From Rachel W.: As we've said before, here at Doe a Deery, we are trying to be real, and REAL fabulous, and we want you to realize how REAL fabulous you are too! So, each month, we'll be presenting a new theme or goal that we can all think on and work towards together. And this month our theme is, drumroll please, rat-a-tat-tat, ACCEPTANCE! Isn't this print by Melissa's husband Jon just right? Print it out. Hang it up. Practice it.
I chose acceptance as our theme for the month after writing my thoughts down for our post on ways to love yourself. I feel like the first step in loving yourself is accepting you for who you are right now--and you are wonderful darn it! Sure, you have weaknesses, but you also have your strengths, and guess what? So does the next guy! Give yourself a break and breath in all that makes you, you! Try to be present with yourself, and enjoy it.
And while your giving yourself a break, make sure to give others a break as well! I think it is a beautiful gift to yourself and others to be accepting and not judgmental. We can not know others' hearts, intentions and thoughts; we can only guess. What we do know is our own reality, and that leads me to our third area of acceptance: circumstance.
I try to be an active participant in my life, not a victim. I can not choose what happens to me. I can only choose how I will react. And if it starts raining, I'm not going to lie down and let it wash me away, I am going to sing and cry and splash until it stops raining, and then I'll shake off those drops and keep going.
Here are some more thoughts from our deers on acceptance of self, others and circumstance. I hope you enjoy reading these as much as I have, and I hope that this month we can all work on being more accepting together.
Catherine: I have recently lived and loved in the Middle East. Thanks to our recent move, I'm now a stranger to my new city, Las Vegas. Accepting that this is the right place for me at this time will determine if this chapter of my life will be a success. I plan to do this by exerting a daily effort to see the good, the happy, and everything new as a chance to discover and to thrive!
Erica: Accepting yourself can be tricky. Everywhere you look these days I feel like we are bombarded with things that make us stop and say, "Oh gosh, I need to be better at _____." Or "I need to change _____ about myself." My mind often feels heavy with just plain not feeling good enough. But as I am learning to let that go and just be ME, I am finding I am accepting myself more and more. No one is perfect. No one is the perfect Mom, has perfect kids, is the perfect wife or perfect neighbor. Let go of PERFECT.
Andi: Acceptance is not about giving up and saying "Oh, well. That's just how it is. I guess there's nothing I can do." It's about changing what you can but then finding an inner peace with the things that you cannot control. You can do this by having positive thoughts in your own mind about yourself, your circumstances, and others around you. When a negative thought creeps in, replace it with something positive.
Alisia: Be realistic. But give others and yourself the benefit of the doubt. Recognize that pride in its most simple definition is one thing: Comparing yourself to others (In both thinking you are better or not enough) So... It boils down to letting go of pride. That makes it easier for me to accept others and myself. I remind myself not to be prideful and compare. Especially when I am thinking that I am not enough.
Melissa: When I remember what a work in progress I am, and how much that would hurt me if I knew others were judging me as doing something poorly when I may be trying my very best—especially if I'm down on myself about something all the time already without factoring in the judgment of others (*motherhood, cough, cough), I am reminded that ALL of us are works in progress. And to know how hard it would be if I knew others didn't accept me, I find it much harder to stomach not accepting others. They too are trying their best, and I hope to applaud them for it, just as I would want to be accepted (and loved, and supported...) for trying my best. I'm working on it :) Work in progress, right?
Rachel A.: Accepting Others: We all arrive at today with different life experiences, beliefs, values, and circumstances. We face each day with those unique characteristics, which both makes life interesting, but also at times challenging to understand why people are the way they are, or do the things they do. As I encounter people I have a difficult time understanding or accepting, I remind myself of this fact, and hope people do the same for me.
Julie: There are inevitable certainties in life, the sooner we accept them the sooner we can be happy. We are all human and all capable of mistakes. Others will choose to live their life in way contrary to yours, and that is what makes life exciting.
Misa: Be forgiving of yourself. Don't dwell on the things that weigh you down. Smile and shrug your shoulders at the things you can't control. Enjoy the things that make you feel good about you! Keep improving some small way each day! As for accepting others, walk a mile in their shoes or don't and just try to love unconditionally. A lot of things happen that are out of our control and some of them are just purely painful and sad, but I find that those are the things that shape me. They make me stronger, wiser, more understanding, and more accepting.
Have you already been on a journey of acceptance? Or are you starting with us? What else can we do to accept ourselves, others and circumstances?
Great lesson for all of us! I'm about to do a lesson in church on loving ourselves, and I think accepting ourselves is key to doing that. :)
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