Self Acceptance And Self Esteem

Self acceptance is the first building stone to creating a solid self esteem. The concept of self acceptance is based on a fundamental respect of oneself. Self acceptance is composed of two parts: The acceptance of one's thoughts and the acceptance of oneself as "enough".

The acceptance of one's thoughts has to do with accepting thoughts and actions of the past. Sometimes we do things that we are not proud of and we can deny to our self that we acted that way. Self acceptance is the acknowledgement that those actions occurred. It is also the acknowledgement that there may have been reasons why we behaved in a certain way and it is more understanding than it is judgmental. Once we evaluate our actions and make a commitment to act differently in the future we can move on in a healthy way.

The second part of self acceptance is the acceptance of our self as "enough". This includes accepting our body, mind, and accomplishments. People sometimes have difficulty with this because they feel if they accept themselves that they will no longer improve but that is not the case. We can always improve but when we deny ourselves we commit the greatest sin against ourselves and that is very harmful towards self esteem. So look at the aspects of yourself that you're ashamed of and take steps toward accepting those aspects as "good enough". It doesn't mean you can't improve but you are worthy just the way you are!

By: Self Esteem

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Branden, Nathaniel (1994). The Six Pillars of Self Esteem. Bantam Books. . ISBN 0-553-37439-7.