“There is no greater suffering than constantly measuring yourself and coming up short, except perhaps the realization that your suffering is hurting others. But where do we learn these things? Because, really, they are learned. We don’t come crying out of the womb because of our birth weight or because we have no money in this brand new world. We learn to measure and we learn to attach our self-worth to those measurements.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“No amount of self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance.”
― Robert Holden
“I have always been better at caring for and looking after others than I have been at caring for myself. But in these later years, I have made progress.
– Carl Rogers at age 75 (Rogers, 1995, p. 80)
“When we accept ourselves for what we are, we decrease our hunger for power or the acceptance of others because our self-intimacy reinforces our inner sense of security. We are no longer preoccupied with being powerful or popular. We no longer fear criticism because we accept the reality of our human limitations. Once integrated, we are less often plagued with the desire to please others because simply being true to ourselves brings lasting peace. We are grateful for life and we deeply appreciate and love ourselves.”
– Brennan Manning, The Ragamuffin Gospel
“When you create yourself to make it you’re going to have to either let that creation go and take a chance on being loved or hated for who you really are…or you’re gonna have to kill who you really are and fall into your grave grasping onto a character that you never were.”
– Jim Carrey
“What self-acceptance does is open up more possibilities of succeeding because you aren’t fighting yourself along the way.”
― Shannon Ables
“So we scramble to fill ourselves—our time, our body, our mind. We might buy something new or lose ourselves in mindless small talk. As soon as we have a gap, we go on-line to check our e-mail, we turn on music, we get a snack, watch television—anything to help us bury the feelings of vulnerability and deficiency lurking in our psyche.”
“Every day I wake up and ask myself, ‘How can I accept myself and others more fully?”
― Alaric Hutchinson, Living Peace: Essential Teachings for Enriching Life
“Your mind can never allow self-acceptance, since it is by nature self-contradictory and divisive. In fact, thinking is wholly based on a duality that
prevents you from ever relaxing into yourself.”
― Shai Tubali, Unlocking the 7 Secret Powers of the Heart
“Because one believes in oneself, one doesn’t try to convince others. Because once one is content with oneself, one doesn’t need others’ approval. Because one accepts oneself, the whole world accepts him or her.”
― Lao Tzu
“You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.”
― Diane Von Furstenberg
“You’re already stuck with yourself for a lifetime. Why not improve this relationship?”
― Vironika Tugaleva, The Art of Talking to Yourself
“Self-acceptance is my refusal to be in an adversarial relationship with myself.”
― Nathaniel Branden
“What if each time you experienced an emotion, you acknowledged it, accepted it, and became curious about its message for you (instead of trying to make it go away or make it last longer)? Imagine how this could change your life. Imagine how heard, loved, and honoured you would feel if you really listened to yourself.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“Option A:
Spend your life trying to get others to accept you.
Option B:
Accept yourself, and spend your life with others who recognize what a beauty you are.”
― Scott Stabile
“You work so hard to fix yourself, but maybe what you need isn’t another tactic, another book, another expert, another five-step plan. Maybe, you don’t need to be fixed. Maybe, what’s really holding you back is the idea that you need to be fixed. Maybe you just need to let yourself play instead of always making yourself do homework.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“Being authentic begins with unconditional self acceptance – imperfections and all.”
― Azim Jamal & Brian Tracy
“I’m not perfect, but I’m pretty good.”
― Anonymous
“We don’t have to wait until we are on our deathbed to realize what a waste of our precious lives it is to carry the belief that something is wrong with us.”
― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance
What is your experience with self-acceptance? Please leave a comment below 🙂
You can find everything you need to know about the science behind self-acceptance here or sign up for the online Science of Self-Acceptance Masterclass here.
so powerful words
useful information
keep up the good work
self love is the best form of love.
no one can beat it
Be you otherwise the sum of your parts will not ever fit
Very Inspiring ! These moral stories can teach us that how human acts with psychology. Do Check Most Inspiring Moral Stories.
enriching words of wisdom which touch the heart!
Wonderful soul food!!
A biggestsource of knowledge for learners so it is beautiful and amazing
Amazing work all throughout the site! Thank you so much!
I get goosebumps while reading the quotes.
the simplicity is awesome.
Thank you !!!
You’re perfect and pretty good.
Let the beauty you love, be the beauty you do.
I only give out what I wish to receive in return.
When you learn: teach. When you get – give…Maya Angelou.
When you open your heart, you get better.
The moment you accept yourself the way you are ,the moment you have the key to self freedom. Self acceptance is that realization to freedom that moves you to greater heights of self drives,achievements and self actualization. This is the heart of positive psychology. When you accept yourself, then your heart is equally open to give out and accept others. How beautiful it is to have peace with oneself.
Thank you! for the very meaningful quotes
Awesome quotes and reminders of how we should live life both meaningful and purposeful.
These sayings are really fascinating. There can renew anybody’s energy if he or she understands and believes it.
I love all of these quotes, they are very uplifting and real.
Beautiful quotes
Positivity flowing
This is awesome.Thank you for creating these presentations.
Love these thank you
Thanks for putting together the wonderful quotes.
Mixed emotions on the quotes; some resonate and some agitate! I realise that this could me needing to go deeper where I felt defensively. For example:“Your mind can never allow self-acceptance, since it is by nature self-contradictory and divisive. In fact, thinking is wholly based on a duality that
prevents you from ever relaxing into yourself.”
― Shai Tubali, Unlocking the 7 Secret Powers of the Heart
I don’t think there is any such rule of mind that cannot be reshaped and redesigned.
Or..“No amount of self-improvement can make up for any lack of self-acceptance.”
― Robert Holden
Then you’re doing the wrong kind of self improvement!
I love ;“You work so hard to fix yourself, but maybe what you need isn’t another tactic, another book, another expert, another five-step plan. Maybe, you don’t need to be fixed. Maybe, what’s really holding you back is the idea that you need to be fixed. Maybe you just need to let yourself play instead of always making yourself do homework.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
And…“What if each time you experienced an emotion, you acknowledged it, accepted it, and became curious about its message for you (instead of trying to make it go away or make it last longer)? Imagine how this could change your life. Imagine how heard, loved, and honoured you would feel if you really listened to yourself.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
These are excellent! Thank you!
Thank you so much. What a beautiful and inspiring collection.
Wow. Really beautiful quotes. Thank you for creating & presenting these! Excellent!
II am not a psycologist. I am looking into this as aself-care for me. Hope itis okay.
Dear Seph,the meaning and the intentions behind words and how the words are validated by the speaker.what kind of words are there? Convincing,warning,friendly,restricting.etcetera.The answer to the speaker shows howmuch intention there is to colaborate .Values ,l use Venn-diagrams over and next to eachother with the questions valued and answers too.This gives a bit insight of what peoples intentions are.
With friendly greetings,Ab Wink.
Just added images quotes to this post so you can use them for presentations or to share on social media. Enjoy 🙂
Thank you Seph!
This has given me the more reason to work on myself-care, love it and live it.
Here I can always find a thought to share with my students, something to make them more wholesome. I don’t think I’ll ever run out of positive, self-building thoughts. Thanks
Hi Seph,
Your articles are truly inspiring, is positive and has great insight. They are endearing because it seems so relevant and I can immediately connect with it. Thank you for sharing. My best wishes for continuing such meaningful work.
Such an important topic, affecting so many people – myself included. Thanks for this excellent resource.
“You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.”
I laughed out loud at this. And it made me so happy! 🙂
I LOVE THIS INSIGHTFUL ARTICLE AS IT SEEMS THAT YOU WROTE IT SPECIALLY FOR ME,KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK.
Self acceptance i feel is the foundation of accepting others. Until we accept ourselves, we cannot truly accept others. The messages everyone shared, and the original article were all inspirational. Like most people, I struggle with self acceptance, and that is a continuing journey, even though I am now nearly 60 (age doesn’t necessarily make it any easier).
Thank you for sharing – all of you.
Hi Seph
We spend so much time trying to meet others expectations and goals we lose sight of our own, if we ever had them. Mindfulness tells us to live in the present moment but without others directing us we can feel like we don’t know what to do in ‘that moment’. I think we need the confidence and trust in our own intuition to guide our way. Iwould have loved that in my youth, but at least Im closer to it later in my life.
Thank you, your article has come at just the right time. I have recently come to understand that self-acceptance is at the core of my emotional suffering and the general feeling of not being good enough.
I have dropped many ideas and passions and not followed my path because I felt that I would fail or I would not be accepted.
The need to be affirmed, and loved can be filled by connecting with our inner self and affirming oneself everyday.
I love reading your articles, this one resonates strongly, having been ‘working on myself’ it is a hard place to accept who we are, just as we are, I am ok just that way I am, it gets exhausting when you continually feel like you need to be more/better, that you are not enough, so thank you for sharing this one.. timing is sometimes everything 🙂
Life is lived by experiences good and bad I am learning to enjoy Joy in my most lost and confused life. Simple things matter the most in my life of self change.
