Self-acceptance practices

Live a good enough ordinary life.

Human being

You are human, so the process of growth, maturation, is never done.
No human can be always compassionate and insightful and generous.
Imperfections are normal, natural, human.
Develop a healthy relationship with your imperfections.
See the balanced view of yourself: your patterns and human imperfections; your basic innate goodness.
Everyone’s good qualities are partly luck and partly effort.
Making mistakes then learning, unlearning, and relearning is a good sign that you’re on a good track.
It is a rare gift to simply meet with openness and clarity what life brings our way… We have the very mistaken belief that it’s simply not enough.
Would you ever treat a friend like this?

Gentle, honest, self-inquiry helps you soften up, lighten up, wake up.
Slowly, painfully, reconcile to life.
Recognise that the causes and conditions of your life have made you like this.
Notice that struggling against who you are doesn’t work, doesn’t help, and causes damage.
Over time, as we ripen, we are more and more able to meet situations that we might have considered a burden as opportunities to engage.

Sit down in silence and simply be present. Do nothing else.
Resist nothing. Just be. Be still.
Let go. Don’t push, don’t pull. Make space.
Sit still and feel the discomfort.
Eventually, everything settles. The energy smooths out.
Recognise unhappiness, without trying to change it or fix it.
Everything is allowed, even resistance.
Give everything a warm welcome.
Recognise and accept your suffering.
Find peace by resting in the wider whole, of this and not-this.
Experience emotions fully, without separation or rejection, without adding anything.
When we stop running away and open to simply being here, the problem dissolves along with the “me” - who seemed to have it.
Come home to the present moment. Right Now I’m Aware Of.
Take care of all the parts of who you are.
The things that are most difficult for us almost always have the most to teach us.
Meditation is not about getting somewhere but about being where we are.

Let problems support your practice, enhance your ability to respond appropriately.
Meet life as it is, not as you want it to be, as it “should” be.
If you try to avoid something, it’s still affecting you.
We run away from suffering, we’re nudged into doing by grasping and resisting.
Recognise suffering, without trying to change it, or add anything.
Recognise the suffering, then take care of it, embrace it, cradle it with tenderness.
When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand of our suffering, we suffer much less.
Turn towards feelings, especially uncomfortable ones.
When a painful emotion comes up, stop whatever you’re doing and take care of it.
Meet your edge and soften. Invite yourself, don’t demand.
The intensity of the pain is equal to the intensity of the grasping.
Suffering and happiness are not separate. Where there is no suffering, there can be no happiness, and vice versa.
If you can recognise and accept your pain without running away from it, you will discover that joy can be there at the same time.
The way to be liberated from suffering is to be quickly absorbed into it.
Don’t ignore your suffering. Just allow the positive seeds already there to get attention and nourishment.
When we learn to acknowledge, embrace, and understand of our suffering, we suffer much less.
The function of mindfulness is to recognise the suffering, then take care of it, embrace it, cradle it with tenderness.

Thinking is something the universe is doing in the form of human beings.
We don’t have to substitute positive labels for the negative ones, but what if we have no labels or - ideas about these occurrences at all?
Very often, thinking—and believing what thought tells us—is the source of immense human suffering and confusion.
Let go our of wrong ideas and perceptions about reality.
Our idea of happiness can be the main obstacle keeping us from happiness.
Question our beliefs about what we think our life should be and to turn our effort toward full presence of how it is.

Some bits of these have been remixed above.

Added 2024-08-18.