Mary O'Malley > Quotes

“What's in the way is the way. Whatever you are experiencing is a doorway into a more spacious place. So rather than resisting discomfort, you can learn how to open to what you are experiencing and explore it, without any need to have it be any different than what is is.”
― Mary O'Malley, What's in the Way IS the Way

“It is also important to understand that, even though you have been taught to believe that your mind is in charge of life, it was not designed for this. It is an exquisite tool for maneuvering through your life, but it is not supposed to be in charge of it. Life is in charge of your life, and it does a lot better job than your mind does.”
― Mary O'Malley

“Compulsions are intricate survival systems that we create because we don’t know how to be there for ourselves.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing

“Our compulsions serve two functions: the first is to keep unacceptable feelings buried deeply within so we can be numb enough to survive, and the second is to bring us comfort.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing

“Life is set up to bring up what has been bound up, so it can open up to be freed up, so you can show up for life.”
― Mary O'Malley, What's in the Way Is the Way: A Practical Guide for Waking Up to Life

“Understanding that we create our compulsions to take care of ourselves is essential in transforming our relationship to them.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing

“Anaïs Nin said in her 1961 work Seduction of the Minotaur, “We don’t see things as they are. We see them as we are.”
― Mary O'Malley, What's in the Way Is the Way: A Practical Guide for Waking Up to Life

“Joy comes from the ability to be with life as it is.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Magical Forest of Aliveness: A Tale of Awakening

“What a valuable gift that is! Imagine that there is a single turtle in all the seas of the world, and that turtle surfaces from the water only once every hundred years. Now imagine there is also a single golden hoop floating on the seas, tossed this way and that by the winds and currents. How often would the turtle, on its once-a-century visit to the surface, put its head through the golden hoop? It has been said that to be given a human life is just as rare as that happening.”
― Mary O'Malley, What's in the Way Is the Way: A Practical Guide for Waking Up to Life

“As you get to know what takes you away from life, you have more moments throughout your day, when your mind, body and heart are all right here, and you discover a reverence for all beings and things.”
― Mary O'Malley, Belonging to Life: The Journey of Awakening

“We live in a story in our heads that is always trying to get us to 'do' life, telling us we need to make ourselves and our lives better or different from what they are. In our endless trying, we have forgotten how to be.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing

“As you get to know what takes you away from life, you have more moments throughout the day where your mind, body and heart are all right here, and you discover a reverence for all beings and things.”
― Mary O'Malley, The Gift of Our Compulsions: A Revolutionary Approach to Self-Acceptance and Healing