Embracing the Chaos and Accepting Yourself

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Loving and accepting yourself is the most fundamental thing you need to do to live a happy, stable, and fulfilling life…and yet most of us struggle to do that.

We try to change who we are  with statements like, “I’m a work in progress,” or “I just need to change this one thing about me.” Or self down-talk like, “If only I could do/think/react differently to [insert any random thing] then things would be better. I would be better.”  But no matter what we do, no matter how much meditation, journaling, exercise, breathing, vegetables we eat, and daily affirmations we do, we still struggle with accepting who we are.

Well, what if we don’t change because we don’t actually need to?  Maybe our plight in life isn’t to perfect ourselves but instead learn to love our imperfect selves?  To accept the mess, the chaos, and the madness that is you.

Think about it for a moment.  If you can’t love and accept yourself just the way you are right now, who can?  If you can’t love and accept yourself at your worst moments, then can you truly love anyone else?  Take a moment and think: What if I never become calmer, skinnier, more balanced, more perfect?  What will I do then?  

Shifting the Energy

Some people say “life is short” but I think that’s a lie.  If you live in a first world country, odds are you will live a long long looooong life.  How many more decades will you let pass you by before you accept yourself as you are?  Instead of putting all that effort into trying to make yourself “better,” you could be using that energy to actually make the world better!

Stop fighting yourself.  Embrace the chaos.  That’s where your power lies.

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Maybe your goal in life is to feel this way about you! And nothing more.

I’m going to leave you with one of my favorite stories that a friend told me several years ago about God and a pitcher of water:

“Every day God took a clay pitcher to the well to fill it up and bring water back to the house.  The pitcher had a crack in it and would leak some of the water as God walked back home. Day after day, God went and filled up the pitcher. Day after day, the pitcher leaked water. Finally one day the pitcher said to God, “Why do you keep using me? I’m wasting the water you draw from the well and making you work twice as hard. You should get a new pitcher.” God said to the pitcher, “Wasting? Look at what you created.”  The pitcher looked and there along the path God took everyday were beautiful flowers that had grown in the harsh desert from the constant watering. “It’s your cracks that make this world beautiful.”

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About the Author

Ta-shana-Taylor-225x300Ta-Shana Taylor is a a blogger, pet mommy, and scientist living in South Florida. She has BS in Geology from Northeastern University and a MS in Geosciences from University of Arizona and another MS in Teaching from Pace University. You can follow her musings on the world on Twitter.

 

Main photo by Maria.

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