Melody Beattie

We can trust ourselves to know when our boundaries are being violated.

Don't violate your own code of values and ethics, but don't waste energy trying to make other people violate theirs.

Twelve-step promotes spirituality, not religion. It gives a practical, day-to-day spirituality that tells me what I can and cannot control. There is room to be imperfect and to be someone who struggles to find God.

Guilt can stop us from taking healthy care of ourselves.

According to some Eastern religion, there is a belt that goes across the world, and I've heard that Minnesota is right in the heart of this spiritual-creative belt of energy.

What do you do when life blindfolds you and spins you around? We think it's our fault, that we're to blame, when really we should be focused on being gentle with ourselves.

Each moment in time we have it all, even when we think we don't.

Few things can make us feel crazier than expecting something from someone who has nothing to give.

A codependent person is one who has let another person's behavior affect him or her and who is obsessed with controlling that person's behavior.

Make New Year's goals. Dig within, and discover what you would like to have happen in your life this year. This helps you do your part. It is an affirmation that you're interested in fully living life in the year to come.

The new year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.

Live your life from your heart. Share from your heart. And your story will touch and heal people's souls.

Much of the time, the things we feel guilty about are not our issues. Another person behaves inappropriately or in some way violates our boundaries. We challenge the behavior, and the person gets angry and defensive. Then we feel guilty.

Letting go helps us to to live in a more peaceful state of mind and helps restore our balance. It allows others to be responsible for themselves and for us to take our hands off situations that do not belong to us. This frees us from unnecessary stress.

Gratitude makes sense of our past, brings peace for today, and creates a vision for tomorrow.

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.