It's easy to get caught up in tough times. Sometimes, bad days seem endless and good days pass in the blink of an eye and you're left feeling somewhat cheated. A while back, I found a coping mechanism that works well for me. At the very least, it will make the difficult times pass quicker and at its best, it will give me a new perspective and turn my bad day around. My remedy is reading others' writing. I suppose seeking solace in words makes most sense for someone like myself, a fellow writer and poetry enthusiast, but if you give it a chance, I believe it could help you, too. Here's some of my favorite quotes for your rainiest days:
When you're frustrated with yourself:
“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is a quiet voice at the end of a day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’”
-Mary Anne Radmacher
When you're close to giving up:
“But the blood running down the bathtub will never change the color of the sea.”
-Derrick C. Brown
When you're fighting an inner battle:
"Of course it is happening inside your head, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?"
-J.K. Rowling (spoken by Albus Dumbledore)
When you're scared:
“It is a risk to love. What if it doesn’t work out? Ah, but what if it does.”
-Peter McWilliams
When you need perspective:
“Enjoy the little things in life because one day you’ll look back and realize they were the big things.”
-Kurt Vonnegut
When you need a reality check:
"If you consider a woman less pure after you’ve touched her, maybe you should take a look at your hands."
- Kaija Sabbah
When you forget what truly matters:
“A mirror is only glass and you’re much more than that.”
-t.i.d.
When you're in a fight:
“Kill them with kindness”
-unknown
When you feel lost:
“Everyone who terrifies you is sixty-five percent water. And everyone you love is made of stardust, and I know sometimes you cannot even breathe deeply, and the night sky is no home, and you have cried yourself to sleep enough times that you are down to your last two percent, but nothing it infinite, not even loss. You are made of the sea and the stars and one day you are going to find yourself again.”
-Finn Butler
When you need to speak up:
“I hope my words can touch you in places my hands could not.”
-unknown
When you're overwhelmed:
“I am learning everyday to allow the space between where I am and where I want to be inspire me, not terrify me.”
-Tracee Ellis Ross
When you have to say goodbye:
“How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
-A. A. Milne (Winnie the Pooh)
When you question your self-worth:
“She woke up every morning with the option of being anyone she wished. How beautiful it was that she always chose herself.”
-Tyler Kent White
When you're stressed:
“The best thing you can do is master the chaos in you. You are not thrown into the fire; you are the fire.”
-Mama Indigo
When you're tired of hurting:
“And it goes like this, if you love too much than you’ll hurt too much and anything in between will always be a lie.”
-R. M. Drake
When you're a woman:
“Sometimes you’ll just be too much woman. Too smart, too beautiful, too strong. Too much of something that makes a man feel like less of a man, which will start making you feel like you have to be less of a woman. The biggest mistake you can make is removing jewels from your crown to make it easier for a man to carry. When this happens, you need to understand, you do not need a smaller crown- you need a man with bigger hands.”
-Michael E. Reid
When you need strength to walk away:
“I am learning to love the sound of my feet walking away from things not meant for me.”
-A.G.
When others' thoughts begin defining the way you view yourself:
“When someone tells you, ‘I love you,’ and then you feel, ‘Oh, I must be worthy after all,’ that’s an illusion. That’s not true. Or when someone says, ‘I hate you,’ and you think, ‘Oh, God, I knew it; I’m not very worthy,’ that’s not true either. Neither one of these thoughts hold any intrinsic reality. They are an overlay. When someone says, ‘I love you,’ he is telling you about himself, not you. When someone says, “I hate you,’ she is telling you about herself, not you.”
-Adyashanti
When you need the truth:
“He never realized that people are capable, at any time in their lives, of doing what they dream of.”
-Paulo Coelho (The Alchemist)