What it unconditional self acceptance and what does it mean to you? It is literally accepting yourself as you are, even those parts of yourself you’re not happy with. When we accept ourselves just as we are, we feel more confident, our self esteem rises and we are able to overcome anything life throws at us.
Unconditional self acceptance does not necessarily mean staying where we are or making do with what we’ve got now, it means being happy with ourselves whilst we work towards something better. Unconditional self acceptance is the first step towards changing our lives; if we don’t accept ourselves we can lack the motivation to even start.
So why do so many of us lack unconditional self acceptance? We develop our sense of unconditional self acceptance very early on in lives, way back in childhood. Children need a high level of support and reassurance, and if we don’t receive this from our parents or siblings it can be incredibly damaging. We tend to grow into adults subconsciously seeking the acceptance we feel we lacked as a child, and rely on friends, work supervisors or partners to supply this. If they do not (and in some cases even if they do) we find it difficult to then accept ourselves, as we feel we must be flawed in some way; if we feel others do not like us or accept us then our own level of unconditional self acceptance will go down with potentially disastrous results.
In order to raise our unconditional self acceptance, we must first learn to love and accept ourselves. We need to get out of the negative self talk habit (Such as ‘I’m useless’) and stop putting ourselves down. Give yourself a break! If you are constantly criticizing yourself you will find it very hard to find self acceptance.
Look for the good in yourself,think of the things you are good at and do well, and celebrate them. Blow your own trumpet. Set yourself small achievable goals and reward yourself once you have accomplished them.
Respect yourself,treat yourself as you would treat anyone you respect. Respect your body by eating nourishing food and taking regular exercise. Look after your skin, hair and nails. Your body is an amazing machine so treat it as such. If you treat yourself as a person who should be respected, your whole attitude will change and others will start to respect you too.
Love yourself, stop looking for imperfections, and forgive yourself if you do make mistakes. Remember we can only love another person if we first learn to love ourselves. It’s only when we can love ourselves that we can change our lives and truly reach for our goals.
This will not be easy at first, but persevere because once you develop true unconditional self acceptance you have the power to change your whole life. If you would like to be your own mentor and learn how to become the person you dream of being , you owe it to yourself to check:Unconditional Self Acceptance
Cheri Huber offers all of us an effective process to release the blocked energies and conditional messages that keep us from attaining our personal and professional goals.
