Self love starts with acceptance… March 21, 2016 – Posted in: Confidence, Personal Development

Are you someone who is always waiting to get to that magical place called ‘there’? You know the place I mean…

“When I’m promoted (‘there’), I’ll be confident.”
“When I marry my soulmate (‘there’), I’ll be happy.”
“When I’ve paid off the mortgage (‘there’), I’ll feel settled.”
“When I’ve had a baby (‘there’), I’ll be contented.”
“When I’m perfect (‘there’), I’ll start loving myself…”

The problem with ‘there’ is it’s a bit like tomorrow – it never comes! ‘There’ is fantasy place set up by our culture that causes us to live in the future without any acceptance of who we are or where we’re at today.

Living in the future is a massive block to self love because our ego (false-self rooted in fear) tells us that we don’t deserve love until we’re ‘there’. Wisdom (true-self, rooted in love) says that today is all we have, so why not love ourselves today and do our best with what we have?

This means we have to learn to accept the bits of us that are still ‘under construction’.

Something I’m working on right now is keeping my cool when my three daughters are playing up. This is definitely an area of my life that is ‘under construction’ and it is by no means perfect!

Wisdom tells me to go easy on myself, to accept things the way they are, see where progress has been made and where improvements can still be made. The alternative is to berate myself for not being perfect, which only causes more frustration and the inability to think clearly.

The magical place called ‘there’ is actually ‘here’ and ‘now’. Who are you here and now? Whatever that is accept it wholeheartedly, improve what you can and get on with your day. It’s all any of us can actually do…