Seventh Pathway to Healing - Self-Acceptance

 

Seventh Pathway to Healing – Self-Acceptance

 

Recently, a coworker shared with me that he would turn forty years of age this year.  He asked me what it feels like to be forty.  I replied, “One of the best things I experienced in turning forty was realizing considerable lessening of many fears and freedom from concern about what other people think of me.”  Liberty from other people’s opinions creates greater self-acceptance.  This cardinal spiritual principle is one of the main objectives of spirituality.  Through DNA, fingernails, teeth and other biological distinctions, science and technology prove each human beings’ uniqueness.  Self-acceptance is the surest indicator of progressive healing and growth toward individuation. 

 

This inward journey includes reflection upon previous mistakes and termination of toxic relationships.  The resulting emotional health reignites a person’s ability to dream, create and achieve.  Healing remains dynamically contingent upon personal circumstances.  It is not etched in stone with a definitive date and time.  It is both an intrapersonal and interpersonal process that demands faithful practice of spiritual disciplines. Self-acceptance pragmatically empowers you to put the pieces of the puzzle together in ways that were previously impossible.  The life you imagine with new and amazing experiences, mysteries and joys is attainable!

 

Self-acceptance begins with unvarnished and unequivocal honesty.  It requires forthright recognition of hard and undisputed facts.  Examine life on life’s terms through the prism of reality not the fanciful myths and modern fairy tales of Hollywood.  For eighty-five years, the recovery community insists the beneficiaries of its twelve-step program unconditionally acknowledge their alcoholism and addiction.  To speak at meetings, attendees begin with a self-determinative introduction, “Hello, I’m Bill and I am an alcoholic.”  Whether sexuality, finances, education, cultural and racial origins, acceptance of these facts is critical to inner freedom and personal healing.  It is impossible to live with integrity and relate honestly with people without unconditional self-acceptance.

 

Stress arises when a person refuses to accept any situation for its hard reality.  Do you break into a damp and thorough sweat when you retrieve your daily mail?  Does the balance of your checking account exceed the sum of your current bills?  A negative answer undoubtedly causes paralyzing stress.  What explains the deficit between your financial resources and obligations?  Are you living beyond your means?  Your failure to accept this truth perpetually creates mounting stress in all dimensions of your life.  You are unable to fall asleep as you mentally juggle the payments of overdue bills.  Sleep deprivation undermines your job performance.  It threatens the quality of your driving.  It zaps your imagination.  It drains your energy to pursue your heartfelt dreams and goals.  It leads to repeated mistakes of judgement as you cannot clearly evaluate people and situations when emotionally depleted and physically tired.  Late payments result in higher interests, fees and lower credit ratings.  Those regrettable outcomes unsurprisingly compound your stress.  Unwillingness to admit unhappiness in a significant relationship whether personal or professional is a precursor to immeasurable stress.  Consider your sacrifice and intimacy toward someone or something that no longer enriches your life.  Simply stated, stress develops immediately when we fail to deal with realism.

 

Acceptance is the first step toward overcoming any dilemma.  Glare straightforwardly at your concrete circumstances.  Ironically, problems contain clues to prevention.  If we willingly embrace our problems, we learn to be more creative and effective.  In the Chinese language, the words, crisis and chaos, contain characters that hint toward creativity.  Natural disasters provide an opportunity to build better, safer and more durable homes.  Many survivors of Hurricane Katrina shared their re-evaluation of spiritual principles, personal values and everyday priorities.  Having loss every single material possession, these men and women stared at the abyss of destitution and realized they still had the most valuable things in life, love and relationships.  The need to rebuild their lives in the hurricane’s aftermath created a different set of values.