in the way that makes you happy.

It is not insult from another that causes you pain. It is the part of your mind that agrees with the insult. Agree only with the truth about you, and you are free.

The fire of purpose easily melts the icicles of obstacles.

You are destined to become the peer of those you most respect because the greatness you perceive in them is your own.

Take care what words you speak that follow "I am." In so speaking you create your life.

Forget what you've been taught so you can remember what you know.

Each day move a little more from tightening to lightening.

Our history is not our destiny.

So money is not the answer to problems; wealth mentality is.

Everything you think, feel, say, and do contains seeds of more of itself.

If you act anxiously to hasten your results, you delay their arrival. Calm poise reveals the shortest route home.

Everything that you need to succeed has been given to you.

If you have ever followed a rainbow to its end, it leads you to the ground on which you are standing.

The purpose of prayer is not to change God's mind, which always knows your wholeness and your deservingness. The purpose of prayer is to change your mind so you can see through the eyes of God.

The only thing more important than being good is being real. Authenticity is kinder than resignation without conviction. Truth leads to good faster than good leads to truth. Ultimately truth is good, but you have to live it from the inside out.

The images we impress upon our mind, especially when accompanied by emotion, yield the same experience whether they are true or fictional.

When you invest your time and energy in stuff that drags you down, you die a little bit every day.

When you want what you want more than you fear what you want, you will have it.

The words "genius" and "genuine" derive from the same root. The core of genius is authenticity.

Quit planning your dream and start living it.

Busyness is not a reason for not getting other things done. It is an excuse for not claiming your true priorities.

Love is heaven and fear is hell. Where you place your attention is where you live.

The ego romanticizes the past to avoid the true romance of the present.

Every experience empowers you twice: First when you enter into it with a whole heart, and again when you leave it with a whole heart.

People who pressure you usually deserve a "no". People who are patient with you usually deserve a "yes".

Life has meaning only if you do what is meaningful to you.

Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes the conditions perfect.

Struggle is not an act; it is an attitude. If we believe that we must fight to get what we want, we will toil over everything we do. If we recognize, however, that the universe works more efficiently for us when we approach it with ease, life will serve us in miraculous ways.

As you recognize that you already own the wholeness you seek, and no one outside you can give you more than you already are, dysfunctional situations will evaporate like bad dreams exposed to the morning sun.

The feeling, "this can't be it", is a very powerful form of prayer. It's the agony of the separated self longing for reunion with wholeness. It's the call of your soul urging you to return to your own path and purpose. It's the force of evolution driving you home. Do not try to deny or override your divine discontent. Heed its call. Knowing "this can't be it" implies that somewhere inside you, you DO know what IS it.

You change the past when you change the way you see it.

Guilt: punishing yourself before God doesn't.

Success is less about getting good, and more about letting good.

One of the best ways to realize that age is an illusion is to have your body get older and realize that you are who you always have been.

Happiness has little to do with what is going on around you, and a lot to do with what is going on inside you.

When your intention is clear, so is the way.

Personal growth is not a matter of learning new information but of unlearning old limits.

Build your world around your dreams rather than trying to fit your dreams into the world you know.

You have the power to take away someone's happiness by refusing to forgive. That someone is you.

Happy people do not demand a lot from the world because their happiness proceeds from a place deeper than the world can touch.

All hatred of others is a reflection of self-hatred. All love of others is a reflection of self-love.

You will not achieve work/life balance as long as you believe there is a difference between the two. When you find life in your work and work with your life, you will have only life.

The freest people I know are those who have the least to hide, defend or protect. Naked is powerful.

You are not a black hole that needs to be filled; you are a light that needs to be shined.

When your sense of worth exceeds your conditions, conditions will shift to match your vision.

Sometimes when things seem to be going wrong, they are going right for reasons you are yet to understand.

Don't use the past as an excuse to miss out on your future.

Those who love you are not fooled by mistakes you have made or dark images you hold about yourself. They remember your beauty when you feel ugly; your wholeness when you are broken; your innocence when you feel guilty; and your purpose when you are confused.

Integrity is a high rock above which the stormy ocean of worldly troubles cannot rise.

Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want.

Every day the word 'gift' is used to define talent, ability, and performance. Being gifted has an even deeper meaning, a meaning that isn't always measured in points per game or win/loss records - it's measured by heart, effort, and desire.

Everything will line up perfectly when knowing and living the truth becomes more important then proving anything to anyone

Evaluate every act by whether it brings you greater life, or deadens you.

The love affair you seek is with yourself.

Humility is born of the spirit, humiliation of the ego.

Truly creative people care a little about what they have done, and a lot about what they are doing. Their driving focus is the life force that surges in them now.

The best way to be more like me is to be more like you,

'Confusion is the last stop on the way to clarity,' he told me. 'The part of your mind that thinks it knows it all is butting up against a bigger idea. It's only a matter of time until the smaller thought gives way to the greater. Don't fight it. Just try to enjoy the ride.'

View the past as your enemy, and it will be an albatross.
View it as your friend, and it will give you wings.

To think you know what is best for another person is an industrial-strength ego trip.

True progress comes not through action, but through awakening.

No matter what has happened, let today be new.

There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.

Live your spirit's dreams, not your mind's.

Kindness to self will put you in the perfect attitude and position to be kind to others.

You need not wrestle for your good. Your good flows to you most easily when you are relaxed, open, and trusting.

You own what you own not by money or force, but by your love for it and your inner connection to it.

The apparent goal of the journey is simply the carrot the universe dangles before you to get you to learn the lessons the adventure yields.

Every choice before you represents the universe inviting you to remember who you are and what you want.

Anger is a call for awareness.

Any problem you recognize represents but a tiny blip on the radar screen of your well-being. Even while you are experiencing a difficulty, homeostasis is working on your behalf to return you to perfect balance. Your role is simply to relax and allow nature to take its healing course.

Abundance is not a number or acquisition. It is the simple recognition of enoughness.

Use pain as a stepping stone, not a camp ground.

Do not wait for the future to be happy. You are happy now, or you are not.

The power you give others belongs to you. Take it back and take yourself where you would go.

The ego tells you to fill space. Your spirit tells you to let space fill you.

Put aside ambition for public recognition, and simply do what you do because it feels good inside.

Only the ego resists egos. The spirit may notice egos, but sees beyond them and does not engage with them.

The more you recognize the immense good within you, the more you magnetize immense around you.

You always have energy to do what you are passionate about.

Trust who and what you are, and the universe will support you in miraculous ways.