Self-acceptance is an individual’s acceptance of all his/her attributes, positive or negative. It includes body acceptance, self-protection from negative criticism, and believing in one’s capacities.

Self-acceptance is different from self-esteem, as the latter refers to how worthwhile or valuable we see ourselves. The former, on the other hand, refers to a comprehensive affirmation of self. This allows us to accept all of ourselves, not just the good. We are able to recognize our limitations and weaknesses, but this by no chance hinders our ability to accept ourselves for who we are.

The truth is, if we want to improve our self-esteem, then we need to honestly explore all parts of ourselves that we've not come to terms with and that we have not fully accepted. It’s only when we stop being harsh critics of ourselves that we can develop a positive sense of who we are. This then explains why self-esteem naturally goes up as soon as we become self-accepting, which is crucial to our emotional well-being and happiness.

Emotional well-being: how to accept ourselves

 We need to let the past go and learn new techniques of accepting ourselves as we are. For the sake of our peace of mind, happiness and overall emotional well-being, we first need to accept ourselves unconditionally.

There are three main ways to boost our self-approval and acceptance levels and therefore our emotional well-being: 

1) Self-regulation: This allows us to shut down self-deprecating emotions such as not being good enough and focusing more on our positive attributes and restructuring negative occurrences, so we look at them as great opportunities that are meant to help us improve ourselves.

2) Self-awareness: Sometimes, our self-accepting level goes further than our conscious level such that when we are not self-accepting, we essentially split ourselves and feel incomplete. That is, the part that needs forgiveness and the one that should forgive are at loggerheads. Self-awareness helps us understand what is happening at a deeper level.

3) Self-transcendence: This allows us to depend on things that are outside of ourselves to define who we are. That is, we turn to an unseen force that connects us with the world. Some of the ways we can become self-transcendent is by contributing to charities, helping the less fortunate, and so on. Self-transcendence has been proven to impact our brains positively by increasing the release of our feel good hormones, that is, dopamine and serotonin which reduce our stress levels and give us emotional fulfilment.