Acceptance – Be comfortable with who you are!
Nobody is perfect, but we often expect ourselves to be! When we learn to accept ourselves, we are likely to be happier and better at learning and growing!
How we feel about ourselves can have a big influence on how happy and resilient we are. Accepting that, like all humans, we have strengths and imperfections, that we make mistakes and that we sometimes fail, is an important component of psychological well-being. This doesn’t mean that we won’t feel bad when we do mess up, but we won’t dwell on it as much or beat ourselves up about it. This means that we’re better able to learn, grow and move forward. We’re also less likely to feel shame and withdraw from others, and this can increase our relationships and compassion for others.
The good news is that research shows we can learn to be more accepting of ourselves. Developing self-compassion skills, a better understanding of our strengths, how to use them more, and ways to work with or around our weaknesses can positively impact our happiness.
This may be even more important now than ever before. Social media makes it so easy to compare how we feel about ourselves on the inside with how we perceive other people. Yet most of us only post the best images of ourselves online. We may even feel like we have to edit or filter our photos to make ourselves look how we think we should, rather than how we really are. We seek out “likes” from others to validate the images we post, and we feel bad about ourselves if we don’t get enough of them. This can affect us at any age, but it can be especially damaging when we’re young.
Being better able to know and accept our whole selves, being real instead of trying to be perfect, is a firmer foundation for a happier life at any age.
https://autonoma.pt/projeto-ambicao-workshop-healthy-autonoma/