Happiness is when we are truly content with our lives. The contentedness usually results from all the areas of our lives being in balance and in good shape. Different people have different requirements for what they need to have achieved be content with their lives. However, there are some requirements that generally every people need to have reached to be able to achieve at least some level of contentedness. One, and the most important of these is the ability to accept yourself completely.
What does it mean to accept yourself completely?
It means stopping to chase after perfection. To acknowledge that perfection is impossible. Perfection could almost be called an antonym of humans, but that’s okay, because perfection isn’t neccessary.
Accepting yourself completely means not merely accepting our faults, but to embrace them. To be able to laugh at ourselves and in a sense to be grateful for our shortcomings. After all, everything, the positive and negative, the things we are proud of and the things we’re less proud of, it’s everything that makes us who we are.
Being able to embrace ourselves in this way despite what outer influences like media or society has teached us to do creates a whole new aspect of confidence in ourselves. We are freed of the spoken and unspoken expectations that are put on ourselves. This makes us able develop ourselves in ways we couldn’t have before. A person who’s all her life been believing she’s inadequate or ugly can free herself of this exhausting baggage by her acceptance is the only one that truly matters, and focus her energies on recreational things that contribute to her life or the world.
How to accept yourself completely?
It’s a highly personal thing and one that everyone has to do by themselves, but one thing that matters a lot on the outcome is attitude. Freeing yourself of the chase for perfection and giving you a permission to do silly mistakes are essential. Being able to perceive the good things you’ve been blessed with, as everyone has them also, and cherishing and focusing on them is another. It all actually can be compressed in a short phrase; to be able to love yourself.
Loving yourself isn’t selfish, it’s a necessity. It also doesn’t mean to act selfish or out of touch. It means acknowledging yourself as a person that’s worth love. It is a necessity to be able to love yourself before you can truly love others. Giving others something you don’t give yourself isn’t a concept that has any future.
What happens after being able to accept yourself?
After you’ve been able to accept yourself completely you’re freed of the exhausting weight you carried on yourself before. You’re able to refocus your energies on productive and recreational things, rather than dwelling in self-doubt, embarrassment or guilt. It’s everyone’s most utmost and liberating experience to embrace who they are and acknowledge themselves as truly exceptional and unique persons in this world. It’s an adventure I wish for no one to miss.