Why self-acceptance is the unlock to becoming a healthier version of YOU.
You hear it time and time again…
Accept yourself.
Love your body.
Love all parts of yourself good and bad.
Great advice, but why?
Why is it important to accept ourselves as we are right NOW and not beat ourselves up for what we could be?
The answer is: to be in harmony with nature.
See the mind likes to put boundaries on love.
The mind says only when the conditions are right can we feel enough.
Our mind likes to imagine a time when all of our problems won’t exist.
Our mind likes to imagine a time in the future when we will be worthy of self-acceptance.
The mind says — only when I eat right or workout can I love my body.
But is that the best way to make yourself eat right and workout?…. nope.
If you truly think about it, true progress is made progressively when you make healthy decisions consistently over time.
Reality is made up of micro-moments in time, that is all.
Don’t wait to accept your body, your uniqueness, and your being.
The more you accept yourself in the present moment the easier it is to sculpt the moment into allowing your desires to unfold.
When you don’t resist reality, you can play a part in moulding It.
Say I want to change something about my body. I.e in my circumstance I would like to lose weight as I am training to fight in an amateur boxing match.
If my self-talk is: “Rowan why did you let yourself gain this amount of weight” I won’t feel powerful changing it.
I will feel shame and guilt over why I let myself be this way (all of which is myself thinking in the past) and this will propel me to emotionally eat to relinquish feelings of unworthiness.
I will come to envy other people who have the perception of a ‘perfect body’ and I will judge myself against them.
I will never be enough in comparison.
This comparison will reinforce that I lack the body I desire and that I am not okay without having that ‘ideal’ body (what garbage!)
If you attempt to control yourself “you separate yourself over that which you attempt to control” (Wilber K, 2000 p. 31).
This separation with self will ensure no lasting change can ever be made.
How to truly change your relationship with yourself
If I choose to accept the body I have now, I can choose to care so much for me that I only want to eat the healthiest foods and have regular exercise routines and regular sleep cycles.
If I can truly value and appreciate the journey and progress I have made physically then I could in the words of Jordan Peterson “Treat myself like I am someone I am responsible for helping”.
From a place of care and love, I can consciously choose to help myself become a healthier version of me.
I recognize that I am my own life partner.
Through self-acceptance, I am choosing to control my perception of myself.
I am choosing to start with the attitude I am worth it and I value myself enough right now to be able to make a change.
I will avoid beating myself up (thinking of the future me).
I will come back into the present.
I won’t allow my mind to get the better of me.
I will return back to the body and think yeah; self-acceptance is pretty cool.
I’m pretty cool.
I got this!
You got this!
Namaste - Rowan
