How to Cultivate More Self-Acceptance This Week

“When you learn to accept fear, you cease making a catastrophe of it. Then it ceases to be your master.”

~Nathaniel Branden

Hello, Everyone, and thanks for being here. Not for me, for YOU. I’m so glad you took the time to read about how to deepen (or begin for the first time) your self-acceptance journey.

Previously, we’ve taken a detailed walk through the difference between self-love and self-acceptance, and I’ve offered up some starter resources for cultivating both of these traits in yourself through meditation and hypnotherapy.

• This week's new meditation: Embrace Self-Love: Heart Chakra Meditation for Compassion
• Meditation to Open Your Heart and Love Yourself from Within
• Article: Unlock the Power of Your Open Heart
• Transformational Hypnosis to Change Habits and Increase Self-Worth with Self-Love
• Meditation for Acceptance and Self-love
• Article: The Beautiful Truth about Acceptance

Instead of a long article today, I wanted to drop in with two actions you can employ THIS WEEK to amplify your self-acceptance. The question about how to build self-love is one I get asked a lot by clients who seek out coaching or hypnotherapy.  (Because that’s where self-love and self-acceptance begin, and also how you can start experiencing the uplifting results of your re-wired inner dialog.)

Here we go:

1. Write a short note to yourself as if you were one of your closest friends. You've probably heard me say this before: your relationship with yourself is the most important and most long lasting one you will have.  So, be sure to take care of and nurture this relationship. 
   • Choose a current or recent personal or professional struggle you may have encountered, and write out the support you’d share with your friend if they came to you with the same issue. 
   • Would you tell them everything’s going to be okay?
   • Would you invite them to simply vent so you could listen, and then offer up your outside perspective (without advice or bias?)
   • Would you commiserate with and validate their embarrassment or self-frustration, but then also mirror their positive qualities and the actions they took that worked in their favor?
   • How ‘bout even saying to your “friend,” “Wow, that must have been very hard–I can understand why you would’ve done it that way…how can I help?”
2. Place the note in an envelope and put it somewhere you’ll see it often (like on the fridge with a magnet.)
   • Of course, you can pull out the note and read it wherever you like, but even seeing the envelope can serve as a reminder for you to soften your inner language and accept whatever’s going on and how you’re dealing with it as utterly, perfectly HUMAN.

Even if you DON’T do this exercise, even thinking about writing it can help you up-level your self-acceptance—that part of you that knows you’re human and you deserve to take up space no matter what.

I’d love to know how this goes for you–did it feel awkward to write the note? Were you at a loss for what to say? Did the words and compassion flow easily? Tell me everything.

Additionally, if you are ready to start the deeper inner work of building unshakable self-worth, I have just the course for you!  This course is dedicated to further growing your ability to feel like you matter as much as all the people you love and care about unconditionally.  And when I say “matter,” it’s not just a mental construct, it’s a set of actions. This is a self-paced, online course you can start today.

And, if you are ready for some more tactical strategies for building self-acceptance and a deeper coaching experience, consider scheduling a personalized hypnotherapy session.  Remember you are worthy and deserving of BOTH self-love and self-acceptance!  And know that self-worth isn't dependent on any external factor, such as wealth, career success, or material things that can be taken away.  Self-worth is an inherent quality that you are born with!

Be well and be kind to yourself,

Sara