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<speak>  <break strength="x-strong"/>  <break strength="x-strong"/>  <break strength="x-strong"/> Compassionate awareness is the first step of practicing compassion in our daily lives. <break strength="x-strong"/> It is important to learn to observe, identify and label emotions by using self-compassionate awareness and attention.<break strength="x-strong"/> <break strength="x-strong"/> Noticing and understanding our emotions can be tricky. This is because we may be used to ignoring or judging certain emotions, or only focusing on certain types of emotions. <break strength="x-strong"/> As we grow up, we are taught that expressing certain emotions is not considered right and expressing some emotions may be bad and harmful.<break strength="x-strong"/> For example, we might learn that “boys don’t cry” or “good girls don’t have a bad temper.” <break strength="x-strong"/>  <break strength="x-strong"/> As a result, we may learn to be ashamed of certain emotions, or believe certain feelings are abnormal.We may be afraid that if we feel angry we will hurt other people, and so we come to fear our own anger—which is a problem, because anger is a normal, healthy emotion.<break strength="x-strong"/> Once we’re able to identify our emotional experiences and our judgments of them, we can engage in self-compassionate understanding.<break strength="x-strong"/> This understanding means we can appreciate both our unique experiences of emotions, and that we’re not alone in having them. <break strength="x-strong"/> Compassionate understanding of emotions recognizes that having emotions isn’t wrong or bad.<break strength="x-strong"/> We understand why we judge our experiences, but we don’t have to be dominated by these judgments.<break strength="x-strong"/> Thus, simply being aware of the true nature of emotions and our judgments about them help us to manage them effectively.<break strength="x-strong"/> <break strength="x-strong"/> The art of self-compassion includes inclining gradually toward emotional discomfort when it arises.<break strength="x-strong"/> <break strength="x-strong"/> There are three particularly helpful strategies for working with difficult emotions: <break strength="x-strong"/> <break strength="x-strong"/> </speak>