So I had finally come to the conclusion that my task was to become more and more aware, more and more understanding with an understanding that was not at all the same thing as intellectual comprehension. […] Without understanding, I was at the mercy of blind habit; with understanding, I could develop my own rules for living and find out which of the conflicting exhortations … [ Read more ]
Author: Marion Milner | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings)
I had just begun to ponder over the fact that all the things which I had found to be sources of happiness seemed to depend upon the capacity to relax all straining, to widen my attention beyond the circle of personal interest, and to look detachedly at my own experience. I had just realized that this relaxing and detachment must depend on a fundamental sense … [ Read more ]
Author: Marion Milner | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Psychology | Behavior
People said: “Oh, be yourself at all costs.” But I had found that it was not so easy to know just what one’s self was. It was far easier to want what other people seemed to want and then imagine that the choice was one’s own.
Author: Marion Milner | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Personal Improvement
If just looking could be so satisfying, why was I always striving to have things or to get things done? Certainly I had never suspected that the key to my private reality might lie in so apparently simple a skill as the ability to let the senses roam unfettered by purposes. I began to wonder whether eyes and ears might not have a wisdom of … [ Read more ]
Author: Marion Milner | Source: The Marginalian (Brain Pickings) | Subject: Senses