6 Ways To Practice Self-Acceptance

Can you look at the mirror and say honestly that you have accepted yourself? Your flaws, wins, physiques and behaviors? Can you say confidently that you love yourself and you’ve accepted the person in the mirror?

To be honest, self-acceptance is one of the hardest things to do. It is accepting all of you; not just the good, positive, pleasing part of you, but also the messed up, confused part.

While self-acceptance is by far the hardest thing to do, it is the most effective way to improve yourself and boost your self-esteem and self-love. 

“No amount of Self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance.” Robert Holden

Here are some ways you can practice self-acceptance or improve it if you are already practicing it.

1. Practice Self-awareness.

“To say ‘I love you’, one must know first how to say the I”. Ayn Rand

This goes a long way in telling us how important self-awareness is.  You cannot achieve self-acceptance without self-awareness. You must first know who you are: your strengths and weaknesses before you can extend it to self-acceptance.

Self-acceptance is becoming aware of your strengths and weaknesses -self-awareness, then realistic appraisal and improvements on your strengths and acceptance of your flaws and mistakes. A self-awareness worksheet is most effective for practicing self-awareness and improving self-acceptance.

2. Forgive Yourself.

We all have numerous areas of our lives that are embarrassing and may seem as unforgiving. Like the time you failed in your exam, or when you couldn’t meet up with the deadline for your project. Failing only makes you human and everything won’t always work out.

The best thing you can do for yourself is to succeed, the next best thing you can do for yourself is to forgive yourself and move on.

3. Separate Yourself From Your Emotions

Now and then we experience different emotions. Sometimes one at a time, other times, too numerous to handle. Who we are is not affected by what we feel and our emotions do not define us. Feeling angry doesn’t make us people with anger management issues and feeling sad doesn’t mean we have a sad life.

4. Be Kind To Yourself.

If your friend was going through a very difficult situation, would you tell him to ‘snap out of it’? Would you point out that it was her fault (even if it was)? Why would you then speak to yourself like that? See yourself as your best friend and talk to yourself as you would to a friend. 

5. Do Charitable Acts.

Nothing makes you feel better than seeing other people happy, and bringing a smile on someone’s face also brings one on yours too. Laughter is contagious, happiness is too. Involving in charitable acts will make you feel good about yourself and make it easier for you to accept yourself.

6. Have A Support System.

When it comes to self-acceptance, you might need reminders as to why you should love yourself and the benefits of doing so. Surround yourself with people who act as your reminders, people who love you for you. When you surround yourself with people who accept you, accepting yourself becomes less difficult.

Self-acceptance is not an easy thing to do and it doesn’t come easy. It takes intentional efforts to accept yourself. Practicing these things could be challenging at first, but once you start, accepting yourself becomes easier.