Category » Personal Development

Self-Acceptance – What Is It and What Does It Mean?

Self Acceptance

We hear so much about self-acceptance from people who study or teach personal growth methods.

What is the meaning of self-acceptance?

  • Does it mean accepting your weaknesses or negative habits and doing nothing about them?
  • Does it mean accepting your behavior, attitude, and lifestyle and doing nothing to change and improve?
  • Is it the acceptance of your life as it is and abstaining from any effort to change things?

This is absolutely not what it means!

What Is Self Acceptance?

What do these words mean?

  • Loving yourself as you are.
  • Accepting your habits, skills, and how you look.
  • Accepting your situation and circumstances and stop hating them or getting angry at them.
  • Having compassion for yourself.
  • Being less judgmental about yourself.
  • Self-acceptance means knowing that no one is perfect and accepting any failings you might have.
  • Stop dwelling on past mistakes.
  • Embracing who you are.

This does not mean giving up on improving yourself and your life. It means that you have no issues, regrets, or anger about yourself and about your life’s circumstances.

Accepting yourself gives you peace. However, it is the first step.

Accepting your behavior and weaknesses, and doing nothing to improve, is not the right kind of self-acceptance. It does not contribute to real progress and improvement.

This term seems not to be well explained and well understood.

As already said, accepting yourself as you are is only the first step. It helps you realize your good, and not so good qualities, and can alleviate feelings of guilt, lack of self esteem or unhappiness.

Self-acceptance does not mean that you accept what you are and do nothing to change and improve. It does not mean accepting your fate and life as it is.

Becoming aware and acknowledging your behavior, habits and your personality, and not being afraid to look at yourself as you are, is an important step toward it.

When you accept yourself as you are, you put yourself in a better position to begin improving yourself. You understand your good and bad character traits and realize where you need to improve.

Be Positive About Accepting Yourself

How to accept yourself in the right way?

Do not tell to yourself, “This is what I am. I accept myself as I am. I accept my character, my failings and my fate, and this how it is. I can do nothing about it and I cannot improve myself or my fate.”

Knowing yourself opens for you the possibility of seeing what you can do to improve yourself and your life. Self-acceptance means that you see your failings, accept and acknowledge your present position, and then look for ways to improve it.

Improvement requires that you understand and acknowledge your character and habits, stop comparing yourself and your achievements to others, and acknowledging your skills or the lack of them.

You should accept this information with love, and with the knowledge that this is a step that would take you forward.

This understanding will bring some sort of inner peace, lightness and happiness into your life. You would feel as if you freed yourself from a burden.

Remember, acknowledging your good and bad habits and traits of character can alleviate feelings of dissatisfaction, anger, resentment or unhappiness. However this is not an excuse for staying as you are. it is only the first step on the road to improvement and empowerment.

Start striving to accept yourself, so you can take the next step, to improve yourself and your life.

Do you find clearer now what does acceptance mean?

Simple Self Acceptance Techniques

Are there any techniques or guidelines? Here are few steps:

  1. Try to pay attention to your thoughts. What kind of thoughts are you thinking. This can help you learn one or two things about yourself and your attitude toward yourself.
  2. Watch your behavior and actions in the various situations of everyday life. Do you tend to accept yourself and your life, or are you angry and unsatisfied with yourself?
  3. Practice positive thinking
  4. Adopt positive self talk, instead of negative self talk.
  5. Repeat Positive affirmations.
  6. Learn to accept what cannot be changed.
  7. Strive to let go of the past and dwelling on painful memories.

“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”
– Dalai Lama

“Change is possible, but it must start with self-acceptance.”
– Alexander Lowen

“A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.”
– Mark Twain

“Love yourself first and everything else falls into line. You really have to love yourself to get anything done in this world.”
– Lucille Ball

Did you know that affirmations can help you with self-acceptance?