17 Quotes on Love and Letting Go That'll Help You Move Forward and Heal Again

We all experience pain and heartbreak in our lives. It can be difficult to let go of past hurt and disappointments. With depression, we are often stuck in the past, and with anxiety, we are often worried about the future. The key to happiness is letting go and living in the present to feel more peace and enjoyment in life. Below are 17 letting go quotes that’ll help you move forward through difficult times and heal again.

“Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go.”

— Hermann Hesse

“In the process of letting go you will lose many things from the past, but you will find yourself.”

— Deepak Chopra

“When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us.”

— Alexander Graham Bell

“There’s an important difference between giving up and letting go.”

— Jessica Hatchigan

“ When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be. When I let go of what I have, I receive what I need. ”

— Lao Tzu

“Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure. ”

— Oprah Winfrey

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.”

— JK Rowling

“We must be willing to let go of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

— Joseph Campbell

“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar. ”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don’t.”

— Steve Maraboli

“When we think we have been hurt by someone in the past, we build up defenses to protect ourselves from being hurt in the future. So the fearful past causes a fearful future and the past and future become one. We cannot love when we feel fear…. When we release the fearful past and forgive everyone, we will experience total love and oneness with all.”

— Gerald G. Jampolsky

“If you didn’t love him, this never would have happened. But you did. And accepting that love and everything that followed it is part of letting it go.”

— Sarah Dessen

“Let go of certainty. The opposite isn’t uncertainty. It’s openness, curiosity and a willingness to embrace paradox, rather than choose up sides. The ultimate challenge is to accept ourselves exactly as we are, but never stop trying to learn and grow.”

— Tony Schwartz

“Some birds are not meant to be caged, that’s all. Their feathers are too bright, their songs too sweet and wild. So you let them go, or when you open the cage to feed them they somehow fly out past you. And the part of you that knows it was wrong to imprison them in the first place rejoices, but still, the place where you live is that much more drab and empty for their departure.”

— Stephen King

“Some people believe holding on and hanging in there are signs of great strength. However, there are times when it takes much more strength to know when to let go and then do it.”

— Ann Landers

“Most things are forgotten over time. Even the war itself, the life-and-death struggle people went through is now like something from the distant past. We’re so caught up in our everyday lives that events of the past are no longer in orbit around our minds. There are just too many things we have to think about everyday, too many new things we have to learn. But still, no matter how much time passes, no matter what takes place in the interim, there are some things we can never assign to oblivion, memories we can never rub away. They remain with us forever, like a touchstone.”

— Haruki Murakami

“Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.”

— Deborah Reber

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Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist serving the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. She provides individual therapy to children, teens, and adults with stress, anxiety, and depression. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and acceptance based therapies, and other top, premier evidence-based treatments. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!

25 Inspiring Quotes That'll Help You Cultivate More Peace, Presence, and Joy in Your Life

As we go about our days and work toward happiness, success, and freedom, we often forget to tune into life itself. We fall out of touch with our connection to others and to something larger than ourselves. We become stuck in thoughts about the future or past that we forget that life is happening now.

These 25 quotes on mindfulness and spirituality remind us how to increase greater wisdom, peace, presence, and joy in our lives.

“The past has no power over the present moment”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Step out of the circle of time and into the circle of love.”

— Rumi

“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practise compassion. ”

— The Dalai Lama

“One of the most spiritual things you can do is embrace your humanity. Connect with those around you today. Say, “I love you”, “I’m sorry”, “I appreciate you”, “I’m proud of you”…whatever you’re feeling. Send random texts, write a cute note, embrace your truth and share it…cause a smile today for someone else…and give plenty of hugs. ”

— Steve Maraboli

“You and your purpose in life are the same thing. Your purpose is to be you.”

— George Alexiou

“Realize deeply that the present moment is all you have. Make the NOW the primary focus of your life.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Part of spiritual and emotional maturity is recognizing that it’s not like you’re going to try to fix yourself and become a different person. You remain the same person, but you become awakened.”

— Jack Kornfield

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences. All events are blessings given to us to learn from.”

— Elizabeth Kübler-Ross

“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is.”

— Albert Einstein

“Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.”

