Accepting ourselves is hard. We are quick to accept all our positive traits, but what about the negative aspects of our personality? And our flaws? And our skin?
We often ignore or deny these parts of ourselves. This can lead to a lot of self hatred when acne or other undesirable traits presents themselves.
Accepting all parts of yourself makes it easier to have compassion for yourself in hard times. When you don’t have to pretend to the world and to yourself like you are perfect or totally “together” it can be incredibly freeing.
Watch the video to get some pretty wise advice on life ! 😉
Do you think you could ever accept your total person, flaws and all?
Sampson says
July 6, 2011 at 3:00 pmThere’s only so long we can go before we have to accept the fact that SOMETHING in our lives is out of control and out of balance and until that thing is fixed, nothing will go back to equilibrium.
That applies to acne as well as our overall social life. I knew this very beautiful and intellectual girl with some sort of social anxiety disorder. For some reason, she would get these weird periods of where she would be absent from school for a week and then come back like nothing happened. Then she’d be absent again and come back again.
She had some control issues and was never able to finish anything when she was in school. She would work on an assignment, get it 90% finished and then her anxiety would kick in and she’d literally RUN out of the classroom. It was bizzare in a way, but when I thought about it, I sort of had the same thing, albeit much less apparent and problematic.
I realized that before switching my diet which cleared me up, I never really stuck with anything for an extended period of time. Even all those chemical cleansers which don’t work, but you’re supposed to use for 3 months or more to see max results, I would use for like 1 month and then switch cleansers, hoping to find one that worked faster and better.
I tried switching my diet before, but I’d always find some reason to not do as well with it as I could. My family would buy some horrible junk food and I knew I had the OPTION of saying “no, I’m not going to eat that because I know it’s going to break me out and just stall this skin recovery thing.” But then I ate it anyway.
When I screwed up my diet, I would always say to myself “It’s fine, I’ll just do better next week. Next week I’ll be PERFECT. Next week my diet will be flawless and everything will get better.” I never really had any issue with accepting that I screwed up and wasn’t perfect, but I did have issues with seeing things through. Then next week came and I screwed up AGAIN and the date of my acne recovery was pushed back yet another week.
After two years of pushing everything forward a week, I decided to stop the bullshit and most of all stop bullshitting myself. Then I saw an Ellen DeGeneres standup on HBO called “Here and Now” and I realized there is no room for “later.” It’s literally “now or never.” So many of us live for the future, but not for the here and now.
Later is always out of our grasp, because it’s in the future, but the present is here and now and we can work with it.
Tracy says
July 6, 2011 at 3:54 pmThanks for the wonderful comment, Sampson! As always 🙂
Sarah says
July 6, 2011 at 7:56 pmi really appreciate this video and sampson’s comment. i’ve known this for awhile, but i have a major problem following through on everything i do. it’s almost as if i know i’m going to fail so why even try. i really need to just get over my fear of failure and push myself, because although my skin has gotten better, i could also do much better. i think i’ve accepted to a degree i’m not perfect and i have flaws, but at the same time not fully because certain things still scare me because of my insecurities.
Primal Toad says
July 8, 2011 at 7:27 pmAwesome video Tracy. Possibly my favorite yet. Enjoyed reading Sampson’s comment too. I have been doing my best to focus on the present since that is all we have. Why desire this and that if we have no idea when and if we are ever going to have it or get to it?
Why not enjoy the present? Why not live in the now? Why not accept who we are at every single moment. I mean… we are alive, right? As long as we are living and doing the best we can with what we have from where we are then we are golden.
I was emailing someone back and forth just recently who has not been able to lose weight for over 1 year! She has done everything she possibly could. I really felt for her. I suggested that she ditch the scale and simply do the best that she can. I gave her some other advice too – eat smaller portions or maybe bigger ones, etc. Just little things to try.
About a week later she told me she did in fact ditch the scale and feels awesome because of it. She no longer cares about her weight because she can’t. Your total weight does not even say the whole story. Not at all. I believe its very possible that weighing herself daily may have been the only problem. She was not binge eating or anything. She was eating great and sleeping well, exercising, etc. But I just think that because she weighed herself often she was thus constantly thinking about it.
She said she was not that stressed out but she was of course still worried about her weight. When you check up on something then you have a concern about it. It’s on your mind.
She is now accepting who she is and will live a much healthier, fun, vibrant life because of it. She told me she would give me an update a couple months from today. I would not be surprised for a second if she tells me she has lost some weight.
Not thinking about acne can be a challenge but if you are able to manage it and instead be grateful for all of the positive things in your life – the simple fact that you are living! – is a HUGE step in the right direction. Why do you want clear skin? Ask yourself that. Live in the now!
Sarah says
March 28, 2012 at 10:37 amLove this post. Needed it. Thanks.
Amanda says
August 7, 2012 at 9:37 amAbsolutely love your blog! I just discovered it yesterday, through your dreads, and the “no poo” video. (I will be getting dreads shortly) – Pretty excited.
Anyways, I just had one question, pretty off topic, and I apologize, but where are you located in this video? It is gorgeous! And the natural sounds.. I think I read somewhere that you’re from Canada? Thanks a bunch! 🙂
Tracy says
August 7, 2012 at 3:59 pmHi Amanda,
Good luck with the dreadies! I live on the west coast of Canada… place called Powell River. This is where it was recorded! And yes indeed… it’s a beeeaauutiful place 🙂
Amanda says
August 8, 2012 at 8:33 amAwesome! Thanks for the reply. 🙂 I’ve always had an attraction to Canada, so beautiful. Have a wonderful day Tracy. 🙂