We can achieve a feeling of inner freedom that opens us to the more fruitful pursuit of our opportunities and a realistic enjoyment of them. This transcendent attitude in fact is the achievement of real compassion for ourselves. Having compassion for ourselves means opening up to really feeling our own pain and becoming determined to overcome it. We do this by analyzing its sources and understanding how to prevent them, and then by moving creatively to do so.
— Robert Thurman, The Jewel Tree of Tibet