How to accept and love myself

Acceptance is about one thing, and that is "love"! Loving ourselves, being loved and giving love. It is very difficult to give true love when you do not love yourself. When you love yourself and accept who you are then others can love you too.

We are all born with a purpose in life, some of us may fill that purpose and some unfortunately may not. In some religions if we do not fill our purpose on earth then we come back again and again to get it right. We are all connected to each other and to the world, giving love and receiving love.

Our parents play a big role in how we perceive ourselves in the world. Some of us get lucky and have great parents that love, inspire and teach us self worth. Then there are others that are not as fortuniate and have to find a role model to learn from. The one great thing about life is that all of us do grow up and we can change the negative way that we may feel about ourselves. As an adult we no longer have to have our parents approval or acceptance, unfortunately many of us forget this and contiue the negative patterns of our lives . Some of us remain stuck in the past and allow the unhappy feelings from childhood cloud them as adults.

The way that you begin to accept yourself, is to understand your strengths. Everyone is good at something and many of us are good at many things. Take the parts of you that are your strengths and then use them everyday, develop them and nurture them. Use those strengths in the work place, with friends and loved ones. Always keep in mind that you have a purpose and that you are an adult and can feel and be who you want to be, not how others perceive you. Once you find value in what you do and who you are, you will begin to love that part of you. Accepting oneself is a process and it takes time and hard work, because humans tend to go back to old habits and ways of thinking. Become mindful of your thoughts about yourself and correct them if they become negative. When we understand that we are in control of our own thoughts and realize that we have the ability to change negative habits then we can beging to move in the right direction of accepting ourselves.

Choosing to be positive about how you perceive yourself takes the same energy as choosing to be negative about yourself. The point being, is that we do have a choice and many of us choose to be stuck in our negative patterns and thoughts about ourselves. When you choose to love yourself and honor your worth in the world then you become a part of something bigger than you. You become connected with others and are able to receive their love and give love. The greatest gift that you can give to yourself is loving who you are and knowing that once you begin to love and accept yourself, the world will open up to you in ways that you never imagined.