The first step is developing an unconditional friendship with yourself. Unconditional friendship means staying open when you want to shut down, when it is just too painful, too embarrassing, too unpleasant what you see in yourself.

Pema Chödron
from the book Smile at Fear: Awakening the True Heart of Bravery
source: http://www.dakinipower.com/pema-chdrn/
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Further quotes from the book Smile at Fear
:
- Joyful to be here
- Goodness is always there
- Bravery
- Gentleness toward ourselves
- Using our intellect to understand life
- Facing yourself
- We Have to Be Honest With Ourselves
- An autumn leaf
- Facing ourselves
- We are fundamentally awake
- Cultivating mindfulness
- Becoming the breathing
- Indigestion in the mind
- The strength of fearlessness
- Ego finds a name for itself
- Be there all along
- The warrior is also an artist
- The warrior approach
- Just looking at fear