You are enough. That’s something we don’t hear often, and something we hardly ever say to ourselves. We look to others to measure our lives instead of looking at our life and being grateful for just being here at all.
Right now, as you read this, you are enough, but what does that mean?
It means that without defining yourself by your job, your address, your physical shape or anything else that you are good enough, a perfect example of you.
For a moment I’d like you to ask yourself something; Can I accept myself as I am, today? Pause and reflect on that question. What I mean is do you feel content in yourself, or when you think about it does your attention fall like a shadow on something about yourself that you think makes you unhappy or that you’d like to change?
There’s nothing wrong with you if there is something you’d like to change, improve or get rid of. In fact, that kind of self-critique is essential in the process of learning more about who you are, how you relate to others and the world, and most importantly, how you see your own value.
Wanting to be better and wanting to improve doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong with you now. Rather, you’re becoming aware that there is potential to live in a way that will ultimately, with work and patience, bring you to a point where your baseline for happiness is much higher than it is today.
Every old habit you’ve learned that doesn’t help you now to be happy is up for examination. If you can accept those old habits and live comfortably without them affecting you or others, then they don’t necessarily need to be changed. If you see that they actively contribute to your unhappiness, though, then they need to be changed or asked to leave. This is Acceptance in action; the simple practice of looking at everything through the lens of accept it, change it or leave it behind.
The following guidelines are just that, guidelines, but if you start to use them you’ll soon find that you’re living life more happily and are more self-aware and self-confident rather than muddling through days, carrying things that you would be better off letting go of.
- Live consciously. Be aware of your life, don’t let it be a blur. Experience it with self-awareness. Be present. Slow down during your day for long enough to remember what lunch tasted like or what inflection was in a friends voice or how a flower really smelled. This habit allows us time to see ourselves clearly. After all, if you don’t have time to look inside how will you ever know if there’s a better way to be?
- Accept yourself as you are and then make choices about things you want to and CAN change or improve to live consciously and peacefully. You can’t change your eye colour but you can change your old habits for better ones. Don’t compare yourself or your life to anyone else’s either because that’s not your life, it’s theirs. Accept it.
- Notice where you can take responsibility for your life so that it doesn’t just happen to you, you happen to it. This is your life, and as such, you have the final say in how you live it. You may feel powerless to change anything but you really aren’t. Let go of anything preventing you from reaching for all of life’s potential.
- Be true to your values in every situation, even if that’s hard to do. Personal integrity outweighs crowd mentality. You have to be able to live with yourself before you live with anyone else. Being known as someone who lives in a way that places integrity front and centre will cause people who value that trait to be drawn to you, filling your life with people who will only want good for you.
- Live knowing that your meaning is simply to live and experience life, then find a purpose in life that focuses your attention and pursue excellence in that patiently and relentlessly. Finding something to focus on properly allows you to gain new perspectives on how the world works and new ways for you to experience it, growing your horizons all of the time.
- Live in harmony with your conscience. That voice will steer you to rightful action and peace. This is self-explanatory, I hope! If it doesn’t sit right with you then it’s not right for you.
These things grow your ability to practice The Art of Acceptance, the way you live in the moment and to know real inner peace. These are the things I have learned over the past few years that have taken me from broken to content, from the edge of losing life to living one that is full. If you do the same in a way that works in your life, you will reap the same rewards. It’s not about following anything said here dogmatically, but rather finding a way to put these simple, universal truths into practice in a way that fits your life best for you.
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