Awakening self-compassion is often the greatest challenge people face on the spiritual path.

Discovering a richer quality of being-ness means to keep surrendering and letting go of resistance.

I mentioned earlier the two wings of awareness. The first step is recognizing the fear of getting close to others - this honest witnessing of where it is in the body, where it is in your beliefs.The other wing regards what's seen with kindness and compassion.

In a basic way, acceptance is seeing clearly what's happening and holding it with kindness. This is a radical antidote to the suffering of judging mind.

I sometimes call this our "spacesuit self" because we come into an environment that is difficult and challenging, where we're told to be different. We're told to jump over hoops to be loved and appreciated, so we have to develop spacesuit strategies to get approval and create ways to avoid being judged.

Meditation is evolution's strategy to bring out our full potential.

There is something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life.