Accept yourself

Accept you for who you are. Try not to wish you were someone else. Everyone is unique, try some of these tips for accepting yourself:

1. Embrace your uniqueness. Remind yourself that everyone is different so try not to compare yourself or your life to others around you.
2. Celebrate your strengths. Make a list of your strengths, and try not to focus on things that you’re not so good at as it will only bring you down.
3. Surround yourself with good people. If you have good friends who like you for you and accept all your quirks, then it’ll be easier for you to accept yourself.
4. Use mantras. Choose a quote or sentence that you like and that makes you feel good about yourself and repeat it when you’re not feeling good. Write it down somewhere and keep it somewhere handy for gentle reminders.
5. Learn from mistakes. We are all human and have flaws, part of accepting yourself is accepting the fact that you will make mistakes and stumble at times but you can learn from these experiences and improve on them.
6. Live in the now. You can’t change what happened yesterday or predict what will come tomorrow so just take things one day at a time. Knowing the difference between the things you can change and the things you can’t will help in accepting yourself.
7. Learn to quieten your inner critic. We all have that inner voice that likes to criticise and put us down. Blocking it out and learning to ignore it completely will help you to feel better about yourself.
8. Fake it. There’s nothing like faking it until you make it, and eventually it will become second nature.
9. Acceptance can be difficult and takes practice. Give yourself time and don’t beat yourself up if you don’t notice it straight away.
10. Write it down. Write down all the things that makes you unique and who you are, and take time to look at it when you need a boost.