By regarding ourselves with kindness, we begin to dissolve the identity of an isolated, deficient self. This creates the grounds for including others in an unconditionally loving heart.

Suffering is our call to attention, our call to investigate the truth of our beliefs.

Perhaps the biggest tragedy of our lives is that freedom is possible, yet we can pass our years trapped in the same old patterns.

It is natural that our minds replay old stories, because that is our own mechanism for trying to work out unresolved problems. Yet rerunning those stories will be a fruitless looping until we learn how to move from the story into our body. This is why therapy alone often doesn't bring full healing and awakening.

There is so much division in this world. So what is really the path of healing? It can begin in this moment, by embracing the life that`s here.

But this revolutionary act of treating ourselves tenderly can begin to undo the aversive messages of a lifetime.

We want to be in open, loving communion with each other and our greatest fear is intimacy. That it won't work and we'll be rejected.