Embracing self-acceptance for wholeness means living in emotional authenticity and awareness. Embracing your true self makes balancing self-acceptance and well-being a realistic goal. You can do it; come and see how.
Everyone wants to live a life filled with happiness, and we know our state of mind can influence our health. How do we learn to accept the hardships and maintain a healthy outlook? How do you go about living your truth every day?
Happiness is a state of mind that emphasizes positive feelings over negative ones. It doesn’t mean that bad things never happen. In other words, we accept the wholeness of life and focus on the positive. It sounds simple, but achieving this mindset isn’t always easy.
Our culture wants us to link happiness with things and situations so it can sell us things we think will make us happy. Instead of living in a state where happiness underlies everything, we become pawns of commercialism.
Living in Emotional Authenticity
Another tactic of modern culture is to keep us busy and always engaged. This constant level of activity makes us more susceptible to manipulation of social media. Modern mobile devices make it far too easy to occupy ourselves every waking moment. The advertising industry promotes a short attention span. It learns and targets our basic fears in order to sell us things we don’t need.
Daily tasks and social pressures create stress. It can be overwhelming. But, we must refrain from expressing negative emotions in the work environment. We must project a positive outlook at all times. But the long-term effects of suppressing our true feelings and opinions are destructive. It’s the root of depression.
Our joy and happiness should not depend on situations or circumstances but reflect the natural state of our mind. Learning to accept who we are is the key to wholeness. It starts with the perspective of a realist. Embracing self-acceptance for wholeness takes our perception outside of immediate circumstances. It helps us maintain a healthy, skeptical mindset that sees both the positive and negative.
Life has its ups and downs. If we deny negative feelings from these tests, we do not address what is causing them. Denial is an unhealthy and ineffective coping mechanism. It keeps us from dealing with the cause of our feelings and creates stress, which is harmful to our mental and physical health.
This does not mean we should try to be happy when bad things happen. It means we learn to control our response to the negative. We can still feel hurt, frustrated, or angry, but we must learn not to dwell or become fixated by these negative feelings.
Our culture teaches us to mimic happiness, even when we are not. It is socially unacceptable to show discontent, especially at work. Our performance is often judged by our ability to project a positive attitude. These cultural practices become obstacles to our authenticity. The more we buy into and accept this false sense of happiness, the harder living in emotional authenticity becomes.
Embracing Your True Self — Living Your Truth Every Day
The true self is that aspect of your being that existed before any social conditioning. It contains the elements of your ego, personality, and instincts. This aspect of being is often hard to articulate because it preexists our knowledge of language. We can become familiar with these aspects and learn to articulate the values they contain.
We learn to communicate in our family unit or by caretakers. They also impart their cultural conditioning to us when our minds are most susceptible as children. Most people learn their emotional coping skills by mirroring their family and friends. You spend a lot of time with your family, so how feelings are shared is part of your family tradition and your life story.
The people in your circle of influence typically use the same coping strategies. Whether these strategies are healthy or not, we accept them as part of the cultural fabric. People use them to adjust to and through various stages of growth and the hardships of life.
The cohesiveness of the family depends upon family tradition. In the early modern age, we saw the work priorities of the company (1) start to take precedence over personal and family needs. It was all but gone by the end of the industrial revolution. (2) Corporate, religious, and political subcultures have replaced the family system. (3) But although we have more choices, that doesn’t mean these strategies are healthy.
So, it has become even more important to find healthy and effective coping strategies you can apply to living your truth every day. So support groups to help cope with specific conditions are successful. Self-care becomes a critical part of a sound support system.
When we block or deny negative emotions, we negate the opportunity to live life to its fullest. Yes, the lows are part of the equation. Embracing self-acceptance for wholeness means experiencing the lows as well. When we embrace all of what life offers, it opens a new vista of possibilities. It helps us identify the things we want or need to change. It helps us become more aware of both the good and the bad.
There are lessons in both positive and negative emotions. We must learn to find these lessons to take advantage of the opportunities life presents. The more healthy coping skills we learn, the better we become at choosing the right actions. We learn not to give in to negative self-talk. Embracing your true self is being able to experience the positive and negative.
Living in the Present and Embracing Self-Acceptance for Wholeness
Modern society’s promise to afford us more free time is just the opposite. Our minds are engaged nonstop. We aren’t living in the present or the past; we are living in tasks. The handheld device becomes a new obsession instead of a tool. We forget how important it is for us to daydream, contemplate, and get in touch with what is going on inside.
Our minds need time to reset to maintain our well-being. When we take time for ourselves, we gain self-acceptance and peace. We need to meditate to maintain a healthy mind, so balancing self-acceptance and well-being goes hand in hand.
Presence is the key to living your truth every day. To be present, we must accept the past and learn from it. There are simple things you can do to live in the present.
1. Be fully present in your activities and interactions. Listen actively and engage with your surroundings without distractions.
2. Practice Japa and Mindfulness Meditation and leverage the peace of the transcendent. Use practical grounding exercises like Tai Ka, Tai Chi, and Qigong. These are practices that ground us and break the cycle of mindlessness and the task-driven lifestyle.
3. Focus on the Now and avoid dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Concentrate on what you can control and experience right now.
4. Practice Gratitude by acknowledging and appreciating the positive aspects of your current life.
Balancing Self-Acceptance and Well-Being by Accepting the Past
Our past determines our trajectory today. We can continue in the same direction or change our trajectory. By acknowledging our past mistakes, we can learn from them. By accepting the past and embracing self-acceptance for wholeness, we gain wisdom from our previous actions.
