self-compassion — taking care of ourselves just as we’d treat someone we love dearly - Christopher K. Germer

The suffering itself is not so bad; it’s the resentment against suffering that is the real pain. — ALLEN GINSBERG, poet

Actually, when bad things happen to us, we tend to have three unfortunate reactions: self-criticism, self-isolation, and self-absorption. Neff’s three components of self-compassion direct us exactly in the opposite direction: self-kindness, recognizing the common humanity in our experience, and a balanced approach to negative emotions.

Self-compassion isn’t a “thing” that we either have or don’t have. Instead, as a practitioner and as a therapist, I try to remain open to emotional pain and breathe kindness into it, one moment after the next. MEASURING