Self-Acceptance
Self-acceptance is the key to building a healthy and positive relationship with oneself.
Key Components of Self-Acceptance
- Self-Compassion: You must learn to treat yourself with kindness and understanding, especially in the face of challenges or mistakes. This involves offering the same compassion to yourself as you would offer to a friend.
- Self-Appraisal: You need to have a realistic and balanced view of yourself, and acknowledge your strengths and areas for growth without overly criticizing or inflating your abilities.
- Self-Approval: Self-acceptance is about relying on internal validation and approval rather than seeking constant validation from others. Understanding that external opinions do not solely determine your worth. Look inward and capture your real personhood.
- Self-Love: One thing you must always do is cultivate genuine love and care for yourself. This involves prioritizing self-care and making healthy choices that contribute to your overall well-being.
- Self-talk: Be watchful and sensitive about the self-conversation or inner conversation you carry in your mind. What do you tell yourself? Are they positive or negative words?
“I am a good and caring person.”
“I am capable of achieving success in my life.”
“I am intelligent.”
“I am not alone in this. I know there are people who love me and will be there for me when I need them.” etc
WHAT IS SELF-ACCEPTANCE?
Self-acceptance is the ability to embrace and fully accept oneself, including one’s strengths, weaknesses, quirks, and imperfections. It involves acknowledging and appreciating your individuality without judgment or the need for external validation.
1. Embrace What Makes You Unique
A good place to start is to think of the things that make you special. Ask yourself how these differences may benefit you in the future and how they add value to your life.
2. Let go of the Things you can’t Change
It’s important not to focus on the things you can’t change. You may find it helpful to write a letter to yourself about letting go of what you can’t change and welcoming the things you love about yourself. Self-acceptance is essential for your mental and emotional well-being. It’s important to learn to love yourself and the things that make you unique.
Self-acceptance is learning to love yourself, inside and out. It’s about letting go of the things you can’t change and appreciating what makes you unique.
3. Identify your Strengths
Write down the things you’re good at and/or love to do (e.g. sports, watching movies, music, art, etc.). Practicing these activities regularly can help you feel more confident in your abilities.
4. Set Goals
Set a few realistic goals for yourself and create a plan to meet them (this may also help with your self-esteem).
Don’t forget to reward yourself when you meet a goal!
5. Celebrate Your Accomplishments
Make a list of everything you’ve accomplished so far and add to it regularly. Post your list someplace where you can see it often. Be proud of yourself!
6. Plan ahead
If you can, try to avoid the people and/or things that challenge your self-acceptance.
8. Show Gratitude
There’s so much in our lives that we can be grateful for. Get two jars and label it Gratitude Jar and the other Happening Jar.
At the end of each day, write down what you are grateful for and what happened that overwhelmed you or got you angry. At the end of each year, you will be surprised at how much God has done for you/saved you from.
8. Be Kind to Yourself
Consider a few things you can do to treat yourself and spend quality time on your own (e.g. taking a warm bath, going for a walk in nature, going to the spa to be pampered, etc.).
It’s also important to take care of yourself by eating right, sleeping enough, and exercising regularly.
9. Think Positively
Remember to speak kindly to yourself and turn any self-critical, negative thoughts into positive thoughts.
Don’t be too hard on yourself or compare yourself to others. Positive thinking naturally draws positive energy to you. If you want to practice this, you can have your time frame. It’s a personal decision
10. Get Involved
Try a new extracurricular activity to learn more about yourself, what you enjoy, and what you’re good at.
You can NEVER get it wrong with volunteering, the feeling of satisfaction is usually awesome. I’m sure you don’t want to deprive yourself of this.
11. Find Support
You can always share your feelings with people you trust such as family and friends. (You could even try asking them to name two or three things they like about you.)
In conclusion, everyone’s journey to self-acceptance is different, but you can learn to be comfortable in your skin. NEVER compare yourself to anyone else
What is the opposite of self-acceptance?
- self-rejection
- self-abasement
- self-contempt
- self-denigration
- self-disgust
- self-hatred
- self-loathing
- mortification
- humiliation
Don’t do any of this opposite to yourself !!!