Self Acceptance
You should accept yourself, not as a master, but as a servant, and then all of your bad feelings, your anxieties, alarm, uncertainty, and dissatisfaction will be changed into calmness and peace. You will be filled inside with a clear vision of your purpose and with great joy.
Ascribed to Count Leo Tolstoy Cited in his Calendar of Wisdom
As I see it, there may be no greater concern, obstacle, barrier etc., to personal growth than the bedrock need for greater self-acceptance. Until one learns to treat themselves with compassion and forgiveness for all of their earnest efforts to grow beyond their cautions and fears, then no substantial growth or elevation of character and purpose can be realized!
As Tolstoy points out, that takes an attitude of humility, and that virtue underscores all changes and advancements we desire to make.
It might be the curse of the modern era, or simply a more bland expression of it given our incessant social media, that somehow self-importance has been substituted for self awareness and self acceptance.
Self-importance, or the advancement of an ego identity as primary, does not develop a depth of character or consciousness- if anything, it makes us more brittle, superficial, and easily offended! Anything that is not flattering to your egotistical defined self concept becomes a target for cancelation and repute– as if the world has to be created in ways that make me feel good about myself!
Without being melodramatic, the wrestling we all can have around the need for humility and self acceptance can be seen as a foundational battle in the war for our souls. (psychomachia) The willingness to be humble allows us greater self acceptance for whatever flaws we have, and a willingness to give up on harsh self-critical thinking and feeling…
With that willingness to release harsh self judgment, we can turn flaws into facets of self discovery, and alignment with the qualities of virtue and value that sustain us in more meaningful ways.
There is little lasting joy in ego attainments. Sure, there is excitement and acclaim, but no sense of a peaceful assurance that your relationship with Divinity is a constant, flowing dynamic sense of grace…
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