These days self-acceptance is easily talked about and almost everyone is advocating the benefits of loving yourself more.
However, this can sound very alien and vague to someone who doesn’t understand what these terms even mean.
Often, our inner critic makes a judgement that we're not good enough, and we don’t accept ourselves as we are at that moment. That can be a problem, because one of the most significant factors to be happy and to feel satisfied with life is self-acceptance.
OK, so what is self-acceptance exactly?
Self-acceptance is:
• The awareness of your strengths and weaknesses
• The realistic appraisal of your talents, capabilities, and worth
• The feeling of satisfaction with your self, despite flaws and regardless of past choices
Benefits of self-acceptance include:
• Mood regulation
• A decrease in depressive symptoms, the desire to be approved by others, fear of failure, and self-critique
• An increase in positive emotions, sense of freedom, self-worth, autonomy, and self-esteem
On a bigger level, to understand the idea of self-love we have to understand self-acceptance first.
A person who can accept themselves just the way they are can only be successful at loving themselves.
Here, we’re going to see how you can inculcate this much-desired state in your life and how you can learn to accept yourself for who you are.
It is my deepest wish that by the end of this, you’ll be able to appreciate yourself more and that will lead to an increase in your self-love.
So let’s get to it and find out exactly what you can do to do so that your life to incorporate self-acceptance.
Create time for Self-Care
Caring for oneself doesn’t make them self-centered or vain, it just means taking better care of yourself and your personal health.
To care for yourself you must start by incorporating habits such as going for a daily walk or run, eating nutritious foods, getting adequate sleep, keeping yourself hydrated, engaging in meditation, and setting aside time for your learning and personal development.
If you can make sure that all of these things are present in your life, your feelings of self-love will be more accessible.
Connect With Your Inner-Self
You can only love yourself if you know yourself inside and out.
Just like you can’t fall in love with a stranger, you can’t fall in love with yourself without knowing yourself either.
You have to disassociate yourself from the external titles and accomplishments of your life and try to reconnect with yourself since your inner-self is the person that you’ve been looking for.
You need to appreciate yourself for all the things like compassion, love, and faith that exist inside of you.
Believe in Yourself
If you can’t even believe in yourself then it’s difficult to expect others to do so? You need to know that you have the potential to accomplish anything you set your sights on, your goals, dreams and aspirations.
Doing it and failing is no big deal and it’s just a part of life but you have to make sure that you don’t get demoralised by the defeat.
Believe in yourself even when the odds are all stacked against you and you haven’t found any success lately.
If your self-belief is strong then you’ll easily be able to survive even the most difficult times in life.
Feel Your Emotions
Many of us become jaded and cynical as we go through life and its various sufferings but this isn’t the right attitude to adopt if you want to live a fulfilling life.
Rather than repressing them, you can allow for these pent-up emotions inside of you to be felt safely. If you can let out all the emotions, you’ll realise that you feel much more lighthearted than before.
Recognise your thoughts, feelings and pain, welcome them, and separate yourself from them. Then set the intention that you're willing to accept yourself in all aspects. You’ll learn to associate emotions with your strength of character rather than treating them as a setback.
Quiet Your Inner Critic
Stop comparing and rating yourself against others. Theodore Roosevelt once said, “comparison is the thief of joy,” and today this rings truer than ever. One way is to try to avoid scrolling endlessly through social media channels and tv shows comparing your life to that of others.
Remember, people only tend to present and project the positive images of their lives – you never really know how people are feeling behind the scenes.
Practice Forgiveness
It’s essential to be forgiving towards others rather than holding grudges but it’s also similarly important for you to forgive yourself. If you made a mistake in the past then just let go of it and be kind to yourself since everyone makes mistakes.
Holding grudges against yourself will be a huge detriment in the path of self-love and acceptance which you’ll have to address sooner or later.
Don’t Seek Acceptance
If you seek acceptance from everyone around you then that’s a recipe for disaster.
No one can give you the acceptance that you need other than yourself and you need to accept yourself for who you are, if you’re able to do this then you’ll never need anyone else to appreciate you. This is a huge win for your self-love journey as you’re the only one who matters.
Speak To Your Highest Self
The inner voice that has compassion, empathy, and love, to others, and to yourself.
Loving and accepting oneself can have a lot of benefits for your mental and physical health. You’ll learn to value your body and peace of mind more which will lead to you taking better care of it at all times.
Create A Support System
Surround yourself with people that accept you and believe in you – and avoid those that don't.
Quality relationships are key to happiness and acceptance of self.
Be Kind To Yourself
Cultivate self-compassion, in not judging yourself, or over-identifying with self-defeating thoughts or behaviour. Take care of your mind and body.
Keep Believing In Yourself
Use positive self-talk and practice PERT: Positive Emotion Refocusing Technique when times are tough. The path to self-acceptance can be rough and bumpy. There will be times that current external circumstances, past experiences, and our programming make it hard or impossible to accept ourselves.
If this happens, there's no shame in seeking help – from a loved one or a professional – when things get too hard. In the end, the greatest gift you can give yourself is self-acceptance. In the words of psychologist Tara Brach: “
Imperfection is not our personal problem – it is a natural part of existing. The boundary to what we can accept is the boundary to our freedom”.
🤍
I hope these tips that can help you love and accept yourself for who you are.
Self-love isn’t a temporary state that you shift in and out of, rather it’s a constant state of your mind that should never waiver and must be maintained at all times. If you implement these then you’ll be able to practice the concept of self-love and self-acceptance with grace.
𝗕𝗢𝗢𝗞 a complimentary 45 minute 𝗘𝗠𝗢𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗙𝗥𝗘𝗘𝗗𝗢𝗠 𝗕𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗞𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛 𝗖𝗔𝗟𝗟 with me to find out how to love and accept yourself all your life.
♥️
Ｃａｔｈｅｒｉｎｅ
𝗟𝗶𝗳𝗲 𝗖𝗼𝗮𝗰𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 & 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗹𝗻𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗮𝗽𝗶𝗲𝘀
ABOUT THE AUTHOR & COACH
Catherine is a heart-centred wellness therapist, transformational coach, intuitive counsellor and mindfulness facilitator who specialises in helping you create calm confidence, nourish your self esteem and self-love, build healthy boundaries, ditch perfectionism and people-pleasing, and get out of your own way to achieve the life you deserve.
She offers her wise words, actions, and guidance to help people connect positively with their body, mind, and soul.
Her sessions provide you with real-life the support and the readily accessible mindset tools you need to achieve this.
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