I believe that life is about doing. It's about changing. It's about transitioning. I can't imagine, as a human being, not being able to grow.

Everybody ages. Everybody dies. There is no turning back the clock. So the question in life becomes: What are you going to do while you're here

Love is something in the heart and in the mind, so why would you chastise anyone for that? And this is something that I feel very strongly about.

I think that's what makes a successful marriage: a mindful sense of self and the ability to make clear choices to stay together or choices not to.

I've come to believe that seeking happiness is not a frivolous pursuit. It's honorable and necessary. And most people forget even to thing about it.

No relationship is easy, and nobody should ever think it is. The minute you start forgetting the needs of the other person is when you get in trouble.

if we cultivate compassion for those who have hurt us, we have the possibility of overcoming our anger,pain, and fear. compassion is a great medicine.

The truth is that no matter how old we are, as long as our mothers are alive, we want our mother. And it's a very powerful relationship if it's healthy.

Being a dancer is my metaphor for life because you have to know your body. Being a dancer and paying attention to fitness is all about moving in balance.

The beauty of getting older is the surprise of what else you can do to make the world a better place with the wisdom that you've accrued over those years.

I've been practicing Buddhism for a while. So, I call myself a Jew-Bu, because my tribe is still Jew. But my philosophy and my practice is really Buddhist.

We can't turn a blind eye to the importance of the well-being of our children, and we need to pay close attention to building the future leaders of tomorrow.

Oftentimes, actors are looked at as court jesters. They are not looked at as deep-thinking, smart people who do many other things or have gifts in other areas.

I feel there are injustices in the world that I'll stand up for, and I think that it's important to realize that the world is filled with these kinds of issues.

My parents always supported me, but I was put to task. My father thought when I sang, I was sharp; my mother was upset when I wasn't in the first line at recitals.

We're social animals; we're meant to be together, but we were never necessarily meant to be together without being together. That was never the plan, I don't think.

I was born Jewish, and I consider that my religion. But I've studied all religions, and as you learn more, you really learn that everyone's praying to the same God.

You don't meditate once and suddenly your life turns around. What it does is it lets you train your brain to be able to become more stable in an action-oriented way.

At 11 years old, I made a very definitive decision, and my decision was that I wanted to be happy. Above and beyond anything I ever did in my life, I wanted to be happy.

Central to our work and our goal of finding solutions to global problems is the concept of mindfulness, a technique for focusing attention objectively on the here and now.

I've been practicing modalities of Eastern philosophy since about 1972. What I've learned through my meditation is a sense of equanimity, a sense of all things being equal.

I was always a performer, always on stage, but I also always believed I was going to go home, open a dance school, get married, and have what you would call a 'normal' life.

You don't have to tell a child not to bully. You know, you talk at kids, they don't hear you, but when you give them a visceral experience, then they have something to remember.

I noted that people are happy here in India. When I went back home, people had everything in the materialistic sense and were surrounded with abundance, but they were not happy.

So maybe that's what the difference is, is that when you intend to be happy, then you figure out ways to sustain your happiness or your ability to feel moments of joy in your life.

I really think that to a lot of people hair is everything. Bad hair takes over everything, it really does. I think if somebody has bad hair it doesn't matter what else is happening.

I am compelled to continuously see the bright side. It is in my DNA. My kids look at me and say: 'Mom, you're so happy!' And I do feel happy. I feel joyful inside. I can't explain it.

I think that men have tremendous ability to lead. And I think women have a tremendous ability to lead, and they lead differently, and it gives a wonderful perspective to the problems.

Stress is something that's created in the mind, basically. It's how we look at things. So ovr greatest defense against stress is the ability to change ovr minds; to change ovr thinking.

When I started go-go dancing on tables for a living, I didn't want to tell my mom or my dad. I made 25 dollars a night, and I was able to make my rent, with the four girls I lived with.

I wrote the book because I wanted to be able to share some things that I had learned and as pompous as that may sound, as you get to a certain point in life, you figure so what am I doing?

When you have a Jewish mother who has a very strong Jewish family, it's very ethnic in its practices. Eating brisket, the food and the family and the interconnectedness for better or worse.

A child's giggle tickles me deeply, and it breaks my heart when that begins to disappear. So I do what I can to create opportunities for children to continue to laugh and rediscover their joy.

Men, they come and go. They always will. Hopefully, they stay. But, it’s the girl that’s sitting next to you, or the girl that’s sitting across from you, that’s going to get you through everything.

What we want to help children with is, just because you feel sad or happy or depressed doesn't mean that is who you are. We want them to know, 'I am really sad right now, but I am not a sad person.'

We go into restaurants, and people aren't talking anymore. They're texting. While they are sitting at a restaurant with each other. So we're losing this intimacy that we need to have as human beings.

If you have a negative thought - 'I can't stand my boss' - it perpetuates a negative worldview. But if you supplant each negative thought with three positive ones, you begin to restructure your brain.

Attention for children is so much about input, and the brain can only filter so much - I don't know how many millions of messages that come through the brain, and we can only filter so much through it.

When you look at the amount of medication that has been administered to children today, it stands the hair up on your arms. Because this is the way that they are helping children manage their emotions.

Youthfulness is connected to the ability to see things new for the first time. So if your eyes still look at life with wonder, then you will seem young, even though you may not be chronologically young.

It's wonderful to move forward technologically, but we cannot forget that we are human beings who thrive on relationships, who thrive on interconnectivity, who thrive on sharing your feelings and emotions.

I do a lot of juicing. I don't put a lot of food in my stomach, and I don't mix my foods too much. So if I want to have, like, protein, I'll just eat a bowl of lentils; I won't mix it with a bunch of stuff.

I'm a woman who was raised to believe that you are not complete unless you have a man. Well, in some ways it's true. I am a feminist to a point. But I'm not going to deny the fact that I love to be with men.

Sadly, so many arts programs have been eliminated from schools due to budget constraints. These creative outlets are so very important, not only for a child's well-being, but also for self-expression and fun.

I think what we can do is to develop this incredible computer that we have on our heads, because it's endless. It's just the most brilliant thing we have to develop, and know that we have the power over all of it.

Happiness, I think, has to come in the beginning, truly, from feeling a sense of well-being within yourself. To me it's that incredible sense of belonging and peace within your own self and heart that really is joy.

When 9/11 happened, the world, certainly in the United States of America, there was a unity. There was this sense of unity. And I have to say just from a personal level, it really felt good. We all felt the same way.

When you're female working in a male-dominated industry, there are unfortunately extra things you need to do - for example, couch opinions in a way that sounds palatable and not threatening. That's a skill I developed.

When you get to a certain age, you have to make a decision for yourself: if you want to get old in the industry, and you want to play maybe a few parts that come along now and then - or what else in life interests you?

I want to know where joy lives. I'd interview scientists, religious leaders and heads of state. I'd want to find out exactly what makes people happy. I'd want to look into the biology, the chemistry of the human brain.

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