Self-compassion doesn’t eradicate pain or negative experiences, it just embraces them with kindness and gives them space to transform on their own. When people practice self-compassion as a subtle way of resisting their negative emotions, not only will the bad feelings remain, they will often get worse. If people can stick with the practice, they eventually discover the wisdom of “true acceptance.” During this stage, the motivation for self-compassion shifts from “cure” to “care.” The fact that life is painful, and that we are all imperfect, is then fully accepted as an integral part of being alive. It becomes understood that happiness is not dependent on circumstances being exactly as we want them to be, or on ourselves being exactly as we’d like to be. Rather, happiness stems from loving ourselves and our lives exactly as they are, knowing that joy and pain, strength and weakness, glory and failure are all essential to the full human experience.     ~Kristen Neff

when you allow your awareness to open in all directions, does your heart lift or drown?

inquiry for today~   hold yourself quietly in awe and discover how you receive others…..

silently offer prayers

Contacting the truth of our own suffering is what cracks the heart open to self-compassion and forgiveness. What if we could recognize our fault and look to se what is beyond them? What if we could see, and with great tenderness, the painful unmet needs that have shaped our behaviors? For many of us, this process is the work of a lifetime, one that requires the active support of loved ones, therapists, spiritual teachers, or healers. Yet it begins the moment that we are willing to look at ourselves through the eyes of compassion.    ~Tara Brach