1-33. Don't look to others to give you sympathy. Instead give limitless empathy to yourself. Do this and grow infinitely in strength.
To ask others to provide you with sympathy and comfort in the face of your personal challenges in akin to asking them to sleep when you need rest. Comfort is helpful and welcome but it does not contain within its offering a guarantee of success or relief from pain. Just as others do not have the ability to cause you to become angry, they cannot consistently assuage your discomfort when you are faced with difficulties. Certainly the presence and attention of others can ease pain, but it is a process within your own mind that provides this relief, it does not flow directly from them to you. Rather it is your internal narrative of being welcomed, recognized, appreciated and respected that provides you with relief from your affliction. In Truth, these feelings of being a part of a family or other social construct provide validation for you, allowing you believe that you can share the burden of your challenges with others. They cannot actually relieve you of your pain but they can provide a welcome distraction that will help you to begin to untie the knots of unease that difficult life circumstances can bring. Sympathy is outwardly directed, appearing to travel from one to another, offered in recognition of the challenges another faces and given because of a desire for kindness and affection. But this process of outwards transfer is partially illusionary. It would appear that the company of others will, in some way, lessen the work that must be done to grow beyond whatever situation you currently face. But the only growth that can happen must be tended and allow to flourish in the garden of your own mind, bearing fruit through effort and patience. Empathy for yourself cycles ever inwards, reinforcing its meager beginnings as you begin to recognize that you are both worthy and deserving of love and of loving yourself, unconditionally and without reservation or limit. At times, it can even appear easier to be kinder and gentler with others than you are with yourself. This is also illusionary but because of the twisted and blind nature of the ego, allowing yourself to accept your own innate and inalterable worth can require a process of release and acceptance. To overlook the errors and missteps of others can appear simpler, as you can have sympathy for them and understanding for why they might have undertaken the actions they did as you can remain apparently separated and distanced from their lives. But when regarding yourself, you cannot hope to maintain the illusion of blame for others indefinitely. Eventually, you will arrive at a point from which it will be impossible to admit anything other than the simple fact that you are indeed wholly and forever in charge of and the director of your own life. The choices you make and the actions you take have consequences and you are responsible for what you have elected to do, no matter how much you might wish to assign the blame on others. Once you are willing to accept that you have errored, forgiveness becomes a simple process of release and acceptance. This is the beginning of empathy for yourself. You are, in Truth, already Perfect. But if you have forgotten this Perfection, you may not behave towards yourself or others in ways that accurately reflect this perfection. When this occurs, forgiveness is the only answer that can be seen as truly sane. Self-condemnation, loathing and even hatred do not have value to you. They will not solve any problem, they will not crumble any wall and they will not stop endlessly cycling around in your mind until you are willing to recognize that they do not have any value for you. Empathy is a recognition that you are worthy of love, no matter what error you may have committed in the past. This acceptance may appear difficult. It may appear to require great strength and perhaps even massive compassion. This is not wholly correct. Kindness, compassion and empathy for yourself is natural for you. You may have lost this, perhaps though lessons learned from others or the narrative you may have spun for yourself through many experiences that left you doubting your own self-worth. Regardless of how you may have arrived at your present state of mind, that you can change, grow and heal is without question. To look to other to substitute their sympathy for your own empathy is to give away your own abilities to heal and change. They cannot complete this bargain, no matter how much you might wish that their actions or words should be sufficient to substitute for your own compassion for yourself. Reliance on others forever proposes an exchange that is without meaning. Sympathy from others may not always be available or given. But empathy for yourself is always available and always constant. No one else can change your power to have kindness, unlimited and radically simple kindness, for yourself no matter what situation you might be facing. In this simple acknowledgment, this acceptance of yourself as your own best friend and constant companion, will you find the strength to see you through absolutely anything. This strength derives its power and certainty from your own heart, as your heart is a vast and likely primarily untapped Ocean of Love. Much is available to you that you may not be aware of. Much love and understanding is already present in your mind, no matter how much you might wish to turn away from it and see another world, a place of desolation and isolation. No one else can possibly ever know as much about you as you know about yourself. Because of this, no other person is ever truly fit to pass any judgment over you or your actions. Only you know why you acted as you did. Only you can accurately discern what motivated you to act or speak as you did. Because of this, you are forever the very best and most appropriate person in any situation to exhibit empathy towards yourself and your personal circumstances. When you are ready to accept that you can forgive yourself for anything, that you can accept that you have committed errors and you can begin believe that you can learn from error and grow stronger and better from your mistakes, you will develop the strength to face any challenge with dignity and grace. Knowing that you are forever deserving and worthy of love is a gift that only you can give to yourself. In its giving is also its receiving, growing ever greater with each cycle of offering and acceptance. To be strong is to be resilient, flexible and malleable in the face of any difficulty. To forgive yourself and to love yourself is but to accept your True Nature. To love yourself is necessary to be free of any doubt that you can weather any storm and rise again as the Perfect Child of God you have always been and will always be.