Learning to Accept Myself: A Journey From Self-Rejection to Self-Compassion

I Rejected Myself First

I think the reason this blog is so healthy for me is that it is allowing me to catch up to my own thoughts. I often grumble internally about being unappreciated at work or in my relationships, but the first person to reject my value was me.

I was constantly holding my words back and not seizing opportunities. I could feel this tension internally and I think others could sense it externally. They became less willing to give me opportunities if I wasn’t going to seize them, which I suppose is fair enough. And I stopped being seen as unique when I stopped sharing my unique thoughts.

I walked away from the things that I love most for the sake of others. Then I complained about not having any love or passion in my life. This is heartbreaking. So perhaps I will think of new ways to accept myself, instead of rejecting myself. I’ve come up with a list of things that I need to work on:

Ways To Accept Myself in the Future

  1. Accepting work mistakes by not catastrophizing them and instead learning from them
  2. Accepting previous relationship mistakes of myself and others
  3. Admitting confusion or if something is not working
  4. Being accountable for my words (both spoken and unspoken)
  5. Seeing my value first, before others need to
  6. Accepting and enjoying my body how it is, while also forgiving myself for wanting improvement
    • Not seeing myself as “less than” because I don’t like a specific part of my body
    • A mindset of self-acceptance and also self-improvement
  7. Accepting all the ways that I didn’t know better
  8. Forgiving myself for all the times I let other people override what I thought was right
  9. Admitting what I don’t know while also seeing myself as intelligent
    • Acknowledging that these two states can coexist
  10. Allowing myself to have preferences and exploring what these preferences are
    • It is okay for me to decide my own boundaries
    • It is okay for me to decide where I want to live
    • It is okay for me to decide how I want to express myself
    • It is okay for me to decide who I want to surround myself with
  11. Allowing myself to have my own personality
  12. Acknowledging genuine influence
    • Identifying those that grow and harm me
    • Not outwardly overestimating a person’s influence on me to make them happy
    • Allowing myself to choose my own mentors and heroes
  13. Accepting physical symptoms for what they are telling me
    • I should probably rethink my relationships with people that give me a constant stomach ache or cause me to sleep poorly

Messy Bun Book Lover

(Originally posted on June 23, 2025)