Embracing Your True Self: A Guide to Accepting All Versions of Yourself

If you struggle with mental illness, you will know that it can be difficult to accept all versions of yourself. It can feel like a constant battle as you recognise both changes and challenges that come with managing your mental health. Learning to accept every version of you as worthy, valid and valuable is an important part of your journey.

In this post we will go through tips for practising self acceptance and things you can do today to actively kick start your own journey to self discovery:

Be Kind to Yourself

The first step to accepting yourself is being kind. Make sure that you speak to yourself in a way that is compassionate and nurturing. Remind yourself that no one is perfect and that it's ok to make mistakes. Show yourself the same kindness and understanding that you would show a friend or family member.

Making mistakes and failing, can be re-framed to something more positive instead of self-deprecating.. Failing means you're one step closer to succeeding, every mistake is a lesson if you're able to reflect compassionately without judgement on the decisions you choose to make.

When you favour one outcome over another, you will inevitably lean toward that outcome because you are offering yourself love bound by conditions. Find the space inside of you that can give all parts of yourself unconditional love. You are worthy of that and should not feel it is something to be worked for. The right people will love you exactly as you are but that love, starts with you.

Acknowledge Your Feelings

It's important to acknowledge your feelings in order to accept that they are valid. Even if you don't understand why you feel a certain way, it's ok to accept that you have those feelings. Don't try to push them away or ignore them, but instead take the time to process them in a healthy way. It can help to write down your thoughts and feelings in a journal or talk to a trusted friend or family member about them.

It is important to be aware of your emotions and sensations to be able to name them. This can help you to become more mindful and to better understand your reactions to different situations. By providing informative labels to your feelings, you can more easily identify and process them.

Familiarising yourselves with your emotions can also be beneficial in terms of coping with stress. You can learn to recognise when your emotions are particularly hard to manage and take steps to regulate them.

Having a greater understanding of our feelings helps us to respond in a more appropriate way, being familiar with the sensations of different emotions can help us to recognise when something is wrong. By understanding our physical reactions, we can be better equipped to identify and alleviate any discomfort or pain that we may be experiencing.

Find Ways to Take Care of Yourself

Taking care of yourself is one of the best ways to learn to accept yourself for who you are. Make sure that you are taking care of your physical, mental and emotional needs. This could be anything from eating healthy, exercising regularly, getting enough sleep or finding activities that help you relax and unwind. You should also make sure that you are taking the time to do things that bring you joy, like spending time with loved ones or doing something creative.

Take the time to get to know yourself again, relearn and re-experience the things you enjoyed doing as a child and allow space for your body to feel safe in doing that. Finding new ways to connect with your inner child is a sure way to begin healing old wounds that may still be showing up for you later down the line.

Accept That You Are Not Perfect

It can be hard to accept that perfection isn't possible, but it is an important part of learning to accept yourself. Everyone is flawed in some way but that doesn't mean that you are any less worthy of love, acceptance, and respect.

Remind yourself that you are valuable, no matter what, where or how you're doing in life.

Focus on What You Can Change

Focus on the things that you can change, instead of worrying about the things that you can't, anything from making small lifestyle changes to working on your mental health. You are capable of making positive changes in your life, even if it doesn't feel that way at times.

Learning to accept every version of yourself that was created in order to survive, is an important part of managing your mental health. Be kind to yourself, acknowledge your feelings and focus on the things that you can change.

Remember that you are worthy of love, acceptance, and respect, no matter what.

Take care of yourself today and every other day!

If you're reading this, you deserve to know, love and accept yourself. Take time out today to do something that would excite your inner child.