Self Acceptance

Annapoorni Balan, Principal, IUEf SECRETARY GENERAL for Pooma Educational Trust.

Self-acceptance means that you understand who you truly are and where your strengths and weaknesses lie. You know what you want. This will allow you to be comfortable with your place in the world and be honest with yourself.

Self acceptance means that you are happy with who and what you are but it does not mean that you give up any hopes of change or improvement. Self acceptance is a necessary first step towards self improvement because you need to see the truth about yourself and accept it and then decide whether or not you can change.

Understand that there are both positive and negative aspects of who you are and you should accept these as part of who you are.It is so important because if you do not accept yourself for who you really are, you will create a number of problems in your life.

Some of these problems are internal affecting you personally and some will affect how others treat you. Many people fall into the trap of not accepting who they are and then try to be like someone else.

Let’s quickly look at some of these problems that can result from this:

Low self esteem – denying who you are or being blind to what you really want means you may suffer from low self esteem

Living a lie – if you do not accept yourself you may push yourself to be what you are not and the result is a false life. If you feel that you are living a life which is not you perhaps you have this problem.

Unhappiness – connected to the last two points because you will not be enjoying life as you are ignoring your inner voice and your heart.

Becoming a victim – if you do not accept yourself you may believe what others tell you and become a victim.

No trust in yourself – low self confidence can follow when you are unsure of who you are and what you want.

If you can build your self confidence, you will live a life free of self criticism and you can begin to face the challenges in your life and overcome them. Imagine being at ease with people, being able to speak in public and feel good about yourself, no more shyness or fear.

If you accept yourself you can also value yourself and tell others that they should respect who you are. You will also be able to accept others and not demand that they try to reach your standards. You will also be able to ask others for what you want and need.

Self acceptance does not mean being happy with the present situation or standing still, you are still free to change what you can in complete honesty with your truth.