I am particularly drawn to the form of meditation called Japa. I know it works.

A contented mind is the greatest blessing a man can enjoy in this world.

Sometimes I just sit still and enjoy God’s presence.

Never neglect details. When everyone’s mind is dulled or distracted the leader must be doubly vigilant.

On Saturday afternoons when all the things are done in the house and there’s no real work to be done, I play Bach and Chopin and turn it up real loudly and get a good bottle of chardonnay and sit out on my deck and look out at the garden.

A wise man should consider that health is the greatest of human blessings, and learn how by his own thought to derive benefit from his illnesses.

The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don’t want, drink what you don’t like, and do what you’d rather not.

Where fear is, happiness is not.

In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.

Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.

The trouble with always trying to preserve the health of the body is that it is so difficult to do without destroying the health of the mind.

I think the discipline comes with turning that cellphone and Blackberry off and unplugging completely. You do that and you go through some withdrawals in the beginning. You start thinking, ‚Oh, do I need to do this? Do I need to do that?‘ You forget that we were doing just fine with the payphone.

For you to sleep well at night, the aesthetic, the quality, has to be carried all the way through.

For me, there have been times when an action movie, even a ‚Tomb Raider,‘ has helped me get out of myself and be physical again. It’s like therapy.

Every day I pray about all I do.

Great grief does not of itself put an end to itself.

We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is, knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out.

No great genius has ever existed without some touch of madness.

There is more to life than increasing its speed.

I try not to go around looking like a hag.

I shall the effect of this good lesson keeps as watchman to my heart.

Meditation can help us embrace our worries, our fear, our anger; and that is very healing. We let our own natural capacity of healing do the work.

Sometimes I try to just sit at home and do something calmer and simpler and just be in my life. You know, not trying to solve a lot of things at once.

I had slumps that lasted into the winter.

In my afternoon walk I would fain forget all my morning occupations and my obligations to society.

Take care of your body. It’s the only place you have to live.

To keep the body in good health is a duty… otherwise we shall not be able to keep our mind strong and clear.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.

All men’s miseries derive from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone.

Fantasy is an exercise bicycle for the mind. It might not take you anywhere, but it tones up the muscles that can. Of course, I could be wrong.

Every day is a gift from God. Learn to focus on the Giver and enjoy the gift!

When I write, I can shake off all my cares.

A sad soul can kill quicker than a germ.

Most men are within a finger’s breadth of being mad.

One should take good care not to grow too wise for so great a pleasure of life as laughter.

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Every thought you produce, anything you say, any action you do, it bears your signature.

I know I’m stronger in the songs than I really am. Sometimes I need to hear it myself. We all need to hear those empowering songs to remind us.

Health is the greatest gift, contentment the greatest wealth, faithfulness the best relationship.

Take care to get what you like or you will be forced to like what you get.

Training and resting takes up most of my time.

I used to meditate all the time in bed. That was when I was raising my daughter, and I’d get her up and off to school, and then I would go back to bed and meditate. And then I would do the same in the evening, and that was very good for that period because I had so many things to juggle as a single mother.

The sovereign cure for worry is prayer.

When I’m in my 50s, I kind of think I’ll want to be in a garden.

There is no austerity equal to a balanced mind, and there is no happiness equal to contentment; there is no disease like covetousness, and no virtue like mercy.

I’m living in the present, thinking about the past, hoping for the future.

When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.

A great hallmark of mental wellness is the ability to be in the present moment, fully and with no thoughts of being elsewhere.

If I couldn’t laugh I just would go insane, If we couldn’t laugh we just would go insane, If we weren’t all crazy we would go insane.

There are as many pillows of illusion as flakes in a snow-storm. We wake from one dream into another dream.

Do the best you can, and don’t take life too serious.

That summer after the draft was probably the most fun I’ve ever had, because all I had to do every day was wake up and go work out for four or five hours. I got to play some golf, which I love to do, too, and then got to hang out with my family.

The extent of your consciousness is limited only by your ability to love and to embrace with your love the space around you, and all it contains.

The true art of memory is the art of attention.

I’m a super-duper over-analyzer. You mix that with self-doubt and pressure, and that’s never healthy.

In order to heal others, we first need to heal ourselves. And to heal ourselves, we need to know how to deal with ourselves.

I’m tender on the inside.

Happiness depends upon ourselves.

A man’s interest in a single bluebird is worth more than a complete but dry list of the fauna and flora of a town.

What some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn’t much better than tedious disease.