Radical Self Acceptance is Vital During the Spiritual Journey

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Radical self acceptance is a major part of the spiritual awakening journey, in fact, spiritual development and radical self acceptance go hand in hand. But – newsflash – you need to go through the process of self acceptance not once, but twice during awakening! This post explains why.

What is radical self acceptance?

We know what ‘self acceptance’ is, it’s making peace with the person you are and the things you’ve done.

We learn to stop being at war with ourselves.

But what makes ‘radical’ self acceptance radical?

It’s radical because it means making peace with yourself, even if that self is contrary to societal norms.

It’s being able to accept and love yourself, even if you’ve done some horrible things, without feeling that you must change or improve to be accepted.

Watch the video below from Tara Brach, one of the pioneers of radical self acceptance, to learn more.

Radical self acceptance leads to radical acceptance (of others)

Importantly, radical self acceptance ultimately leads us to radical acceptance – acceptance of others.

The non-judgemental ability to love all beings, no matter who they are or what they’ve done.

We might not like the actions but we learn to love the actor!

That might sound a little crazy, but try to think like an ascended master.

What did Jesus preach? Forgiveness, love, and compassion. That’s radical acceptance.

So the time and energy you invest in loving yourself will help develop your empathy and lead you to love others.

Why is self acceptance so important during the spiritual journey?

Self acceptance is important at two specific points in the spiritual awakening journey.

Early on, you need to accept the person you are and forgive yourself, so you can move forward.

This is the ‘Resolution’ stage of awakening – we start to resolve our issues.

Later, as you shed your Ego, you fundamentally change as a person and become aware of your true soul nature.

You then also need to go through the process of accepting this new version of yourself.

I dive into each of these periods of radical self acceptance in the following sections.

Meanwhile, watch the video below to learn more about the 7 stages of spiritual awakening.

Higher evolved souls often have low self-esteem

It’s a fact of life that highly evolved souls who have planned to awaken in this lifetime will often have a difficult start in life.

In fact, in the survey of spiritual awakeners I’m conducting right now, three quarters of the people who took the survey said they suffered abuse in childhood, some of it serious.

And a whopping 90 percent said they suffered a traumatic event.

As I’m sure you know, childhood abuse and trauma profoundly affect our lives as adults.

They have a massive impact on our self-esteem and can also lead us into self-destructive behaviours, like drug and alcohol abuse.

So it’s not a stretch to say, most awakeners have a lot of issues to deal with.

This is why we need to learn to practice radical self acceptance in the early stages of awakening.

Unless we untangle our issues and traumas, we’re unable to progress to conscious awakening.

First, we have to build a stable mental and emotional platform.

Understanding that things were ‘meant to be’ helps with self acceptance

However far-fetched it seems, you chose this life.

Whatever horrible things have happened to you, 99% of the time, they were planned.

Similarly, any ‘character flaws’ you have, were designed.

That’s because, firstly, we’re SUPPOSED to be different and have weird and uncomfortable bits to us.

We experience every flavour of human personality and life as we continuously reincarnate, some of them are going to be harder to inhabit than others.

Secondly, we come to Earth specifically to overcome challenges.

If your challenges are huge, it’s testament to the fact you’re a higher evolved soul.

We’re only given as much as we can deal with, and you can cope with anything, even if you don’t always feel it.

Radical self acceptance after shedding the Ego

Now, let’s talk about radical self acceptance later in the awakening journey, once you’ve shed your Ego.

What do I mean when I say you shed your Ego?

Basically that this part of your overall system becomes much less prominent, as you gain control over your conscious mind and progressively integrate with your higher self.

The Ego creates an identity for us which helps ‘keep us together’ until we’re in the later stages of awakening.

That’s when we access our true soul nature and no longer need the Ego to identify us.

So the irony is, having invested a serious amount of time in accepting the construct the Ego has created for us earlier in awakening, later, we become aware that that’s not who we are at all!

Watch the video below to learn more about the Ego.

Shedding the Ego requires us to rediscover who we really are

As we access our true soul natures during awakening, we learn some astonishing things about ourselves.

For example, 45% of awakeners who took my survey have clear memories of past lives.

Remembering past lives fundamentally changes how you see yourself as a person.

You realise that you’re NOT just your current ‘human avatar’, but you have a rich history of experience, gathered during many  lifetimes.

Another thing that can happen in the later stages of awakening is that we’re visited by some very senior souls.

Here’s a list of entities that the people who took my survey say they’ve interacted with during their awakening:

• Michael the Archangel
• Lucifer
• The Virgin Mary
• Mary Magdalene
• Jesus Christ
• Krishna
• Vishnu
• Shiva
• Muhammad
• Buddha
• God, and
• The Great Mother

These aren’t isolated incidents! The data shows it’s very common.

But that sparks a question: Who are you, if souls on this exalted level are guiding you?

Shedding the Ego means we start to rediscover who we really are

The fact of the matter is, if you’re awakening now, you’re a higher evolved soul and you have probably lived lives which came into contact with these beings.

Maybe even very close contact, perhaps a family member or friend.

So, having got our heads around the fact earlier in awakening that we’re not a terrible person, in fact, we’re fine just as we are…

…we now need to learn to accept that we’re a very old, very powerful soul!

It’s a head twister and also requires radical self acceptance.

So, how do you accept yourself as an old, powerful soul?

At this stage of awakening, the best thing you can do is meditate and look deep inside

Do you trust what you’re intuiting or being told about yourself – your true self?

If yes, then you just need to catch up to the idea

You can do this by using regular affirmations, such as:

‘I am a very old, very powerful soul who has incarnated in this life to do something important’.

If no, then ask your guides for more information, or consider past life regression hypnotherapy so you can gather more evidence.

Radical self acceptance doesn’t mean you can’t work on yourself

Just because you’ve forgiven yourself for your past and learned to accept the person you are, doesn’t mean you can’t aim for better in the future.

Investing in your personal development will open up all sorts of doors for you and make you a happier, more rounded person.

If you’re interested in learning techniques for radical self acceptance, I’ve shared a list of resources below.

Radical self acceptance resources

Audiobook – ‘Radical Self Acceptance’ – Tara Brach – click this link to view

E-book – ‘The Gifts of Imperfection’ – Brene Brown – click this link to view

Podcast – ‘The Self Acceptance Project’ – Sounds True – click this link to view

TED Talk – ‘The Space Between Self-Esteem and Self-Compassion’ – Kristin Neff – click this link to view

Reddit – r/DecidingToBeBetter – click this link to view