Self-acceptance: change or challenge

“Live your life for you, not for anyone else. Don’t let the fear of being judged, rejected, or disliked stop you from being yourself.” ~Sonya Parker

Self-acceptance is the key to happiness, we all heard it at a point in our life. But the real question is do we actually hear it or just listen to it for the sake of listening. Maximum people do the latter. It may seem nothing at that time but in a long run, it affects us severely. We all deal with the problem that arises due to lacking self-love and acceptance.

Self-acceptance the words seems so small but its worth is huge. If you are not able to accept yourself with all your good and bad aspects how can you expect others to do the same? When we don’t accept ourselves the way we are, we are in essence, wearing ourselves internally. And when we fight against ourselves, guess who loses, regardless of the outcome? It’s important to accept the fact that we all have flaws. Accepting our strengths and weaknesses and reconciling the conflicting parts in our inner world is critical to our health and happiness. It brings us a true sense of peace and stability.

As it turns out, self-acceptance is not an automatic or default state. Many of us have trouble accepting ourselves exactly as we are. It’s not so hard to accept the good parts of ourselves, but what about the rest? Surely we shouldn’t accept our flaws and failures?

That’s exactly what we should do! We all have flaws – that’s what makes us human. Everybody makes mistakes – that is the only way we can learn and grow. Accepting our flaws and forgiving ourselves for mistakes, or put another way, reconciling all those conflicting parts in us is crucial to our health and happiness, and to generally achieving our greatest potential as humans.

Often, we are our own greatest obstacles to achieving happiness and well-being. Sometimes we criticize ourselves more than others will, putting ourselves down, and the enemy is within rather than without.
Each day is a new opportunity to strive to be the very best version of you. Why should we waste time putting ourselves down? When the truth is there is always going to be someone smarter, prettier, someone, more athletic, and someone “better.” We all have our faults, but that doesn’t give us a reason to think ourselves unworthy or undeserving of happiness. We are who we are, and individuality is an important value to have. Acknowledging the value within ourselves and who we truly are is challenging, but the reward outweighs the challenges.

No one is good at everything, but everyone is good at something. We have to learn to embrace the good and the bad about ourselves and focus on what we can do instead of what we can’t. The reason for it is unending but a few major ones are:-

• Empowerment, freedom, and happiness transpires when we accept ourselves.
• We are prepared by our past, not defined by it.
• We increase our self-worth.
• Denial doesn’t work.
• You become more courageous, ready for challenges of life.
• We start to realize what we can or can’t control.

Self-acceptance is the doorway to our authentic power. And when acceptance is lacking, it’s one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a person’s solid sense of self and serenity. Without self-acceptance, there is no true freedom. So accept others but before that accept yourself completely. Stop seeking validation from others and form your worth on the foundation of it.