Number 4 in my YOU series.
Accepting - To receive with approval or favour.
This is a troublesome area for me. Even after celebrating, knowing and going deeper into myself, I need to find acceptance for all that I am learning about me.
Accepting myself as I am means letting go of all the could be, should be, will be, want to become, hope to be and wishing to be thoughts that so often cloud my mind and distract me from who I am right here and now.
Self - acceptance: It is the embracing of one's whole self, both the negative as well as the positive.
My personal struggle lies in the area of thinking that if I accept myself as I am today then I may never become who I want to be in the future. However after living this way for too many years I can see that who I want to become is a constantly changing thing, therefore I am never quite there because the future is still ahead of me. Maybe accepting myself today frees a bit of space in my mind so that I can see past all of the shoulda, woulda, coulda and step into more of who I really am.
It's a bit like during my Wardrobe Revolution, which you can read about starting here ,when I finally realised that the two sizes too small pair of jeans in my wardrobe were not an incentive helping me to lose weight but rather a tool for making me feel bad about not fitting them, which lead to emotional eating, which took me further away from ever fitting into those jeans.
Not accepting myself today because I am not all that I want to be only seems to make the end goal further away, Which does nothing but make me feel worse and dislike myself more .
If I could start accepting myself more completely each day then maybe I would begin to see more of the potential in my tomorrow?? Looking at myself in a more positive light might change my perspective towards what I am capable of achieving.
As a believer in God the Creator and Jesus Christ the Savior I am taught that my job is to love God and then to love others as I love myself. If I am filled with self hatred, or doubt or judgement for myself then that I am probably looking at others in a similar manner. I need to get over myself once and for all and find true self acceptance so that I can truly love the people well.
Beginning this week as part of my morning reading and writing practice I am going to write a self acceptance affirmation for the day. I’m curious to see how this changes me. I might even get brave enough to post them on my social media as a record and so you can see how I go!
Here is my first one -
Today I chose to accept myself, warts and all. I am not perfect in any way and it's okay for me to continue to change, but today right here right now, this is me.
This is my body, it's shape and size today are good. It holds me together and carries me everywhere that I need to go.
My face, my hair, my skin, they are all aging and that's how it is meant to be. I accept those parts of me today.
My mind today, as it fills with thoughts and ideas and contemplations is good. I accept that it is a gift from my God and Creator and I choose to pay attention to my thoughts today, to work through any confusion and to pray for clear and concise thinking.
My feelings and emotions I will accept today and I will use my good mind to process them.
My spirit, the part of me I so often feel is never close enough to God, now today I will accept where I am spiritually, putting aside my lack and my judgement and just concentrating on the spiritual relationship I have at this time.
Today this is me, and I accept me warts and all.
Again my ‘You‘ story is all about me because I am the only one who I can really change, but in my openness and vulnerability I hope and pray that I can encourage others to accept themselves more completely also.
As Dr. Seuss wrote " Today you are you, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is you-er than you. Shout it aloud I'm glad to be what I am. Thank goodness I'm not a ham or a clam or a dusty old jar of gooseberry jam. I am what I am, what a great thing to be. If I say so myself, happy everyday to me!" This is what I am working towards!
Thank you for taking the time ti read this,
Love Suzanne
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