Self-Acceptance is the Door into Authenticity, Self-Love and Personal Freedom

What does it take to be happy with yourself? What does it take to love the person God created you to be? TOTAL SELF-ACCEPTANCE.

Complete, unconditional self-acceptance is the doorway into self-love. Self-acceptance opens the flood-gates and it allows self-love to flow in and naturally fill-up your inner-emptiness.

Self-acceptance means we have to become aware of, dismantle and let go of all the judgments we have made against ourselves over the years. It also means that we have to begin living our lives authentically, which requires us to throw-out all of our “SHOULDS.”

Shoulds and negative self-judgments go hand in hand and they cause of to feel shame and guilt about our natural selves. They force us into living through idealized, false selves that betray who we really are and make us feel even more inadequate. “I should look like this” (You look just fine as you are!), “I shouldn’t act like that” (People who really love you will see beyond your behavior and love you anyway!), “I shouldn’t reveal this part of me to her because she won’t like me if she finds out” (If she no longer likes you, she wasn’t meant to be part of your life. Let go!), “I should be more athletic to please my father” (You aren’t required to please your parents. Simply be true to you!) … We can go on and on with shoulda, woulda, couldas, but it’s all self-destructive. Shoulds and self-judgments are the doorway into internal-hell.

Authenticity, through total self-acceptance, is the key to lasting personal contentment. In order to be truly genuine, authentic people we must first weed out all of the self-judgments (or personal curses) we have placed on ourselves. We have to become aware of them and we have to choose to believe they are false. Then we have to work at letting go of them. Awareness gives us the ability to face these judgments and to release ourselves from them.

The more we release ourselves from the many false judgments we have layered onto ourselves, the more we will come to accept ourselves just as we are. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THE AUTHENTIC YOU. We are all created just as God intended us to be—AND ALL IS GOOD ABOUT US!!!

I have a favorite stage/screen actor. His name is Raul Castillo and he has taught me so much about authenticity and self-acceptance. I’ve seen almost everything he has done on film and I’m always moved by his performances because he comes from such an authentic place inside himself. And he brings the many characters he plays fully alive with that very powerful authenticity that is Raul Castillo. He exudes sincerity, honesty, frankness, love and the power of simply being true to himself (and his character) no matter what role he is playing. He is as true to his role as he is to Raul. And he’s not afraid to take on any role. In this way, he reminds me of Bette Davis. Like Davis, he isn’t threatened by what anyone else may think. This requires total self-acceptance.

Those of us who suffer with codependency and other addictive behaviors do so for one reason: We don’t love ourselves. And we don’t love ourselves because we have made so many judgments against ourselves. And these judgments keep us from accepting and being true to the very person God intended us to be.

Today is the day to start weeding out the self-judgments and replacing them with self-acceptance. Self-acceptance leads us to be authentically true to ourselves. Self-acceptance allows us to love ourselves just the way we are. Self-acceptance is the door to freedom.

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