Passionate Theme of the Day: Radical Self-Acceptance

“I love and accept myself.” Affirmation at ipopin.com

It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Kirsten H. of Think Positive blog and ipopin.com. On a recent drive-by I stumbled upon this affirmation listed in her side-bar. It is simply, “I love and accept myself”.

Why did this little mantra strike such a chord today? Last week, the first week of the New Year (cue sounds of party-poppers and wacky paper horns) found me in a bit of a funk. Yes friends, KK hit Funky-town hard! 

Why? LOTS of reasons. Post-holiday crash. Looking back and realizing I’d manifested everything I’d intended last year, and then some, (like that’s a bad thing?). Looking forward and realizing this year is already upon me and I better be ready to hit the ground running (which I wasn’t).

Fear around, “OMG! I said I wanted to have the BIGGEST, BADDEST-ASS, most ROCKIN’ year ever”, and by day 3 had several e-mails asking if I’d like to partake in some AMAZING opportunities. Changing positions at the university I work for – out of administration into teaching full-time - (which is ALL good, but need to prep for 3 more classes in 2 weeks).  Plus the usual holiday family gatherings, too much food, too much merry, TOO much!!

I hit the wall and went on lock down. I came off my one week hiatus and instead of being pumped up and full of PASSION, all I wanted to do was veg on the couch and watch really bad reality TV (FYI…I don’t even like reality TV).

Sure, I showed up to work last week, my body did anyway. I was physically present, just not all that connected or able to fully engage in my usual activities - work, fun, yoga and the pursuit of all things passionate and purposeful.

As the funky-vibe finally lifted Sat. afternoon, I decided to come out of the condo and take a look around. Yes, the world was still spinning. Yes, the birds were still singing. Yes, I was still me, in all my passionate glory. I hadn’t disappeared, just hadn’t been quite ready to greet 2007 head on yet.

I was comforted as I read the newsletter of a creativity coach that I admire, Claudie Plen. Claudie said she falls into a similar state at the beginning of each New Year and now accepts it as a part of her creative process. I, like her, allow myself to say YES to a lot of what life has to offer. In order to play FULL out the majority of the time, I need to be OK with saying NO once in a while.

That’s where self-acceptance comes in. It was scary for me to say, “It’s OK, Kam. It won’t all disappear if you zone out for a couple of days.” I was feeling guilty as I had just taken a week off, but didn’t get much down time. I was afraid if I tuned out, I wouldn’t be able to tune back in. As a personal development passionista, dare I say I freaked? I felt stuck, like I didn’t want to tune back in if I wasn’t feeling really inspired. How could I write or contribute or work with a client if I wasn’t feeling it?

There was a lot of judgment around allowing myself some time to zone out. Steve Pavlina wrote a great piece about self-acceptance vs. self-growth. He writes:

“How do you balance self-acceptance vs. the drive to grow and improve yourself?  On the one hand, it’s a good idea to accept yourself for who you are… faults and all, right?  But on the other hand, isn’t it also a good idea to set goals and aim for something even better than what you already experience now?  How do you resolve this conflict?”

There’s something to be said for the chaos of the storm (the holiday craziness), the cleansing away of the old (ringing in the New Year) and the blank, clean slate that is Jan. 1. It’s challenging because as a PMP’er, Glass Half Full’er, a Think Positive’er, and a Make It Great’er, I walk the fine line Steve P. talks about between accepting where I am and being OK with that, and wanting to grow forward.

It comes back to the simple affirmation that started this tangent in the first place. “I love and accept myself”. Regardless if we’re standing still or steadily evolving into the latest and greatest incarnation of ourselves, it really comes down to self-love, and self-acceptance.

When we LOVE and accept ourselves AS IS, where we are in the present moment – good, bad or indifferent – we WIN. No matter the situation. No matter if it’s high drama or mellow and mundane – if we CHOOSE to LOVE and ACCEPT ourselves in any given situation, we actually choose PEACE.

We’re still us. Flying high, in the zone and following the FLOW, or zoning out and saying NO for a breather, we are still the same amazing, creative, talented and passionate people. From day to day, our color might change. We might not be vibrating at our highest frequency. But if we ALLOW and ACCEPT ourselves to BE whatever it is we are each day, we can’t LOSE. No sense of defeat. No sense of loss.

Are you lovingly accepting of YOU today? What’s your current mood? Whether it’s high or low or somewhere in the middle, are you OK to just BE you?

Self-acceptance + self-love = self-growth. We’ll get “there” by BEing “here”. Right where we are. Presently Perfect indeed!

2007 Here I Come,
Kammie K.