— Kahlil Gibran

“It is the inner life that is to spark the change in consciousness that will permit us to advance. ”

— Brother Wayne Teasdale

“Acceptance looks like a passive state, but in reality it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Always say “yes” to the present moment. What could be more futile, more insane, than to create inner resistance to what already is? what could be more insane than to oppose life itself, which is now and always now? Surrender to what is. Say “yes” to life — and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness. How do you know this is the experience you need? Because this is the experience you are having at the moment.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Love is a state of Being. Your love is not outside; it is deep within you. You can never lose it, and it cannot leave you.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Some changes look negative on the surface but you will soon realize that space is being created in your life for something new to emerge.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“In today’s rush we all think too much, seek too much, want too much and forget about the joy of just Being.”

— Eckhart Tolle

“Happiness cannot be traveled to, owned, earned, worn or consumed. Happiness is the spiritual experience of living every minute with love, grace, and gratitude. ”

— Denis Waitley

“At any moment, you have a choice, that either leads you closer to your spirit or further away from it. ”

— Thich Nhat Hanh

“The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnificent world in itself. ”

— Henry Miller

“Being at ease with not knowing is crucial for answers to come to you. ”

— Eckhart Tolle

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this. ”

— Henry David Thoreau

“When you arise in the morning think of what a privilege it is to be alive, to think, to enjoy, to love. ”

— Marcus Aurelius

“Awakening is not changing who you are, but discarding who you are not. ”

— Deepak Chopra

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Therapist in mclean, tysons corner, merrifield, falls church, arlington and vienna

Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist serving the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. She provides individual therapy to children, teens, and adults with stress, anxiety, and depression. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and acceptance based therapies, and other top, premier evidence-based treatments. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!

35 Positive Affirmations for Anxiety and Depression That Will Transform Your Life

Thoughts affect your reality — they create an energy and perspective that shape your actions. Positive affirmations can help you adopt a positive mindset and changes in your life. Although there are many things in life we cannot choose, we can always choose new thoughts and perspectives — new ways of thinking and possibilities for the future.

Here are 35 positive affirmations from author and speaker Louise Hay, to inspire you and heal your life of anxiety, stress, and depression, to bring you comfort, joy, and peace.

“All is well in my world. Everything is working out for my highest good. Out of this situation only good will come. I am safe!”

“It’s only a thought, and a thought can be changed.”

“The point of power is always in the present moment.”

“Every thought we think is creating our future.”

“I forgive myself and set myself free.”

“I am Divinely guided and protected at all times.”

“I trust the process of life.”

“Deep at the center of my being is an infinite well of love.”

“I am loved, and I am at peace.”

“My happy thoughts help create my healthy body.”

“I love and approve of myself.”

“I have compassion for all.”

“I deserve all that is good.”

“I now live in limitless love, light, and joy.”

“It is safe for me to speak up for myself.”

“I forgive everyone in my past for all perceived wrongs. I release them with love.”

“Today is a sacred gift from Life.”

“I cross all bridges with joy and ease.”

“I experience love wherever I go.”

“I do not have to prove myself to anyone.”

“I trust my intuition. I am willing to listen to that still, small voice within.”

“I am greeted by love wherever I go.”

“The past is over.”

“I welcome miracles into my life.”

“I am in the process of positive change.”

“Nourishing myself is a joyful experience, and I am worth the time spent on my healing.”

“Whatever I need to know is revealed to me at exactly the right time.”

“I trust the process of life.”

“I listen with love to my body’s messages.”

“I forgive myself for not being perfect.”

“All is well in my world. I am calm, happy and content.”

“I am in charge of how I feel and today I am choosing happiness.”

“Life is very simple. What I give out comes back to me. Today I choose to give love.”

“As I say yes to life, life says yes to me.”

“I am at home in my body.”

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Therapist in mclean, tysons corner, merrifield, falls church, arlington and vienna

Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist serving the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. She provides individual therapy to children, teens, and adults with stress, anxiety, and depression. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and acceptance based therapies, and other top, premier evidence-based treatments. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!

