self-acceptance

But if you wish, you can imagine that the Shadow does wait for your return and that it does remember everything that has gone before and that it doesn__ let you accept yourself as perfect until you let it. There is truth in that. That is why a child usually cries as soon as it__ born. With its first breath, the Shadow returns.

Peace of mind arrives the moment you come to peace with the contents of your mind.

Life is short. Things can change very suddenly. Make the best of every situation. Look for the silver lining. Maintain a positive mindset. Remain optimistic. Never give up hope. Savor every day you are given. Live with gratitude. Appreciate even the smallest things. Genuinely do the best you can, and once you do, don't dimish this by undermining your efforts by whatever limitations you face. Acceptance can be hard at times, but it is necessary to keep moving forward. In order to deal with situations as they come in the best manner possible, we must let go of things we have no control over. Energy must go towards the here and now. Be cognizant of your blessings, of how precious life is. Live with gratitude and appreciate every moment.

All the external adoration, respect and adulation in the word, can't drown out the internal voices that tell us, we are not good enough and unworthy of; happiness, love and an abundant life. When we need others to tell us were amazing, worthy and lovable, in order to feel good about ourselves, it is never enough. It goes into the bottomless pit where our inherent self-worth should be. It may feel like we are reaching out to receive love, but in actuality, we are seeking external noise to help drown out our negative core beliefs.Love blossoms from the inside out. That is why it is so important to do the work necessary to heal our emotional wounds, to love ourselves and stand strong in who we are. Only then, are we truly free to give and receive love, unconditionally and in abundance.

Live your life, sing your song. Not full of expectations. Not for the ovations. But for the joy of it.

You don't have to be part of a couple to be happy, you know.

Even if our survival skills have become impediments we would like to let go of because they have ceased to serve us, we can still love ourselves with them. In appreciation of our survival, we can be awed at how our resources brought us through, even when these resources were things like indifference, a wall of rage, a cold heart_We learn to embrace ourselves as humans with faults and problems.

The healing that comes with self-acceptance rippled through my life. As I embraced my carefree nature, I began living from my truth, and watched as the pure expression of who I am and the love I bring to the world illuminated my life.

I prayed for someone to love me as much as I loved you. Eventually I came to see that that Someone was me.

Be what you are. Do what you love. Speak what you feel. Don__ hide your humanity. Celebrate it. Embrace it.That is how you change the world.

The search for the soul mate, the perfect partner to complete you, is a bit like searching for the perfect food when you__e got a giant ulcer in your stomach. No matter what you find, it will never be good enough.

Who will you love if not yourself? Other people? How can you love someone for anything but their raw, naked humanity? How can you say you love someone if it is not for their flaws and quirks, snorts and hurts, triggers and tears? Anything else is not love. It is idealization. And, as long as you do it to yourself, you will do it to everyone. You will not love anyone or anything until those eyes in the mirror soften up and embrace the beauty that is already within.

For twenty-one years, I have been paralyzed by the fear of what this society will do with me if they ever were to know of the thoughts that I continually push away. For more than two decades, I have made a choice to be straight. After all, it__ as easy as making a choice, isn__ it? This culture has made sure that I know that. Anyone who is anything other than straight was just someone deceived by the devil. He is unnatural. He is confused. He is mistaken. He is weak. He can control it if he desires to control it. Such a compelling and ongoing argument has been made that I have always trusted it.I believed that if I hid it long enough, and ran from it long enough, and refused to acknowledge it for long enough, I could indeed succeed at living up to their decrees. I believed that I could force myself to never be anything else.

When you begin to walk your own journey, to have your own unique conversation, you will naturally stop feeling envious of others. Not because you__l realize your desires are different from theirs, but because they are so similar. You__l discover the difference between doing well and pretending to do well, between being happy and pretending to be happy, between healthy relationships and staged ones. You__l see just how many obstacles lie on any path. You__l realize that it takes the same amount of effort to work on building up the quality of the conversations in your life as it does to broadcast to the public, constantly, that those conversations are already perfect. You can either build up the mask or build up the authentic self. And you, brave and beautiful you, will make the right choice eventually. Be it now or on your deathbed. We all realize soon enough.

Self-love is not the process of ignoring things, paying attention to fewer flaws or forcing yourself to look away from the parts of you that you perceive as ugly or unwanted. Self-love is the process of expanding your awareness, of seeing those flaws and imperfections alongside the incredible potential of the universe flowing within you, alongside the eternal truth of life flowing within your veins in each second, alongside the flickers of creativity and opportunity present within each moment of your existence. Like this, the imperfections persist, but only as lovable quirks, like a bad doorknob on the front door of a cottage in paradise, like a few thorns on a beautiful rose, like a cloud in a sunset. Like this, what was once unwanted becomes essential, memorable, humbling.

My job, my only job here in this moment, is to love myself and, by extension, to love others. My job is just to live and to realize that to live is to love.

Living a lie is painful, and doesn__ do anyone any good. I had to be true to myself, because, either way, God would know if I was lying.

My Dear Friend, Don't ever allow yourself to forget how incredibly special you are, even for a single second. Without you, the world would not be as magnificent. Let yourself remember to love again, starting with you loving you.