Having a healthy self-acceptance helps you improve your overall mental well-being, decreases fear of failure, increases your sense of self-worth, and decreases your desire to seek approval from others. Loving and embracing every part of yourself, including your flaws and positive attributes, means you are completely satisfied with who you are and confident in your ability to self-improve regardless of your past choices. The way we feel about ourselves impacts our choices and behavior and how we speak to ourselves impacts the way we feel about ourselves.
Your inner voice is the source of guidance, wisdom, and direction. It keeps you operating in alignment with who you are, what you’d like to improve, and increase self-trust, enabling you to truly understand how much you can count on yourself. Journaling is one way of helping you tap into your inner voice and the following journal prompts are great for examining self-acceptance.
How can I love and accept myself the way I want others to love and accept me?
Figuring out how to treat yourself the way you expect others to treat you sets the tone for how you expect to be treated. But oftentimes, we don’t give much thought to this question to determine our expectations. Take some time to figure out your standards, needs, and expectations, and then be intentional about loving yourself accordingly.
What part of myself am I completely in love with?
How often do you compliment yourself, and express gratitude for yourself and what you have to offer? Loving on yourself is not a passive thing. It takes effort and intention. Learning to be unapologetic about what you love about yourself is one way to increase self-love and acceptance.
What parts of myself can I adjust that no longer serve me?
Sometimes it might be people pleasing and other times it might be breaking a bad habit that negatively impacts your life like emotional eating or decreasing alcohol. Whatever the case may be, take some time to figure out what parts of yourself are depleting you instead of serving you in some way.
What mistakes do I need to forgive myself for?
Sometimes our mistakes can haunt us. Whether they are mistakes we’ve made that have hurt others or the mistake of allowing someone to hurt us, the constant rumination about them can stifle us from moving forward. Working to accept and forgive the parts of you that couldn’t show up for others or yourself the way you had hoped is part of accepting every part of you, including your flaws.
Am I living MY life or trying to live the life I constantly compare mine to?
According to a psychology definition, the social comparison theory is determining your self-worth by comparing yourself to those around you. Today, it’s easy to compare yourself through filtered Instagram pics and carefully crafted Facebook posts. We often scroll through social media subconsciously looking for ways our lives don’t measure up and it’s really hard to live YOUR life while wishing you had someone else’s. It’s much better to take the time to evaluate yourself, your choices, and your life to determine what you need to do in order to start designing the life you want to live.
