Resolution #14: Accept Yourself

You knew this was coming, right?
We started with the easy stuff.  Accept small unpleasant realities.  Accept your emotions and thoughts. Accept differences in others.  Accept that you can't know everything/the future.
Those were training wheels.
Today's challenge is to work on accepting yourself, with all your present strengths and limitations.  Accept that like every other human being, you have inherent worth and dignity.  Accept that you are no exception to the idea that nobody's perfect, and that you should treat yourself as you believe others should be treated. Accept that you have feet of clay, and a perfectly luminous soul inside of an imperfectly human carrier.

Entering this practice does not mean we abdicate our morals, growth or right intentions.  It means accepting that sometimes we are hitting the mark, and sometimes we are missing it, and we are still worthy as long as we are willing to accept our mistakes, misunderstandings, lack of knowledge; as long as we are willing to make amends and keep trying.  Or maybe that even when we feel we can't keep trying, we are still worthy of love, of redemption.

Our human journey (and I am very probably repeating myself) is like moving toward a lighthouse.  We are being guided to a good place, and if we stumble in the dark, it is important to reorient ourselves to the light.  We don't necessary get all the way to the lighthouse, but if we follow that path, we are heading in the right direction.

Keep on truckin',
Jana

Related reading:  Radical Self-Acceptance by Tara Brach
Today's video:  It's a long one.  It's worth it.  Come back when you have time, or find it on TED.com