Accepting our true self is the most important milestone in health and genuine happiness. In order to get there, try these five effective strategies.
Accepting all parts of yourself is a long and rocky road. There are parts of us that we turn a blind eye to, parts we lie to ourselves about, and parts we hate as though they were our oldest nemesis. They are always there no matter how hard we try to hide them. Emotionally healthy and happy people acknowledge and accept those parts of them. The more we resist embracing who we are, the more those rejected parts will come back to torment us. There will be a constant battle for our minds and our hearts to reject our true selves.
“The deeper I go into myself the more I realize that I am my own enemy.” – Floriano Martins
We tend to hide our talents and weaknesses alike. Accepting the good is just as hard as accepting the bad. There is an equal burden of not living up to our potential and expectations, the burden of “doing something with our capabilities and strengths”. Acceptance of all that we are is the most important milestone to self-love, health, and genuine happiness. In order to get there, try these effective strategies:
1. Stop expecting perfection from yourself and others – it does not exist. We are all perfect in our imperfection and that is the poetry of life.
2. Own your thoughts and emotions – learn to hear yourself at all levels. See what you really feel and think. Be with it. Don’t even bother tracing the root cause of your emotions and thoughts, it is of no importance if you are able just to sit with them and accept them. Don’t be ashamed of them to hide them, and most importantly – don’t judge them. There are no good or bad emotions, there are no shameful thoughts, there are only our hearts and our minds with all that is born within them. You are not your thoughts or your emotions, you are enough.
3. Own your decisions and your choices – stand by yourself. Be your own support and best friend. It is your life and your only purpose is to be happy. Do the things that mean something to you, the things you believe in. Don’t ask for support from others – they don’t walk in your shoes.
4. Have an understanding and be patient with yourself – even when you are wrong or when you make a mistake, be there for yourself, pick yourself up and be the nurturer that you need.
5. Accept both your weaknesses and strengths – we all tend to put the focus on that inner critic, completely avoiding to even look and our talents and achievements. There is a certain fear in facing all your potential and not knowing “what to do with it”. But always have in mind that not trying is always worse than failing.