Accepting ourselves as we are is one of our most constant challenges.
If it's not about us changing, it's about us wanting to change someone - or something - else.
It seems like it's ingrained in us, woven into our genetic makeup. That if I just had this relationship, job, car, a certain amount of money in the bank, family members who understood me, then I'd be okay. Or else it's that I should be smarter, or better looking, or stronger and healthier. These wishful fantasies can lead us down a path of unhappiness.
But then say I get those things - some of them or all of them - and I'm still not satisfied. What's wrong here? What lesson am I not learning?
And that's a question that's been around for thousands of years. And many of us - particularly us addicts - continue hoping to change something in the outside world in our quest for happiness. Yet looking outside ourselves never seems to do it for us.
But there is a simple answer available to us all. And while the answer is available, practicing it is another thing.
And the answer is in accepting life just as it is. Accept and love ourselves with all our imperfections. Be grateful for who and what we are. For our creator made each of us unique and different.
This isn't something we must do. We can choose to be miserable and caught up in trying to change ourselves, others and the world around us and remain stuck in a cycle of unhappiness.
But once we say give it all to me just as it is - then we can be happy.
Does that mean we don't try to be better, healthier, smarter people? Does that mean we shouldn't want stuff? And live well?
Of course not. It simply means we need to live in this moment while we're working toward our goals. While that may seem counterintuitive, remember that all the progress we make is in this precious moment. Let's not waste those moments...
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