Self-acceptance - different from selfishness?

Self-acceptance is a magic word that can turn a person’s life around 180 degrees. Make everyday dilemmas or difficulties a thing of the past, and make situations that seemed insurmountable a while ago unproblematic. It is love and acceptance of one’s person, character, body, flaws and advantages. It’s accepting fully who we are and who we want to be. When accepting and loving oneself, it is common to hear accusations of selfishness. But what is the difference between selfishness and self-acceptance?

What is self-acceptance?

Self-acceptance is an attitude of love, trust, faith and respect for one’s person as a whole. It is expressed in the feelings we have for each other. It involves showing understanding, forbearance, trust and kindness towards one’s own emotions, thoughts and body. Unfortunately, more and more people are having trouble with self-acceptance. This is undeniably influenced by the power of social media, which, under the curtain of beautification filters, retouching and time-consuming work on the scenery of the photos, tries to make the world believe the complete truthfulness of the frames seen. Then a part of the population puts its faith in this by acquiring more and more complexes, and eventually creating hatred, anger and even disgust with itself.

What is selfishness?

Egoism as opposed to self-acceptance is even excessive self-love! The level of positive emotions and uncritical view of one’s attitude is so high that one’s own well-being becomes the highest priority. An egoist looks at the world through his own prism and needs. Even socially agreed-upon rules will mean less to him than his own needs. Therefore, he also needs a great deal of attentiveness, involvement in his life and, of course – approval. It is unacceptable to disagree with an egoist, at least according to him! Such traits as oversensitivity about oneself, selfishness or considering oneself better than others should surprise no one.

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Self-acceptance and selfishness — Self-acceptance - different from selfishness? 2

Egoism or self-acceptance?

Working on self-acceptance can cause a seed of insecurity to germinate in a person – isn’t that already selfishness? While this may seem alarming – it is perfectly normal. As we learn self-acceptance, we also set our boundaries. We learn to speak about them directly and not to accept comments from others that we do not think are true. This is the first moment when we openly say what we think, often in our self-defense. Therefore, it may seem selfish. A person learning self-acceptance also sees things that should be corrected, changed or gotten rid of. The egotist won’t notice this because he thinks he’s the perfect person.

How do you allow yourself to be self-accepting?

Growing up in an environment that demands a lot and appreciates little, it’s not hard to fall into self-loathing. Constantly raising the bar, high-minded demands, overflowing ambitions. Seeing weaknesses, noticing the smallest mistakes, criticizing. These are all behaviors that effectively cut a person off from the path to self-acceptance. However, there are several things that can be implemented in life to make self-acceptance a reality.

Above all – let yourself enjoy! You don’t have to work non-stop, even if there is more to do. Keep in mind that the world will not collapse if you decide to do something at another time.
Realize your strengths! Every person is full of flaws and advantages, but thinking constantly about your flaws, you will never be fully satisfied with yourself. It is worth turning our attention to the best in us.
Open yourself up to kind words. Let the compliments and praise stop embarrassing you. Learn to respond with a smile and the magic word “thank you”. If someone insults you with positive words, it means you did a good job, look beautiful or are great! Simply put!
Be forgiving to yourself. You won’t always be able to finish a project on time. You will not always last until the last day of the diet. You will not always want to go to the gym. Sometimes there will also be days that you will eat chocolate on witnessing, not clean up after dinner, and the maximum effort will be a walk to the store – and that’s great! You don’t have to give 100% of yourself every day.

Selflove = a better life

When we open ourselves to forbearance toward ourselves, we also open ourselves to a new, better, more enjoyable life. We let go of stereotypes and other people’s ambitions. We let go of the desire to live in an ideal world and fail miserably to realize the ideal scenario. Instead, we start doing what gives us real joy and fulfillment. Loving yourself is loving life, so GentleWoman – start getting the most out of life!