“The alternative to pain may be worse. When you live with an open heart, you will inevitably get hurt. The alternative of living a life closed off from experience, however, is barren. Ironically, it also still involves suffering. In fearing pain, we already feel the pain from our fear.” LoveInspirationPainSufferingFearCourageMeaning Of LifeLife Purpose Author:Ann Brasco
“While many of us admire nice things, materialism and suffering may share a connection. When we place a great deal of our happiness in material things, we run the great risk of losing our happiness when our material things become lost, old, or damaged. Toys break. Cars get dents. Clothes get ripped. Jewels get lost or stolen. Riches come and go. If we collect moments rather than things, these are ours to keep. If we redefine wealth by the amount of love and kindness we afford ourselves to give to others, we can transform our lives.” HappinessSuccessJoyFearWealthRiskTransformationAuthenticityContentmentMaterialismLife Purpose Author:Ann Brasco
“We live in a country where you can electively have your nose broken to reshape it, inject fat from your butt into your face to look younger, but pushing a baby out of your own vagina can be restricted.” BirthChildbirthWomen S IssuesWomens HealthWomens Healthcare Author:Ann Brasco
“Meditation, practiced individually and as a family, helps with a different type of peace. It is not a calm absent of noise and confusion but a calm that persists in the very center of the noise and the chaos. Ten minutes daily can transform your life.” InspirationPeaceMeditationChaosCalmInner PeacePeace Of MindClear ThinkingLife Practice Author:Ann Brasco
“Until we accept that our children have much more of a risk of being sexually abused than drowning in a pool, being struck by a car, stricken with cancer, hurt by a vaccination, or diagnosed with ebola, we contribute to a culture of panic and ignorance.” ParentingChild AbuseSexual AbuseParenting ChildrenChild Abuse Denial Author:Ann Brasco
“Often, our relationships become an unrealized quest for what is perfect, unfettered, and free of flaws. We expect our partners, spouses, and our friends to avoid missteps and to be magical mind readers. These secret expectations play a sinister part in many of the great tragedies of our lives: failed marriages, dissipated dreams, abandoned careers, outcast family, deserted children, and discarded friendships. We readily forget what we once knew as children: our flaws are not only natural but integral to our beings. They are interwoven into our soul’s DNA and yet we continually reject the crooked, wrinkled, mushy parts of our life rather than embrace them as the very essence of our beings. I once believed that aiming for perfection would land me in the realm of excellence. This, however, may not be the trajectory of how things happen. In fact, the pursuit of perfection may be the biggest obstacle to becoming whole. It seems essential to value hard work and determination and yet recognize that the road to excellence is littered with mistakes and subsequent lessons. Imperfection and excellence are intertwined. There is joy in our pain, strength in weakness, courage in compassion, and power in forgiveness.” InspirationSuccessLife LessonsHard WorkFailureConfidenceExcellenceMistakesAuthenticityFlawsPerfectionismAuthentic SelfAuthentic Living Author:Ann Brasco
“Rather than idolizing perfection, we must choose to cherish what is real. To truly live is to love deeply, to get messy, to sometimes get hurt, and to stumble and fall. It is worth it. The alternative of living a life barren of these things in the pursuit of perfection would be tragically uninteresting.” LoveLifeInspirationPainSuccessLife LessonsSufferingHurtFailureLife Purpose Author:Ann Brasco