“Settling for the view that illnesses, mental or physical, are primarily genetic allows us to avoid disturbing questions about the nature of the society in which we live. If “science” enables us to ignore poverty or man-made toxins or a frenetic and stressful social culture as contributors to disease, we can look only to simple answers: pharmacological and biological.”

“Sometimes we live for many years next to another person and we only see the moment when he or she says goodbye.”

EmilyBs

“Everyone has an urge to create. Its expression may flow through many channels: through writing, art or music, through the inventiveness of work or in any number of ways unique to all of us, whether it be cooking, gardening or the art of social discourse. The point is to honour the urge. To do so is healing for ourselves and for others; not to do so deadens our bodies and our spirits.”

Gabor Maté libro When the Body Says No

Fuente: When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

“Death is the voice of conscience, telling us not to waste time, that we are born alone and we die alone.”

EmilyBs

““A therapist once said to me, “If you face the choice between feeling guilt and resentment, choose the guilt every time.” It is wisdom I have passed on to many others since. If a refusal saddles you with guilt, while consent leaves resentment in its wake, opt for the guilt. Resentment is soul suicide. Negative thinking allows us to gaze unflinchingly on our own behalf at what does not work.

We have seen in study after study that compulsive positive thinkers are more likely to develop disease and less likely to survive. Genuine positive thinking — or, more deeply, positive being — empowers us to know that we have nothing to fear from truth. “Health is not just a matter of thinking happy thoughts,” writes the molecular researcher Candace Pert. “Sometimes the biggest impetus to healing can come from jump-starting the immune system with a burst of long-suppressed anger.” Anger, or the healthy experience of it, is one of the seven A’s of healing. Each of the seven A’s addresses one of the embedded visceral beliefs that predispose to illness and undermine healing.””

Gabor Maté libro When the Body Says No

Fuente: When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress

“Freedom in society is gauged by our success in getting what we want and conditioned by status and power, by race, class and gender. In the internal world of the psyche, however, freedom means something very different. It is the ability to opt for our long-term physical and spiritual well-being as opposed to our immediate urges. Absent that ability, any talk of ‘free will’ or ‘choice’ becomes nearly meaningless.”

Gabor Maté libro In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Fuente: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“The purpose of love is the creation of a safe space, in which we can be ourselves, with independence and freedom. It requires motivation and dedication to comply and commit.”

EmilyBs

“Any passion can become an addiction; but then how to distinguish between the two? The central question is: who's in charge, the individual or their behaviour? It's possible to rule a passion, but an obsessive passion that a person is unable to rule is an addiction… if in doubt, ask yourself one simple question: given the harm you're doing to yourself and others, are you willing to stop? If not, you're addicted. And if you're unable to renounce the behaviour or to keep your pldege when you do, you're addicted.”

Gabor Maté libro In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts

Fuente: In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts