Acceptance & Its 3 Dimensions
By: Michael Patanella
Tags: Self Improvement, Personal Development, Self-awareness, Life, Life Lessons

The main concept for Acceptance is for us to accept ourselves just as we are, sitting here, in God’s world. The experts remind us that the number of us that will just sit here and accept ourselves nice and perfectly is most likely very low. It just seems at first that there are so many other options to consider instead. However, how many options do we really have realistically? It’s a good question when its take into massive consideration that we are the only person that we are ever gonna be. So, maybe there really aren’t that many options. That could motivate ourselves towards Self Acceptance.

We may change qualities about ourselves. We may remove or work through character defects. But, we really are not going to ever change the person that we are. So, when it comes to The first dimension of Acceptance, An Unconditional Acceptance of Myself; I can accept me for me. But I will also have to accept my faults, and the fact that part of me need changing. Accept those facts, and you can be well onto the road of self acceptance. And remember, though there are most likely many parts we want to change, don’t let shadows cast out the good, and even great accomplishments of our past. Take a trip far back, more then just a year or two. Look back far, and you may recall many a good things during the journey of life.

The second dimension of acceptance is usually called something like, Unconditional Acceptance of Others. I think it’s actually hard to say which one is more difficult for the majority of us, accepting us, or accepting others.The simplest statement I’ve seen when researching this, is that self acceptance of others is just us accepting the fact that other people are not us. I know that can be extremely difficult, because of things like personal values, morals, and prejudices. Even though most people don’t intend hard onto us as they go about their daily lives, there are times, when we may think otherwise.

There are times we can get offended, simply because a person is doing something differently then the way we believe it should be done. It’s not wrong. It’s just different. A great practice to master, is not only accepting that others have flaws, but also that if that’s the case, then we must also accept ourselves as being ones flawed as well. It’s a revolving cycle, of accepting that certain things about others that we can’t stand, are actually mirrored images of things that involve ourselves and others.

Accepting what we do not like about others, is a good way to lower and remove potential bouts of lacks of patience, and even bouts of hatred. A lot of the problems related to racism and prejudices also connect to this subject, because it stems from hating a certain type of person simply because they aren’t exactly like us. If someone were to ask me what the second dimension’s definition was; I could actually simply answer that by saying, “the definition of the second dimension of acceptance is the opposite of racism” (unconditional acceptance of others).

So, we get to the third dimension of acceptance, the Unconditional Acceptance of Life. Life is full of an infinite amount of things that we face in life. It’s hard to say how many we have control over, and how many we don’t. It is also hard to get into percentages of this and that, because it goes into many layer, because yes, there are plenty of events that may have a reputation of being unable to be changed, yet there are people who do find success when trying to change, or stop events that they perceive as negative. Something that may hold a person down, or perhaps even hurt them.

Accepting life, and all of its components and events, good and bad does not mean that we agree with, or believe in the bad things we shall face. Sometimes, to accept that there are some things in life, that are just plain shitty, allows to us to move forward in better ways. For this case in point, it is okay to just tolerate and accept what we have to, realizing that our acceptance doesn’t mean we have to have them in our lives. It’s quite possible that we can just brush to the side, as many negative things as possible.

We don’t have to allow acceptance to becoming something that’s disabling to us. I know that no matter what, there will most likely always be some kind of oppression, in life, as well as things that have a potential to harm What I believe is a good way to be, is to be sure and not to waste more energy then we have to, in unproductive ways. Sure, we may need to exert a little force in life, to avoid the negative. But, don’t lose focus. The way to not lose focus, is to actually maintain focus. Focus is a great guard that we can put up, and when utilizing that focus correctly, you will see that you aren’t exerting energy towards what doesn’t deserve it. This, is your unconditional acceptance of life. And these, are your 3 Dimensions Of Acceptance.