Marci Shimoff Quotes

Go for the sense of inner joy, of inner peace, of inner vision first and then all the other things from the outside appear.

Researchers tell us that we have about sixty thousand thoughts a day.

There are fourteen keys to experiencing greater love and with each key, I offer what I believe to be the most effective tool out there. So this is a time when, if we're awake to it, we have an amazing opportunity to start living a different life. By that I mean the life that our souls came here to live. We're all being propelled forward and it's not always easy, but through supporting one another we can do it.

Love isn't just something we feel for others, it's who we are. Though we usually think of love as a stream of emotion flowing between two people, love is more like an ocean that's inside and all around us. Instead of walking around with a little cup, begging for a few drops of love from others, recognize that you're the huge ocean of love.

The fifth doorway to experiencing Love for No Reason is the Doorway of Communication, which corresponds to the energy center located in the throat area. This doorway relates to speaking and listening with compassion, rather than judgment. There are some wonderful tools and techniques available to help us speak and listen with compassion that I've included in this chapter.

I truly believe that forgiveness is the fast track to greater love and it's the path that can really heal all. We all have areas of our own lives where we have a hard time forgiving, whether it's with ourselves, or others, but when we can practice forgiveness, many of our self-destructive habits will begin to fade away.

I seem to have come out of the womb with existential angst and wasn't a happy kid, so I've been on a lifelong search trying to discover how to live the best life possible. I committed my life to doing what I could to experience greater happiness, which ultimately led me to write a book on the subject called Happy for No Reason.

It is support that sustains us on the journey we've started.

She resolved every day to:
1. Do something for someone else.
2. Do something for myself
3. Do something I don't want to do that needs doing.
4. Do a physical exercise
5. Do a mental exercise
6. Do an original prayer that always includes counting my blessings

I interviewed 100 happy people - I call them my Happy 100 - and I learned amazing ideas and techniques from them that I began integrating into my life. I put them into practice - and they worked! I went from a D+ in happiness to an A-.

It's impossible to monitor every thought we have. Researchers tell us that we have about sixty thousand thoughts a day. Can you imagine how exhausted you'd feel trying to control all sixty thousand of those thoughts? Fortunately there's an easier way and it's our feelings. Our feelings let us know what we're thinking.

There's a beautiful forgiveness practice I love which is quite simple. It's called "Ho'oponopono" (pronounced: ho-o-pono-pono) and it's a lot easier to do than it is to say. It's a Kahuna Hawaiian technique, which involves repeating four phrases internally toward yourself or the person whom you're having a hard time forgiving.

Don't you think it was a little selfish to travel around the world looking for yourself?" She always answered, "You know what? I actually think it would have been a little selfish to spend the rest of my life in narcissistic, depressive, anxious misery. That person adds nothing to society, adds nothing to any room that she enters, adds nothing to the people whom she touches. The best community service I can possibly offer the world is to stay healthy and sane.

The first doorway (or chakra) is what I call in the book, the Doorway of Safety. This doorway relates to feeling safe in life and being present in the here and now. It's only when we are really grounded and safe that we're able to relax and open up our hearts.

Love is your job description - no matter what you do for a living. If you ever feel unsure of what you're supposed to do in a situation, here's a good rule of thumb: always do what leads to greater love.

I've come to see that I have two choices in how I approach change: I can either resist change or be open to what's ahead and feel the peace that "all is well in the universe." When I lean into the latter, I feel excited about the future.

When you're happy for no reason, you're unconditionally happy. It's not that your life always looks perfect - it's just that however it looks, you'll still be happy.

But i couldn't. Was nowhere near ready for a committed relationship, and it wouldn't be fair. I needed time - to become the right man for a woman like you.

Practice experiencing your feelings directly and completely by observing them as they move through your mind and body and then letting them go.

After years of searching, I have found my soulmate, and it is myself. The bachelor is content. Oh, he still dates women from time to time, and he listens to the wedding marches sometimes too. But only because he likes them.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine. - Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher

When you're Happy for No Reason, you bring happiness to your outer experiences rather than trying to extract happiness from them. You don't need to manipulate the world around you to try to make yourself happy. You live from happiness, rather than for happiness.

Intention, Attention, No Tension.

The sixth doorway is the Doorway of Vision. This relates to seeing with the eyes of love and corresponds to the energy center located in the third eye area of our forehead. When this doorway is open, we're more able to see life through love instead of differences.

HeartMath found that five minutes of feeling love and care can strengthen your immune system for up to six hours, whereas five minutes of feeling angry can weaken and suppress the immune system for six hours. Love releases very powerful, beneficial chemicals into the body.

I've found the best thing to do is to really be loving, kind, forgiving and compassionate with yourself. There are some wonderful practices for that which I talk about in Love For No Reason.

When you forgive, you heal your own anger and hurt and are able to let love lead again. It's like spring cleaning for your heart.

What would our lives be like if we could all be happy no matter what?

If you're having a hard time being compassionate to or forgiving of yourself or others, you repeat these four phrases directed to yourself or the other person: "I'm sorry. Please forgive me. Thank you. I love you." And just by saying and feeling those phrases, you will find your heart starts to melt.

The concept (of happiness) is universal. In Buddhism, it is called causeless joy, in Christianity, the kingdom of heaven within, and in Judaism it is called ashrei, an inner sense of holiness and health. Is Islam it is called falah, happiness and well-being, and in Hinduism it is called ananda, or pure bliss.

Gratitude is absolutely the way to bring more into your life

Most people think of love as an energy between two people, which it is, but it's not only that. When we think of love in those limited terms, we become what I call "love beggars." We walk around looking for love outside of ourselves. We'll go up to people as though we have a beggar's cup in our hands and look to them to fill up our cup.

So if you have over-indulged during the holidays, for example, please don't beat yourself up, but rather have compassion and forgiveness and perhaps, even try the Ho'oponono technique.

When we're feeling fully alive, we're able to fully feel love. This doorway also relates to feeling our feelings fully. Not suppressing our feelings of anger, sadness or grief but allowing them to be felt. What's amazing is that when those feelings are felt, they actually dissolve into love.

One of the things that happens when we're feeling more love and care is that we go into what's called "heart rhythm coherence," which you can actually measure and monitor on a computer screen. It's also possible to train yourself to go into heart rhythm coherence at will.

The study of love is an emerging field. Perhaps the leaders in the field are a group called The Institute of HeartMath who have found that we have many physiological, psychological, and social benefits when we're living with greater love, care, and compassion.

The fourth doorway is the Doorway of Openness located in our heart center. It has to do with being open to both giving and receiving love. It's not just about being able to give, but it's also about the ability to be open to receive. There's a certain vulnerability in receiving. When we truly take in and appreciate all of the gifts of life, then our hearts are truly open in love.

Like your weight set-point, which keeps the scale hovering around the same number, your happiness set-point will remain the same unless you make a concerted effort to change it.

The challenges we've had personally and globally have been the catalysts needed to let go of old ways of being that aren't the vibration of love.

And finally, there's the seventh doorway, the Doorway of Oneness, which corresponds to the crown center, located at the top of the head. This doorway has to do with feeling whole and connected to all of life, connected to spirit

So the difference between most books about love and Love For No Reason is that traditional love books focus on love as a stream of energy between two people, whereas this book focuses on love as a deep state of being that you can live in no matter what's going on in your life.

Sometimes", said Miss Phillips, "the thing you dread doing the very thing you should do, just so you can stop thinking about it.