Fifth Week: Exploring Self Acceptance

I’m wondering how your week went – how your experiment with curiosity unfolded. I hope you’ll keep it going, because curiosity is such a deep gift – it supports increasing comfort for being in the world.

This week, I’d like to share more about self-acceptance. In my own journey, nothing has touched me more deeply than learning to love myself. Learning to accept my whole self – all of me, whether nice or nasty – has been the greatest gift.

Self-acceptance asks us to venture into the realm of wholeness. It invites us to explore and experience what it’s like to look ourselves squarely in the face and simply be with whatever we see there. When we realize that being human inevitably means being a mixture of positive and negative, beautiful and ugly, we can learn to recognize that in our less-than-skillful moments it is just our humanity showing. Then, choice allows us to move in a more skillful direction.

For this week, the experiment is simple, and yet – for some of us – represents an unexpected challenge. When you begin your day – when you brush your teeth or wash your face – look in the mirror and say hello to yourself. Welcome yourself to a whole new day of life and exploration.

Be sure to both notice and accept any mixed feelings that may emerge. There’s no right way to discover if you’re comfortable greeting and acknowledging yourself or if you’ve got mixed feelings about yourself that need healing. For example, when you first see your face in the mirror, notice your initial responses. You might even notice that you don’t really look at yourself, that you just glance at your reflection and then move on. This time, take a moment to really look at yourself. If there’s anything you don’t like about your face, notice that. If there are things you particularly like, notice them, as well. Most of all, explore the experience you have when you take a moment to really acknowledge yourself, to really say good morning and welcome yourself into a new day.

If you find it’s easy and natural to greet yourself comfortably, enjoy the experience. If you are uncomfortable with this exercise, you might be curious about how you learned not to feel good about yourself. That awareness then adds to the map of your journey into healing.

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