Acceptance

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf (@iamfelicia) via Unsplash

Acceptance (as in psychological acceptance) is a willful choice to acknowledge what exists (challenging!) and to recognize difficult situations, feelings, thoughts, and states of being without attempting to change or eliminate them (difficult!).

Knowing this definition, it's not surprising that when the idea of moving toward body acceptance is proposed to us, we often meet it with strong resistance (NO WAY, NO HOW!!!). It's difficult to let go of wanting our body to be different than it currently is. It's challenging to imagine being okay with the current appearance, functioning, and abilities of our body.

Our resistance to acceptance is a quiet tap on our shoulder telling us that there's something deeper to explore. Acceptance isn't resignation, giving up, failure, or "letting ourselves go." Acceptance is a gift that allows us to be with ourselves.