Self Acceptance: Being True to Yourself & Accepting God’s Help

By Cocoa the Journalist

Accepting Jesus Christ is the rite of passage for every Christian. It builds your faith, and promotes trust and consistency between yourself and God. But, how many of you have accepted yourselves?

Self acceptance is the process of recognizing, embracing, and affirming oneself as one truly is, including both strengths and weaknesses. It involves acknowledging one's inherent worth and value regardless of external factors or societal standards. Accepting yourself means being content and embracing all aspects of oneself without judgment or self criticism. Whether you identify as Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Hindu, or even agnostic, self acceptance is essential for us to tap into our best potential and live a happier life. While this article examines this with Christian lens, self acceptance is universal, and the takeaways from this can apply to everyone.

There are multiple steps you can take to begin self acceptance. You may get caught up with your life and forget to include God in your hardships. Some people may even feel ashamed to bring up their problems and try to shut themselves out. Through self acceptance, you elevate your well being and better accept God’s help. Here are few ways you can get started:

Let Go of Hurt: Bring Your Worries To Rest

Releasing your hardships can help remove stress, anxiety, and other harmful factors from your life. Holding on to your obstacles can cause a physical and chemical imbalance, which can severely affect your overall health. Some of your problems can result from lack of sleep, hopelessness, or developing unhealthy habits to suppress your feelings about them. Allowing yourself to let go of the control you think you have over the situation can help you move forward with your mistakes as lessons instead of punishments.

Of course, this is easier said than done, and sometimes you need support. Utilize new sources that encourage you to let go of the stressors in your life, such as healthy hobbies, like minded communities, and enrichment activities. This will help redirect your thinking and improve your environment. 

Surrounding yourself with people you can be vulnerable with, including God, can bring you relief. Regardless of your religious beliefs or lack thereof, accepting that situations cannot be undone helps you realize your mistakes and adjust to your outcome. Affirmations, meditations, and Bible readings can motivate you to accept yourself as you are while working towards becoming better.

Join a Self Help Group

Mental health problems are not limited to a certain age. Having a supportive community to turn to in times of need builds insight and trust between yourself and others. Non-profit organizations, anonymous online forums, or community events can help you step outside your comfort zone and meet new people who share similar experiences and healing journeys. Businesses such as Black Girls Smile connect Black women and queer communities to educational resources on how physical health and professional spaces can interfere with their mental health. Being receptive and open to these opportunities is the first step to incorporating wellness into your life, and it allows you to look at yourself with honesty and accountability.

Exercise

This doesn’t always mean hitting a gym. Mental exercises are essential as well in your journey to better self awareness and acceptance. You can stimulate your mind in a variety of ways. Breathing exercises, stretching, and other exercises help keep you active and relieves everyday tensions within your body such as shaking, jaw clenching, and poor posture. In your self help groups, participate in discussions with open ended questions to make yourself better aware of what you're healing from. Sharing your experience with others can provide insight on how you can navigate from past and present obstacles. In addition to being around  people, it's important to be purposeful with your conversations and act sincerely on what you learn.

This is where self acceptance will truly be put to the test. You cannot exercise the above successfully if you have not accepted yourself for where you are. Denying yourself can be harmful for your well being. It can consist of self depreciation, neglect, shame, anger and other forms of hatred people put on themselves. If you deny yourself, you cannot accept yourself. And this can affect how you receive help and how you interact with others.

The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still - Exodus 14:14

Have confidence in your acceptance of yourself, and trust God to help you along the way. Throughout the Bible, it has been shown how God’s assistance and guidance never strays from his children. He always keeps an eye on us and makes sure that we’re taken care of. How can we be at His service if we don’t have faith in ourselves? God wants His children to be confident. He has trusted and called us into this world for a purpose. He destined us each a unique path that only we can walk. Trusting yourself on your walk to acceptance is important to achieve what you desire. 

Self Reflect Regularly 

Holding yourself accountable, and incorporating your hobbies into your daily routine can help ease the pain of any situation and bring you back to yourself. Be careful recalling traumatic experiences, or making yourself the victim to situations that could have resulted from a trauma response. Having that realization can be hard to move on from, but it can also open the doors to a new perspective on what you’ve been through. Seek out strategies you can implement on your own for self reflection. Journaling or listening to uplifting music are a few hobbies that can help you accomplish this.

If God is for us, who can be against us? Romans 8:31

Having faith in God and having faith in yourself goes hand in hand. We see that even God’s trusted prophets have lacked in their faith and let their surroundings push them away from their devotion to God. In Matthew 8, there is a story of how the prophets were afraid of the storm approaching, while Jesus laid in the boat sleeping. They grew weary and fearful of the unknown, letting their flesh overpower the stillness God provides for us. Instead of allowing yourself to react before you think, you should approach your situations with a stable mind. 

It’s easy to associate yourself with someone if you know you’ll benefit from that relationship. Many people see God as a provider and believe that simply believing in Him is enough to receive good fortune. However, it’s important to be intentional with God. Having a strong foundation will change how you seek and accept God's help. Building a genuine connection with Him will help strengthen your faith and improve your mindset.

Having the reassurance you can make it through your life is important to your growth. As a Christian, we’re going to go through trials and tribulations back to back. Mental health is largely based on how we see ourselves and is affected by how we can accept help when needed. Taking that step to building self acceptance can go a long way for you.

Self acceptance allows God to make an impact through you. The enemy seeks nothing but our demise as we fall into sin and neglect ourselves. But God calls us to be diligent and faithful to his word and guard our hearts from what the flesh is exposed to.

With time and discipline, self acceptance can significantly improve your relationship with God and yourself. 

Meet the Writer

Cocoa is an aspiring journalist and a student with a passion for mental health. She hopes to publish articles centered around advocacy, Christianity, and mental health awareness through poetry and articles.