★ What Does Acceptance Mean? ★
Heyo fantabulous humans/unicorns, its Acceptance Week here in cupslandia, find out more about the week and the awesome events that are planned for it here ♥
lets start off with the definition of acceptance, which is (according to the awesome Google) the process or fact of being received as adequate, valid, or suitable Being perceived as enough and being validated in you society/environment for who you are, thats acceptance. At least thats what it is to me, everyone has their own personal definitions of what it means to accept and be accepted, which is what Im going to be looking at in this post! (and if youve got anymore inputs, click that post to thread button, lovely!) ツ
There are tons of different types of acceptance, like acceptance from external peepsicles and self-acceptance. Both are wide spectrums. Lets take a look at Self Acceptance first (this is a super interesting read if youd like to learn more about it) Now, self acceptance can be a very hard thing to achieve. What are some obstacles to self acceptance?
➊ Your Insecurities -->
we all have insecurities and when we look in the mirror sometimes these insecurities are all we see. Sometimes it is hard to look in the mirror and think I am enough, inside and out I am sufficient. Insecurities vary from person to person and depend on our personal experiences. Regardless, insecurities tend to make the journey to self acceptance that much harder, because to be accepted by yourself is to think that you are enough (at least in my opinion thats how Id define it) In fact, I think our insecurities are the biggest obstacle to self acceptance
➋ Other People -->
yeah, you read that right. Sometimes other people can effect our own self acceptance journey. (unfortunately internal and external conflict tend to intertwine) Because I can say from my experience that when you are accepted by everyone else, accepting yourself is just so much easier to do, This personal journey of yours can actually be majorly impacted by other people, which is why when other people dont seem to accept you for the awesomesauce unicorn that you are (dont listen to them by the way, you deserve acceptance ♥) the journey to self acceptance gets significantly tougher.
➌ Your Past -->
Have you ever done something you arent proud of? I know I have, and thats just a part of being human. However our mistakes make it a lot harder to accept and love the face staring back at us in the mirror (I could blabber on about forgiving yourself for hours on end, but I do believe that is a separate forum post xD) When youre caught up in your past and the mistakes that you cant take back, youre stopping yourself from getting to Self Acceptance. Forgiving yourself is key over here, because when you do that you will be getting out of your own way. You will stop tripping over yourself and start the self acceptance journey! ツ (read more about this here)
Now, lets look at acceptance on a more external level: what does it mean to be accepted by others around you, and does this equate with approval? Lets take a look back at the definition of acceptance --> the process or fact of being received as adequate, valid, or suitable to be accepted by society is to be regarded as sufficient. Acceptance, however, does NOT require approval, at least in my books it does not. Read more about this over here ♥ I could be totally against people who wear blue T-shirts (random example, I know, but like its for education) But just because I hate these blue T-shirts doesnt stop them from existing. Now I could go crazy and totally start a campaign to burn these T-shirts, or I could just accept them. When I accept them it wouldnt be the same thing as approving of them. In this case my acceptance of these blue T-shirts is more like a live and let be situation, and my acceptance of these T-shirts doesnt make me like them anymore. I hope you guys understood that anecdote, lol. (and just putting it out there I love all colored T-shirts, even the blue ones) This example extends into more complex real-life situations like dealing with LGBTQ+ people and people who are not Allies. So there we have the difference between acceptance and approval, which is pretty important to consider when we look at acceptance on a more external level. You dont need to agree with someone to be able to accept them, and this is the very reason why I think that acceptance, while it may not equate with approval, is still very powerful.
in fact, one of my favorite websites ever has this awesome article that talks about the power of acceptance that you guys could read if you want! ---> read it here. It mainly talks about accepting things, whether they are mistakes or bad decisions, and finding the lessons within them ツ
So whether its accepting yourself or if were looking at acceptance on a more external/social level, there you have it! This is, in a very tiny nutshell, what Acceptance means. Chances are Ive missed out a ton of stuff about Acceptance- Its a vast topic. So go ahead, and share your own thoughts below.
courage is accepting the things you can't change and changing the things you cant accept ~ Anon.
You couldn't relive your life, skipping the awful parts, without losing what made it worthwhile. You had to accept it as a whole--like the world, or the person you loved. ~ Stewart ONan
What Does Acceptance Mean To YOU?
♥ Keeping up-to-date with special events tag list ♥
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HAVE AN AWESOME ACCEPTANCE WEEK EVERYONE!
cc: @ResilientLucky @221Skye @Ali
thanks for this! acceptance of self, others, and the world around me is one of the most difficult processes i've attempted, but also the most rewarding.
to me the key words involved in acceptance are "valid" and "approval." agreeing that something/someone is valid, that they are there, no matter how you feel or think about what that thing or person is, is the core of acceptance. approval is the antithesis of acceptance in a way, because it involves a value judgment, a kind of internalizing of the thing or person, which doesn't necessarily validate the thing or person, but rather validates your own perception of the thing or person as your reality.
denial is the easiest, and most common coping mechanism. but it is also the weakest, since it does little to actually help any situation. acceptance, on the other hand, is harder, but a better coping mechanism. when something about myself, others, or my environment bothers me, the easiest thing to do is to deny that it exists. but since it actually does exist, this strategy doe not work in the long run, and can cause more distress than the original thing that bothered me. acceptance (but not approval) of the thing, person, or environment means that i say to myself, "okay, this thing is real, it bothers me, and all that is okay, because all that is reality."
sorry, reading this i realize i got rather metaphysical, but then i have a tendency to. so, yay to acceptance week!
For me, there are different places in your life where acceptance fits in, but there are two sides of acceptance.
There's the acceptance when you decide to stop losing your mind over the things you have no control over, or when you accept that something is done or over such as a relationship or a stressful or even potentially unhealthy points in your life. In this sense, acceptance can free you from a situation or person who was holding you back from getting help, from getting better, or just moving ahead in your life.
The other side of it is the acceptance on a more personal or less extreme level. This can be seen as the acceptance and acknowledgement of flaws or some other attribute, good or bad, be it yourself or others. Sometimes we put people on pedestals and try to ignore the flaws we see in them, or we simply can't see them. When we acceptance that the person we hold with such high esteem has flaws or problems, it can help us see them more for who they are. Sometimes this is eye-opening and it can be a wakeup call for people who are in a harmful relationship. Other times it lets us see when a person we care for needs help or support.
There's a lot that acceptance can do for us, that's just my two cents on the matter