What is the Meaning of Self-Acceptance?

True self acceptance is loving yourself without exceptions, conditions, and reservations. An example of an academic definition is “[Self-acceptance is] an individual’s acceptance of all of his/her attributes, positive or negative.”-Morgano (2014)

The later definition shows specifically accepting ALL aspects of self, not just the positive valuable attributes, but also the negative, the ugly and the less than desirable parts pf yourself. This is not an easy feat! How difficult it is to accept the things about ourselves we may have been or are working towards changing. I cannot however emphasize enough that only through entirely accepting yourself can you work on changing anything to improve your quality of life.

We must accept ourselves to begin a journey towards improvement.

Unconditional Self-Acceptance

To begin this is very difficult and will take patience with self, as you are not just accepting yourself after you’ve won an award, you are to accept yourself at your lowest low. Unconditional self acceptance takes being able to separate your self worth from your actions and qualities. Those are not what define you. Many people commit crimes and acts that are not defining of their true self because they were at a low in their life, or possibly addicted to something that is standing in the way of them reacting to life as their true self. We that realization is made and self acceptance is on the horizon, “You accept that, as a fallible human being, you are less than perfect. You will often perform well, but you will also err at times… You always and unconditionally accept yourself without judgment” (Grieger, 2013).

Self-Acceptance vs. Self-Esteem

Self-acceptance is a distinct contrast to other seemingly similar “self” concepts. In honor of “National Cousin’s Day” lets talk about self-acceptance’s first cousin, self-esteem. Self esteem established your self opinion of whether you feel you are good, valuable, and worthy. Self-Acceptance is accepting you are who you are and how you became who you are.

Meditation Is A Great Way To Turn Self Acceptance Into A Practice:

1. Begin by sitting comfortably and quietly.
2. Bring awareness to your breathing.
3. Notice the air flow in and out in rhythm with the sounds around you, but focus on your heart beat and breathing rhythm.
4. Open yourself up to awareness of all nature around you, the wind, the sun, flowing water.
5. When you feel your mind chatter, interrupt it with silence and the thought, “thinking, thinking, thinking”
6. Before you realize it your consciousness will relax and you can focus on answering your inner most questions about yourself.
7. The answer will be love and self acceptance.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]