18 Beautiful Quotes About Intimacy and Love

Intimacy is often confused with sex, but in actuality it involves feeling deeply emotionally connected with another person and a desire to be deeply known. Intimacy is not something achieved quickly, but rather something that continues to mature and develop over time, like a garden or fine wine. Although intimacy is something many of us long for, not all of us find or experience it in our relationships. This is because intimacy involves being vulnerable — taking emotional risks and working through the fear of allowing another person to see you as you truly are. It involves trust, caring, acceptance, safety, and connection. To nurture intimacy is to be willing to show all sides of yourself, to embrace differences, to grow from conflict, and to choose our partners — the individuals we share our hearts with — wisely.

Below are 18 quotes on intimacy and love demonstrating their beauty and timelessness.

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”

— John Joseph Powell, The Secret of Staying in Love

“I wonder if this is how people always get close: They heal each other’s wounds; they repair the broken skin.”

— Lauren Oliver

“Most people are slow to champion love because they fear the transformation it brings into their lives. And make no mistake about it: love does take over and transform the schemes and operations of our egos in a very mighty way.”

— Aberjhani

“True love is not a hide and seek game: in true love, both lovers seek each other.”

— ichael Bassey Johnson

“The deepest moments of intimacy occur when you’re not talking.”

— Patricia Love

“Can the purpose of a relationship be to trigger our wounds? In a way, yes, because that is how healing happens; darkness must be exposed before it can be transformed. The purpose of an intimate relationship is not that it be a place where we can hide from our weaknesses, but rather where we can safely let them go. It takes strength of character to truly delve into the mystery of an intimate relationship, because it takes the strength to endure a kind of psychic surgery, an emotional and psychological and even spiritual initiation into the higher Self. Only then can we know an enchantment that lasts.”

— Marianne Williamson

“They slipped briskly into an intimacy from which they never recovered.”

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

“Love is like breathing. You take it in and let it out.”

— Wally Lamb

“Intimacy is a totally different dimension. It is allowing the other to come into you, to see you as you see yourself.”

— Osho

“Real intimacy is a sacred experience. It never exposes its secret trust and belonging to the voyeuristic eye of a neon culture. Real intimacy is of the soul, and the soul is reserved.”

— John O'Donohue

“Intimacy is not something that just happens between two people; it is a way of being alive. At every moment, we are choosing either to reveal ourselves or to protect ourselves, to value ourselves or to diminish ourselves, to tell the truth or to hide. To dive into life or to avoid it. Intimacy is making the choice to be connected to, rather than isolated from, our deepest truth at that moment.”

— Geneen Roth

“It is not time or opportunity that is to determine intimacy—it is disposition alone. Seven years would be insufficient to make some people acquainted with each other, and seven days are more than enough for others.”

— Jane Austen

“If you love a person and live the whole life with him or with her, a great intimacy will grow and love will have deeper and deeper revelations to make to you. It is not possible if you go on changing partners very often. It is as if you go on changing a tree from one place to another, then another; then it never grows roots anywhere. To grow roots, a tree needs to remain in one place. Then it goes deeper; then it becomes stronger. Intimacy is good, and to remain in one commitment is beautiful, but the basic necessity is love. If a tree is rooted in a place where there are only rocks and they are killing the tree, then it is better to remove it. Then don’t insist that it should remain in the one place. Remain true to life – remove the tree, because now it is going against life.”

— Osho

“If fear is the great enemy of intimacy, love is its true friend.”

— Henri Nouwen

“Real intimacy is only possible to the degree that we can be honest about what we are doing and feeling.”

— Joyce Brothers

“My great hope is to laugh as much as I cry; to get my work done and try to love somebody and have the courage to accept the love in return.”

— Maya Angelou

“Love is friendship that has caught fire. It is quiet understanding, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection and makes allowances for human weaknesses.”

— Ann Landers

“To grow in our ability to love ourselves we need to receive love as well.”

— John Gray

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Therapist in mclean, tysons corner, merrifield, falls church, arlington and vienna

Victoria Chialy Smith, PhD is a licensed clinical psychologist serving the Falls Church, McLean, Great Falls, Vienna, Arlington, Alexandria, and the greater Washington DC region. She provides individual therapy to children, teens, and adults with stress, anxiety, and depression. Our practice provides Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness and acceptance based therapies, and other top, premier evidence-based treatments. Call, email, or schedule an appointment with us online today. We’re happy to help!