Over the last couple months I have been sharing with you how to make goals stick and why they possibly do not. You may have noticed a common thread, which is learning to love yourself and believing you deserve to live a life full of joy, love and gratitude.

A big step towards loving yourself is to Accept yourself, right where you are in this moment.

We continually live with a negative critical voice in our heads, telling us a story that we’re not good enough, smart enough, slim enough, pretty enough, young enough and even old enough.
These thoughts can leave us living in constant state of constriction and non acceptance. We also have emotions that we’ve been programmed to believe are wrong or bad. We tell ourselves I’m too sensitive, I’m too angry, I’m too impatient. The problem is when we judge ourselves, we look to the outside world to disprove this negativity or to look for approval and acceptance.
In my own personal journey, Acceptance of myself and the situation has been the key ingredient towards true healing and a joyful life. This does not mean when you accept something you become a “door mat” or not make an effort towards improving the situation. Actually quite the opposite happens, we become more clear on what needs to be done in this very moment, with a clear and calm mind….The question to ask in a situation you don’t want to accept is, how can this situation inspire me to improve and understand myself more?

When we don’t Accept ourselves or our feelings with love and compassion it’s very difficult to be fully open to love from anyone else. We feel like an imposter and can’t believe anyone could love the “true” us, we keep people at arms length in case of being found out. Which stops the flow of spontaneity and passion, at home and the workplace.

Here is what I started to do to help me towards Acceptance..

I feel the easiest way to start is to practice on things that are light, not too deep yet, so first start with traffic.

Imagine you’re late for work or late dropping off the children to school and you get caught in a traffic jam. Feel the emotions that start to bubble up into your body. Maybe even just reading this you can imagine that feeling!

Now can you feel how your body wants to tighten up and restrict? That restriction is where your nugget of gold is, this is your body telling you, you don’t want to accept the situation, but now we can use this nugget of gold as practice.

Allow that feeling of being stuck in the traffic into your body, you can even start to name the emotions, anger, anxiety, frustration, irritated. Now listen to the negative stories you’re telling yourself, I should have left earlier, I’m so lazy for putting the snooze button on. Allow the body and mind to observe everything, feel everything, now let it go and float away. Feel the softness in your body as you let it go.

Accept the resistance!! One of my biggest life challenges I’m still managing to overcome is the Acceptance to the resistance, resistance to letting go or allowing it in. It’s not easy but with practice I promise you it can be done. We often hear time is a healer. I disagree, we can learn to live with pain and suffering in our bodies, it can become the new way we live, so over time it becomes our normal. That to me is not healing, true Acceptance and Self Compassion of any situation, is our beacon of light towards peace, love, joy and gratitude. The key is, don’t stay there and bathe in it, have the courage to feel it and let it softly float away!

“Life without experience and suffering is not life” Socrates

I’m passionate about helping people create more Self Love and Compassion and I would love to help you! You can call me on 07493338345 or email nichola.studio2@gmail.com for a free coaching session.

Nichola – Health and Lifestyle Coach, Pilates Leader.