1 Acknowledge Your Experiences, both positive and negative. This helps in understanding how they have shaped you.
2. Forgive Yourself and Others because letting go of guilt, regret, and resentment releases you from their burdens. Forgiveness is a powerful tool for healing.
3. Learn from the Past. Don’t Dwell on the Past. Reflect on the lessons learned from experiences. Use these insights to make better decisions in the future.
4. Release Negative Emotions by practicing awareness-expanding techniques. Journaling and mindfulness to process and release any negative emotions tied to your past.
Balancing self-acceptance and well-being requires presence and the proper perspective of the past.
The Corporate Culture
Corporate culture can be a tough place to balance self-acceptance and well-being. Work culture demands a cheerful smile, even when we are suffering emotionally. We learn to control and deny all emotions that might be viewed as negative. We must learn to guard our actions, even if they are positive. For example, showing genuine social affection, like hugging, is forbidden. It might make someone else uncomfortable, and this would place the corporation in jeopardy of a lawsuit.
Corporate culture demands we guard our words and actions. This is vital to safeguard the assets of the corporation. Expressing any negative emotion is unacceptable behavior. It trains us to deny and repress negative emotions. Repression leads to mental stress.
So, we learn to mute our negative emotions. Work culture teaches us to be monotone and emotionless. This training spills over into our personal lives, and we seek prescription drugs to numb the negative. We lose the capacity to deal with what is causing the negative emotions. In this way, we can continue to be productive in the workplace. We become robots living a monotone existence.
Without highs and lows, life becomes meaningless, and the contrast of emotion is lost. We suppress negative feelings, like fear or anger. This trend is unhealthy in the long run. Even though this feels like a comfort zone, it’s a trap, and hiding our feelings becomes a pattern. When we resist or ignore our emotions, they can fester, which is unhealthy. You can’t medicate away your feelings forever.
Tactics for Embracing Self-Acceptance for Wholeness
You must find safe and acceptable strategies for living your truth every day, even when you are at work. Here are some practical tips to help you stay authentic to yourself. This plan is not restricted to your work environment. It’s a strategy for embracing your true self.
1. Know Your Values. Identify your core values and beliefs. If you have harmful values based on religious, ethnic, or racial bias and prejudice, they will skew your beliefs. They will lead you into actions that harm others. If this is you, then you need to change your beliefs
2. Set Boundaries. Establish and maintain healthy boundaries to protect your well-being. This includes knowing when to say no and ensuring your work-life balance is respected.
3. Guard Your Words and Actions. Practice honest communication that does not violate company standards of conduct. If you are a hugger, instead of hugging, say I am giving you a virtual hug.
4. Seek Alignment. Look for roles and projects that align with your values and passions. This will make it easier to stay true to yourself while contributing meaningfully to your organization. If there aren’t any roles that align with your values, it’s a sign you are in the wrong type of work environment.
5. Practice Self-Care. Prioritize your mental and physical health. Regular exercise and mindfulness practices help you stay grounded and resilient.
6. Find Allies. Build a network of supportive colleagues who share similar values. Having allies can encourage and help you navigate challenges.
7. Lead by Example. Demonstrate authenticity in your actions and decisions. Living your truth every day inspires others to be authentic.
8. Take Time to Reflect Regularly. Take time to reflect on your experiences and assess whether you are staying true to your values. Adjust your approach as needed to ensure alignment.
9. Meditate Every Day. Meditate and bathe your mind in the peace of the transcendent. We Recommend Japa or Transcendental Mediation.
Leverage your modern technology. Set a calendar reminder at least once a day with a keyword like “meditate or mindfulness break. Then, use your willpower to take a break. Once you’ve done this for a while, you’ll look forward to this mental oasis. That’s when your mindfulness and meditation breaks will start to pay off.
Why Spiritual Exploration is Important
We are spiritual beings. Our emotions are a part of who we are. One of the common threads we have is the desire to seek the unknown. The inner quest requires us to experience all emotions.
The above obstacles prevent us from accepting the full range of our humanity and emotions. However, it is vital to take the time we need, which helps us regain and retain our mental and physical health. The spiritual journey emphasizes this need to be whole. Learning to turn inward and allow yourself to “feel” everything has always taken courage. It’s a vital journey.
Getting in touch with the bandwidth of all your feelings is key to unlocking your intuition and spiritual gifts. It teaches us the difference between meditation and worrying.
Turning inward and getting in touch with your thoughts is not worrying or being caught up in negative thoughts. Getting in touch starts with learning two tactics: first, learning to be kind to ourselves, and second, learning to be mindful. Add Mindfulness Meditation practice to your daily routine.
Building Emotional Connection
To truly connect with others, we must be aware of our own emotional state. The first key is learning to be kind to yourself. Provide time and space to be with yourself and allow yourself to feel your emotions without judgment.
Engage in self-care. To understand what’s going on inside, you need to embrace your emotional center. Sometimes, this center is turbulent, and we block it off because it is uncomfortable, but this is the key.
Building emotional connection with ourselves and others is a doorway to embracing your true self. Learning that it is okay to feel sad about the bad things that happen is a healthy response. Feeling compassion for the hardships of others is a healthy response of our social instinct.
Seek professional help if you need it. Remember, we lack traditional support systems and free time to sort things out independently. Mental health professionals can help us get through the hard spots.
In Conclusion
Embracing self-acceptance for wholeness requires a shift in your mindset. Our feelings are a barometer of our psyche. The key to wholeness is learning to accept the full range of our emotions, the highs and lows. This may not be easy if you have been living a monotone existence for any length of time. Don’t give up. You can do it.
References
(1) Early Modern Period: Wikipedia
(2) Industrial Revolution: Wikipedia
(3) Contemporary Period: Wikipedia