“Humility helps us come to terms with what we cannot know. Patience takes the edge off when the hurt continues. Empathy is the gift that connects us with others. Forgiving ourselves for having such perfectly human reactions is harder than forgiving whatever caused them.”

“The three cycles of loss center on our sense of control, safety, and identity.”

“There is no such thing as “it can’t happen here.”

“Humility—the first gift—can help us surrender to an event outside our control, one we couldn’t prevent and was not our fault”

“There is a price for forgetting and remembering. Forgetting as a form of escape deprives us of what the Five Gifts can offer––humility, patience, empathy, forgiveness, and growth.”

“You won’t find the Five Gifts on anyone’s wish list but when your emotional tank is on empty, they will be there to help you replenish your energy.”

“When someone we know is hurting, it’s our instinct to want them to get better––first, for themselves, and also because our inability to assist leaves us feeling helpless.”

“We need to unlearn the habits of impatience and take stock of those beliefs about life that no longer hold true.”

“The second gift––patience––helps us deal with not knowing how long this is going to last.”

“Empathy connects us to another person’s experience without judgment.”

“Our capacity to disregard and discount viscerally painful experiences is so ingrained that we have come to believe that “moving forward” means not allowing ourselves to be moved at all.”

“It’s impossible to predict how the heart heals or how long it is going to take.”

“Like breaking a leg, a serious injury to the psyche often gets us benched while the regular game of life goes on. It may seem strange that forgiving ourselves for having such perfectly human reactions is harder than forgiving whatever caused them.”

“It may not be elegant but it’s true: There is no place for bullshit in a disaster zone.”

“Breathing is our primary nonverbal language. Sharp, uneven breaths convey a message of stress even though someone might insist she is perfectly all right.”