Over the weeks we have explored different elements of who we think we are, what we believe is possible and how our actions reflect this. Then we discovered how powerful we can be in changing other people’s lives through our actions. As we discovered our ability to inspire change in others, we started to look at our own lives. What we spend our time & energy on, and seeing how that effects others and more importantly how it effects our own lives.
So this week is about Self-Acceptance. I was interviewed last night and asked the question: are you comfortable with who you are now? Are you comfortable in your own skin? First my mind tried to make sense of the question. My response was ‘yes’ – absolutely, as each day I wake up feeling amazing, as I start each morning without any hesitation to do what I love most – swimming in the ocean. Where I enjoy doing anything I feel like each moment, from paddling in the shallow water to lying on the sand or just watching the waves crashing at the beach – not worrying about time or what others are doing around me – as its my time to just ‘be’. Be in the moment, be who or whatever I feel at the time. Its my meditation for the day – where I accept my whole being. [See ‘Whats my Meditation?’ blog for more about Meditation]
The key to Acceptance of oneself is to except one’s whole existence.  Accept what your body is able to do at the present moment, accept where our emotions and thoughts are at for the moment – as all of this changes each moment. Nothing is static. Sometimes we get so caught up with ‘trying’ to make things happen or ‘changing ourselves to ‘be a better person’ – we forget how amazing we can be – if only we stopped to look and appreciate who we are now and what we have achieved thus far.
When we accept ourselves in totality – we no longer need to adjust to other’s perceptions of ‘who we should be’ or ‘how we should behave’. More importantly, we no longer need to adjust our behavior to who WE think we ‘should be or behave’. By accepting ourselves as we are, we realise that ‘we’re actually not too bad as we are, without all the changes and adjustments that we TRY to shape ourselves into.
Actually seeing and appreciated who we are, AS we are. This does not mean we sit in a cave and do nothing or not ‘try’ but to do it without the emotional drive of ‘should’s’ and not feel guilty when we don’t ‘keep up’ with our routines or upholding particular images of ourselves etc.
What ‘adjusts’ then, is not how we act or behave but it is our perception of ourselves that adjusts. We ‘drop’ the false images of who we think we are or try to be, and allow our TRUTH to emerge. Who we really are. And letting that be the basis of how we live each moment, which collectively becomes each day, each week and ‘our lives’.
So stepping into our ‘Power of Being’ instead of ‘Power of Doing’ is through accepting ourselves all our gifts and our moments of weaknesses – knowing that we this is natural and part of being human.
Hope you enjoy ‘being’ you this week.
Yes, the acceptance of who you are and everything about yourself is to step out from your judgments and perceptions of who you are. Once out of that orbit, you can experience the sensations that go along with being you… as opposed to the sensations that go along with criticism and self judgment. Great article.