All my life I have been trying to fix myself because I have always seen myself through others eyes and judged myself accordingly to what I think they think!
I have finally realized it’s all about the journey to one’s own heart & learning to love myself no matter what, which may be a lot tougher feat to accomplish than the judging, but oh so sweet is the nectar in the center of the heart, when one begins this journey of acceptance and love!!
🙏 Wonderful Susie
Thank you for these wonderful reminders. It is easy to forget the essence of what makes us individual, wonderful beings..all experience shapes us, not to reflect good or bad..to be in gentle acceptance of all that has touched us. For me I am reminded that I understand this as a young person and have had to reconnect as an older adult.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and wisdom Valentina 🙂
Thanks Steph I was thinking last night I have the option of being my best friend or my meanest ‘friend’ – I’ll commit myself here and now to being my bestie! Fiona
Haha, sounds like a plan Fiona! Maybe it’s worth keeping it up?
For a better part of my life I became what I was told rebelling in misery. Today, I enjoy being who I am with no apologies, only gratitude. Thanks, for sharing inspirations.
That’s it Mark.
Self acceptance can only be learned after you become aware of yourself and what you are. People who are constantly surrounded by others, or choose to be surrounded by others, tend to isolate themselves from their own selves. We need to learn to enjoy our own company to be happy in doing and being who we are. Only when you begin to appreciate yourself and remain modest and humble, will you accept yourself and be ready to adopt further investigation into your own inner being.
Thank you Rehmat. It’s about balance I think, as always.
Here’s an interesting BBC article one of our readers shared about loneliness: http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20180928-the-surprising-truth-about-loneliness
I love me first and by doing so I take good care of myself,and become the most able to encourage and inspire those around me. Nature walks and no Facebook one upmanship,so fake.
🙏
I remember going on holiday once, to a beautiful place in Italy and I was feeling miserable. To make matters worse, I could not accept the fact that I was unhappy. I remember writing in my diary. This would have been a good holiday if I hadn’t had to take me on it.
Emotions are data. We can let them be, inspect them, even learn from them. Mostly it’s not a good idea to fight or suppress them. Thank you for sharing your wisdom Peter.
Absolutely, I agree, I have been always told I am different and not always following the flock, my mother taught me to be myself and live and succeed through life at my own pace and measures, therefore it doesn’t matter what my peers are up to or chasing after my husband and I do things at our own pace, and reallyvit feels good and we are not pressured.
🙏 Ierato
I love reading your posts and your newsletter – each read is an inspiration. thank you
Thank you so much for saying that Tonya. I love writing them 🙂
I have C-PTSD. I have been ‘working on myself’ all my life. Or so it seems. I finally realized, I’m perfectly ok just as I am. Good days, bad days, sad days, fun days. It’s called LIFE ! And I am living it. I accept and honor my journey, try not to hurt anyone along the way and just keep seeing the beauty in the world. And I am part of that beauty.
I love that Linda, to ‘honor your journey’. We grow up and tend to fall for the illusion of being able to acquire happiness as a stable state, as a permanent destination. It’s the greatest misunderstanding in positive psychology. Parents ‘just want their kids to be happy’. It’s super unrealistic and psychologically misinformed. A more realistic thing to hope for and inspire would be the resilience to deal with life’s inevitable setbacks and to, like you said, keep on seeing and appreciating the beauty all around us.
I think the first half of my life I have wasted measuring myself with others and trying to prove that I am enough. But now that I am older I realize I no longer care what others thing. Some love me some don’t and I am okay with that. I know that I am enough.
Thanks for this article I think it will help me help others to also accept them self’s.
One of the benefits of aging perhaps Cheryl! Thanks for dropping a message 🙂
Thanks for inspiring us. So many times we are so caught up in people-pleasing that we forget the importance of Loving self.
My pleasure Missy! I get inspired reading these quotes myself too.
hello sir
I am working on myself
Thanks a lot for this mail
I am using affirmations, which are helping me to grow as a person
Thanks for leaving a comment Vidya. Personally, I think affirmations are tricky. I know the research is also divided on this. I think as long as affirmations are not grounded in reality, or at least something realistic, they can be a double-edged sword and lead to disappointment too. I’m not judging though! It’s great if it works for you.
very good article and encouraging.
Love to hear from you!
Thanks for a very insightfull article. The concept is very clear, simple and to the point yet most times this is exactly what seems so complicated!
Thanks