- A practical approach to comprehending Self-Love and Self-Acceptance
- The nature of goal-setting; pros and cons
- Concept of intervals as small smart achievable goals
- The goal deterrent: Fear of failure
- The importance of entering Permission-Mode
- Learning our boundaries when shit falls over, setting needless goals
- Don't hate, mitigate; make a new plan/goal!
- There is no failure, only feedback (even when it's unwanted)
- Lastly, but not leastly, the importance of Self-Care
How do we become aware of our thoughts, emotions and actions? Wake up from the monotony of the ordinary and start truly living the life we want? Why the f*%$ is being a Human so difficult? What the hell's this existence all about?! For me it came down to the word trust. Confused? That's natural. Read on.....
20MRH: Goals, Intervals & Feels
Self-Love Vs. Self-Acceptance
One could argue this is a bit of a 'chicken and egg' conundrum as some people may need to feel accepted in order to feel loved, while others may need to feel loved before feeling accepted. Regardless, I remain firm in my assertion that there are distinct differences between these two concepts, largely driven by the intelligence centres that govern them; Heart and Gut, respectively. For me loving myself is a heart-felt sensation, like I'm hugging myself. It is a warm blanket of compassion that envelops every cell, understanding that life is hard and unjust at times and I deserve care and nurturing. I only know this because I lived a sizeable portion of my life without it. I'll spare everyone the gory details of what it looked like to continually try and walk out on myself, abandon myself; but many psychologists would label it as some type of colourful Anxiety or Panic disorder. These are my examples, for others a lack of self-love could cultivate any number of detrimental mindsets, causing inner suffering and driving seemingly destructive behaviours.
Whether its easier for someone to attain self-love or self-acceptance is certainly a matter of both nature (innate personality) and nurture (upbringing and societal conditioning). It's easy for me to assume that someone who grew up in a loving household with family game nights, vacations and regular meals; someone who received consistent emotional support, would have a healthy concept of self-love. I'd be wrong, however, because where one person may (those being pre-disposed to thoughts of worthiness), another may not (those being pre-disposed to thoughts of worthlessness). Though a rather bleak example, it's fitting to point out that people who become violent criminals come from both broken homes as well as affectionate homes. Ah, the endless caveats of human psychology!
Self-acceptance is not thinking I 'should' be doing this or that, or acting a certain way, or feeling unsettled due to perpetual internal conflicts. It's not having the default mode of my underlying beliefs set to 'WRONG.' Jiminy Christmas that sounds horrid, and it is, but it's still how I feel from time to time. Despite all my awareness and ability to recognise this as unhealthy, I'll be damned if I know how to 'fix' it. But isn't that the whole point?! I am not a damned problem that requires fixing! Right here, right now, this is where I'm at and these are the inner conundrums I'm dealing with, and there's nothing wrong with that. Ironically, the only reason it's a 'problem' is because I think it's a 'problem.'
So what If I continually move the goal-post and keep myself busy? Why do I label that as 'wrong'? I thought this way of living brought me pain, and easing that pain was the reason I wanted to shift my busy-bee tendencies 🐝. What brings me pain is this inner self-judgement and fear of others' judgment (99.9% of which is perceived and not real). It makes me feel like it's wrong to be myself, that I can't trust my inclinations, and it certainly leaves no room to celebrate the significant progress I've already made. I literally used to beat myself up! I could never do that now. Finding self-love and compassion enabled that critical shift in my behaviours.
It sounds ludicrous, but I actually like that I'm a bit of a 'hot-mess' (which is how I'm guessing others perceive me because I keep myself in a higher energy state that some might refer to as 'stressed' 😅). It keeps life interesting and I know, deep down, that every struggle I put in front of myself (or is put in front of me by life) brings me closer to the person I want to become. I'm on an adventure that no one else can understand because I rarely understand it myself!
"[Journal] Look, I am quite hard on myself, but I'm no longer needlessly hard on myself and I can feel the nuance between too hard and just hard enough. Recently I floored it right past that boundary, but I did it in full awareness, I knew the sense of achievement would be worth the burn-out. I also knew I could heal and recuperate, care for myself and recover. I don't regret doing it, I knew I'd learn and grow stronger from the experience. That 'knowing' is intrinsically linked to my Gut. Yup, I'm hard on myself alright, a tough self-parent perhaps, but it's not borne of masochistic self-punishment (anymore). I'm pushing myself because of a pull my Gut feels, although my Head can't comprehend so it usually puts up a fight which then leads to internal conflict. It's that conflict that causes the pain, and it's especially pronounced when my Head is taking in perceived judgments for the World around me because it feels safer to 'fit in' than to be true to my own weirdo ways. More and more I find that self-acceptance is having no regrets for the way I go about my life and trusting my Gut will always pull me in the right direction.
[By the Stream] Being drawn to challenges and struggles is in my personality. I can see the river I grew up next to, the mighty St. Lawrence; deep, majestic, and calm. Now I look down at this stony mountain stream. It's noisy, turbulent, yet so beautiful it moves me to tears. Every crack and crevice creates swirls of bubbling chaotic beauty. It's a much rougher ride than the a deeper and calmer river, still I am pulled to that fast-paced excitement. It's neither a good thing nor a bad thing, it's just my preference."
I can't expect anyone but myself to fully appreciate that I am not who I was, nor am I who I'll be in the future, all that matters is I trust in who I am now. I'm on my life's adventure and taking my own unique meandering path. No doubt this path looks a bit rough and overgrown in areas to others, if and when I find an easier one I may take it... Probably not though... and that's a refreshing expression of self-acceptance.
Original Publication Date 26 November 2020, Revised 14 September 2022
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