Numbing Quotes

“Our best enemy is the one who challenges us, and so doing, teaches us to set out to discover our potentials, while our worst friend is the one who is numbing us and lulling us into complacency, always being consenting or acquiescent. ("Being my best friend.")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Spirituality emerged as a fundamental guidepost in Wholeheartedness. Not religiosity but the deeply held belief that we are inextricably connected to one another by a force greater than ourselves--a force grounded in love and compassion. For some of us that's God, for others it's nature, art, or even human soulfulness. I believe that owning our worthiness is the act of acknowledging that we are sacred. Perhaps embracing vulnerability and overcoming numbing is ultimately about the care and feeding of our spirits.”
― Brené Brown, Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead

“You can’t selectively numb your anger, any more than you can turn off all lights in a room, and still expect to see the light.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“We numb our minds and heart so one need not be broken and the other need not be bothered.”
― Peggy Haymes

“People who suffer from alexithymia tend to feel physically uncomfortable but cannot describe exactly what the problem is. As a result they often have multiple vague and distressing physical complaints that doctors can't diagnose. In addition, they can't figure out for themselves what they're really feeling about any given situation or what makes them feel better or worse. This is the result of numbing, which keeps them from anticipating and responding to the ordinary demands of their bodies in quiet, mindful ways. If you are not aware of what your body needs, you can't take care of it. If you don't feel hunger, you can't nourish yourself. If you mistake anxiety for hunger, you may eat too much. And if you can't feel when you're satiated, you'll keep eating.”
― Bessel A. van der Kolk, The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

“So benumbed are we nowadays by electric lights that we have become utterly insensitive to the evils of excessive illumination”
― Jun'ichirō Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows

“Dishonoring what we feel is an epidemic that has us self-medicating as a culture and trying to numb ourselves.”
― Abiola Abrams, The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love

“We all find means of anesthesia.”
― Brunonia Barry, The Lace Reader

“What do we do after things fall apart? Do we run to the familiar once again? Do we attempt to numb the pain with distractions? What do we do after things fall apart?”
― Benyf, 11.11.11 After so Many Years of Tears: Letters to My Distant Soul-Mate

“After a while, the booze and drugs became her problem, which was convenient because she didn't have to deal with her real problem anymore.”
― Glennon Doyle, Untamed

“Grown-ups now, we occupy our
concrete paths, little griefs buzzing
around our ears like mosquitos.
We swat them away.
We turn our heads,
swallowing our sadness whole.”
― Jenny Noble Anderson, But Still She Flies: Poems and Paintings