Looking at yourself through the eyes of love, you are able to accept the not-so-beautiful parts of yourself and make changes based on the truth you see. On the other hand, the eyes of the inner critic condemn you for not being or doing enough. Those judgments keep you striving to protect and defend a fragile ego in order to avoid emotional pain. When you run away from yourself, you limit your personal growth and the life you are creating.
Over the years, I took the opportunity to look at how I may have contributed to several life challenges. Two divorces, financial struggle, and breast cancer forced me to check in with myself. As I reached my forties, I could easily do this because no matter what I saw, I loved myself anyway.
I made a choice to stay on hormone replacement therapy for 10 years. My doctor warned me that the way I was taking HRT put me at a 50 percent risk of getting breast cancer. I thought I could beat the odds but I was wrong. The consequences were devastating. I never blamed myself for getting cancer; I just felt sad that my ignorance about estrogen dominance turned out to be a major contributing factor in my getting this disease.
I learned that self-acceptance cleared a path for grace to guide and support me through the cancer process. Grace is also available for you when you accept, rather than judge.
Make it a habit to love yourself unconditionally instead of condemning yourself for not being good enough or making a mistake. It just feels good and keeps grace close.
Self-acceptance enables you to:
- allow criticism and judgment to go right through you because you have nothing to prove to yourself, others or a Higher Power.
- forgive and accept yourself for anything you have done in the past and for any perceived imperfections that still limit you.
- feel perfect and magnificent just the way you are even though there is more you can do to improve yourself.
These strategies fill you with confidence and the power to create a life worth living.
If you allow self-love to grow and become a habit, you will find your truth and live it. Your inner magnificence will shine, and you will have more than enough acceptance to share with others. You will focus on feedback, not failure, lessons learned, not right and wrong. Self-acceptance offers you a stepping stone to inner peace, greater aliveness and the miraculous.
How has self-acceptance served you?