“To relate with others compassionately is a challenge. Really communicating from the heart and being there for someone else — our child, spouse, parent, client, patient, or the homeless woman on the street — means not shutting down on that person, which means, first of all, not shutting down on ourselves to feel what we feel and not pushing it away. It means accepting every aspect of ourselves, even the parts we don’t like. To do this requires openness, which in Buddhism is sometimes called emptiness–not fixating or holding on to anything.”
~ Pema Chodron
What you won’t do for yourself, my friend, you can’t do for another. The connection has to start from home, from the heart, the only place where you can truly feel and experience emotions — yours and others’.
Your heart knows compassion. It’s knows love and patience and forgiveness. Your heart is the place where all healing begins.
Be there, my friend, in your heart, and feel it open.