Elizabeth Lesser
It is such a teaching in itself for us, all of us, every moment when we're with anyone.Collection: Teaching
See what's happening to our sisters around the world. I'm very interested in the protection of women globally.Collection: World
We think that maybe feminism isn't appropriate anymore, since Western women have really made enormous strides. But check out the rest of the world if you'd like to not be able to sleep tonight.Collection: Sleep
If I pull from places of faith, joy and gratitude, then I have the wind of creativity behind me. And, my work in the world is much more effective.Collection: Gratitude
Each one of us regardless of our situation, is in our search of our most authentic, vital, generous and wise self.Collection: Wise
Even if your difficult time comes at you out of the blue - like cancer - even those times, opens your heart to the magic and power of life, and gives you this inner commitment to live every moment.Collection: Cancer
Beautiful quality that women have, which is we like to get together and gab. It's time to elevate that aspect of being a woman.Collection: Beautiful
I heard the term "mamisma" when describing Speaker of the House [Nancy] Pelosi, how she was speaking from that place which is kind of like a strong mother. Like when your mom says like, "put that down!" you know that is coming from a place of both love and strength. And at this critical stage in human history we need both action and caring.Collection: Mom
I really knew how to speak - from my female voice, that "different voice" that Carol Gilligan so presciently described many years ago in her groundbreaking book. Because if we try to speak in a voice that isn't ours, we lose our power.Collection: Book
The real work of feminism is to empower a woman and to give her language to express a new value system for the world. The new feminism must create both the process by which we generate influence and the influence itself.Collection: Real
I do think in general, women have a value system. And it's that value system that I think is feminism. Not "men are bad, women are good, let's get women empowered" - it's let's get this value system, which is about the capacity to feel and empathize with life, and therefore to protect it.Collection: Men
If men and women were equal, everybody would have the same values.Because at this point in time, many women feel compelled to care for the children, feel empathetically into another person's reality, more so than many men who often are on more of a straight-shooting path towards achievement come what may.Collection: Children
I think the gender story will become less fraught with hard edges - and not that we'll have androgyny, but that men and women will move more fluidly into each other's domains.Collection: Moving
I think as women and men become more conscious, the terms "woman/man" begin to lose meaning.Collection: Men
The part of me that is both a spiritual seeker and a social activist meet in this understanding of enlightened power coming from a deep, genuine well within each person.Collection: Spiritual
I hope we have learned throughout centuries of revolution and reaction that it's really a shift in consciousness that we need. And I think there is a shift in consciousness among our human species. I think the human species is evolving, spiritually.Collection: Thinking
Many women hear the word "feminine" and feel like it's a noose around their neck. "Don't hold me to a mode of behavior because I'm a woman and you think this is how a woman should act," kind of thing.Collection: Thinking
We'll never change everyone's minds. We're not supposed to.Collection: Mind
If humanity does not evolve spiritually - each one of us and collectively - our species won't make it. So following that back to each individual - every day you are faced with choices.Collection: Choices
I'm very committed to my family and my town. My biggest local commitment are my children, my husband, my home and my grandchildren.Collection: Children
I'm very much a family person, and that's always my first priority.Collection: Priorities
We are able to choose what we want - you don't have to accept one thing from one tradition. It's a melting pot.Collection: Melting
What do you want in your life? What do you want in your relationships? And if you say, I'd like them to be harmonious; I'd like them to be free; I'd like not to be in a state of blame all the time or shame. If you answer like that, then I would say, look at what's unforgiven. Look at where you know you did wrong and you would like to go to that person and say - I'm sorry. Can we start over? If you want to have a happier life, I would say, practice forgiveness.Collection: Sorry
I actually don't think we're more divided than we were.Collection: Thinking
It seems to be almost a law of physics, that the winds of change awaken fear and fundamentalism.Collection: Wind
We need each other's ideas. Now, I'm not talking about racist ideas or misogynistic ideas or cruel or criminal ideas. I'm talking about most of us who have very varied experiences, needs and ideas. It's really about believing that it's an important part of healing America.Collection: Believe
I'm calling my initiative take the other to lunch. If you are a Republican, you can take a Democrat to lunch or if you're a Democrat, think of it as taking a Republican to lunch because there is no shortage of the other right in your own neighborhood, maybe that person who worships at the mosque or the church or the synagogue down the street or someone from the other side of the abortion conflict - or maybe your brother-in-law who doesn't believe in global warming.Collection: Brother
Diversity is good. We need each other's ideas.Collection: Ideas
We must pay attention to the voice that calls us out of the safety zone.Collection: Safety Zone
Anyone whose lifestyle may frighten you or whose point of view makes smoke come out of your ears.Collection: Views
I hope this is the lesson we women really commit to memory - we learned that it doesn't work to try be someone other than who you really are.Collection: Memories
I'm interested in helping women become courageous in being exactly who they are. Because the only way to change anything is to do it from your genuine self.Collection: Self
What wants to live in you may be waiting...at the end of a long loneliness.Collection: Loneliness
It's rare that you have a conflict and two people or two groups who are equally mature in their desire or capacity to get there. That doesn't mean it can't happen. What it means is that one person has to take the lead, has to be bigger. I call that kind of person the new first responder.Collection: Mean
Forgiveness doesn't mean being a wimp. It doesn't mean being weak. It doesn't mean having no principles and no values. Sometimes we have to stand firm for what we believe and make really hard decisions.Collection: Believe
We need to claim our power for something beautiful, something harmonious and something globally healthy.Collection: Beautiful
If it's not as easy as we thought it was, for women to speak our truth, to even know our truth, then the missing ingredient is some sort of inner courage. To first of all, believe in the validity of who we are. And then to speak from it. It takes inner courage. As a leader in a large organization, I've often been the only woman working with powerful men, especially when I was younger.Collection: Powerful
If you have fathered a child, if you have given birth, if sex is a source of healthy pleasure, thank your pelvis and your reproductive organs for allowing you to feel the creative rhythms of life.Collection: Sex
I was just a kid when I started doing this,yoga, meditation, natural foods, acupuncture - things like were seen as practically voodoo. And today you can go into any hospital and they'll have massage, and Chinese medicine, and therapy, and a prayer room.Collection: Prayer
It's like you trade the virility of the body for the agility of the spirirt.Collection: Body
Read any of the top-selling business books, all of them talk about moving away from a top down manner of leading to a more inclusive one. It's not happening over night, but if you read the winds of change in most of the democracies in the world we are moving toward shared levels of power.Collection: Moving
I would say to women, always question what you're empowering yourself for and what are you claiming power for.Collection: Empowering