Acceptance

by smugwriter

Hello.

I write today, the first time in months. Voila…

I was taking a shower not so long ago tonight, only a couple of hours after rekindling my yoga practice. And in that shower, came flooding through my mind these thoughts. Thoughts of acceptance.

In this consuming, materialistic, comparative, competitive (must I go on?) society, on a daily basis we are faced with many challenges. What I realised today, in the midst of scrubbing myself clean to the bone with a body buffer was that, the biggest challenge that we face, is our relationship that we have with ourself.

I know as a teenager, a female and a human, the external pressures to perform in certain ways according to the societal norms consumes much of my thoughts and emotion. These pressures do not come along state their presence and leave to allow us to carry on with our lives. No, these pressures consume our every moment. The moment we open our eyes, till the moment we close them, we are being bombarded with expectations concerning our bodies, our studies, our relationships and our behaviours.

Tonight, I sat myself down and had a serious talk to myself, I had seriously had enough of my conscience beating myself up constantly. Ladies, an average of 77% of our self talk is negative. So in the average hour that translates to 46 minutes, and in every 24 hours that translates to 18.5 hours of vicious self-doubting negativity. Tonight I allowed myself to be. I stopped comparing myself to how I want to be, how others are, or what I ‘could’ be. I simply allowed myself to be, free of judgement. I had had enough of looking into the mirror and seeing someone that I hate, that isn’t good enough.

The moment that I looked at myself and said, aloud… you are who you are, there is nothing in this moment that you can do to change yourself. You may have an idea of who you’d like to be, or who you are striving to be, but right now, this is who you are. Just accept that.

Being in denial of where you are at any time and striving to be something that you’re not is a recipe for disaster. This denial tends to translate to the rising prevalence of anxiety, depression and many other health disorders. You have to know where you are before you can work out where you’re going.

We waste so many precious moments comparing and judging, and only in being honest and true to ourselves can we actually prosper, thrive and get where we want to be.

Accept yourself.

x