accept: to receive willingly
compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others distress with a desire to relieve it
Compassionate self acceptance is the ability to honestly recognise our complete experience of being this human being in whatever situation we are in with kindness and courage and not criticism or judgement.
This is the not the same as resignation, a mute acquiescence to the situation. Accepting yourself and your situation lets you devote your attention to doing something about it, and not using up your energy beating yourself up, obsessing how bad you are.
This isn’t the way many of us have been taught to approach life. We’ve been taught reject ourselves, our feelings, avoid the present moment and treat ourselves critically or harshly so that we can shape up.
What would it be like if you could treat yourself kindly?
