The Greatest Gift in the World.
Although it’s not exactly a gift, because it’s not like I can give it to you.
Oh I can help you find your way to it, showing you the pathways, helping you when you are lost, picking you up when you are down, and pointing out the things you just can’t see because they are too painful, or too much a part of you.
But no matter how much I guide you to it, this is really a gift only you can give to yourself.
And yet so many people struggle at accepting it.
It may be because of the beliefs that were instilled in you as a child, or the meaning you have taken from a million different experiences in your past. It might even be because you don’t trust yourself to accept it, thinking that it somehow would change who you are in a way that would be scary, and difficult for others to understand.
Which is kind of funny , because once you take this gift, and allow it to become a part of you, it won’t change anything about you, except to remove everything that wasn’t really you in the first place.
All that, just by taking unto you “The Gift of being Acceptable Unto Yourself’.
Whenever I teach this concept to people, there’s always someone who wants to push back, which is funny, since that’s usually the person who needs to hear it the most.
People seem to get really uncomfortable with the idea of allowing themselves the space and the acceptance of ‘being enough’, and they struggle to realize that from self acceptance comes the ultimate emotional source of self love, and self peace.
Just by accepting who you are as ‘enough’.
But why wouldn’t you be? Maybe because someone a long time ago told you that you had to live up to an ideal of perfection in order to be worthy of something, or someone taught you that ‘considering yourself as good’ was wrong, and that you needed to understand that your inherent nature was ‘bad’.
Worst of all, maybe in order to assuage a feeling of sadness as a young child, you took upon yourself the need to be better than everyone else, just to make up for a time when you didn’t feel good enough.
Sadly, the lies we tell ourselves are the hardest to let go of, because we treat them as truths when in reality they are anything but.
But once you’ve reached a point where you become ‘acceptable unto yourself’, you begin to find a new sensation that surrounds you and surprises you. As the importance of the opinions of others diminishes, you’re left with the sensation of peace within your soul.
Once your opinion is confirmed as the one to which you need to attend, you’ll understand that being your authentic self is not only the greatest gift you can give to the world, but it’s also the greatest one you can give to yourself.
Imagine for a moment how that would feel…
To know that you feel acceptable unto yourself, and that you are worthy of love, of respect, of kindness and of all the good that there is to be had in this world.
No longer having to accept the ideals and ideologies of others, but your own person, informed and in full control.
Being you, and being enough.
Like you always have been.
— Dr. Alan Barnes
@maddrbmusings