The main thing going on around intimacy is that we've developed a lot of strategies so we'll be a desirable package.

It may sound lovey-dovey, but there's research showing the positive effect of meditation on parts of the brain that control emotion.

I recently read in the book My Stroke of Insight by brain scientist Jill Bolte Taylor that the natural life span of an emotion—the average time it takes for it to move through the nervous system and body—is only a minute and a half. After that we need thoughts to keep the emotion rolling. So if we wonder why we lock into painful emotional states like anxiety, depression, or rage, we need look no further than our own endless stream of inner dialogue.

I registered the dukkha of self-aversion with such clarity that I knew there was no freedom unless I could love this life without holding back. This didn't mean I was going to ignore my flaws and stop seeking to improve what I could. But in the deepest way, I was not going to fixate on the conclusion that something was wrong with me.

Underneath the stress is fear, and the biggest is our own personal fear of failure.

To open in a loving way is to let awareness notice that tightening.

I want to accept myself completely, just as I am.