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When we accept ourselves, we listen and respond to criticism as mere feedback and we objectively agree with it or reject it. There is little or no pain,
defensiveness, or embarrassment, because our foundation is in our self acceptance, not in whatever acceptance we receive from other people. In many cases,
their criticism is not so much a statement regarding us, as it is a statement regarding their values for their own life. Those values are being imposed on us, and
we may have no obligation to comply with them, particularly if the criticism is nothing more than an attempt to manipulate us via the granting or withholding
of their approval. In order to function in society, we do need to conform to social protocol, but we can discriminate between the confirmation that we need
from other people and the confirmation that can come only from ourselves. If we seek all of our validation from other people, we create the destructive condition
of co-dependency.

Acceptance is associated with the energy vibrations of contentment and calm. We still have our feelings of liking and disliking, however we generally do not
experience indignation when the world does not conform to our preferences.

Repression causes emotional numbness, in contrast, acceptance of emotions allows us to use and enjoy them. The extent to which we repress one emotion is
the extent to which we repress all emotions. When we refuse to feel love, we also reduce our capacity to feel true happiness.

When we embrace acceptance we stop consuming energy in pointless battles against the people and circumstances that cannot be changed, and we
don't waste emotional energy via hatred and self hatred.

If we are not accepting, we can encounter stress, and stress related illnesses. The excess stress arises because we are fighting circumstances that we cannot
change. The stress is literally the energy that we cannot discharge because we are pushing against immovable objects such as circumstances that are to be
accepted rather than changed.

Through acceptance we accept our body's reality, the reality that a human body requires adequate nutrition, rest, exercise, and medical care.

Developing Acceptance

In choosing the benefits of acceptance :-

We cultivate energy tones such as relaxation, contentment, and pleasure with self
affirmations such as . "I accept the challenges of life." "I accept myself as I am and I want to be even better.", "I find a satisfying place for myself in the world
as it is.", "I enjoy the variety of life.".

We can visualize ourselves being calm in a situation that usually triggers excessive stress or judging.
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We act as if we are accepting of the unalterable conditions.