Am I worthy?

Image Credit - Jon Rasmussen

"No one can make you feel inferior without your consent."  ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

How true this statement is and what a strong testament to the power of acceptance.  If we truly accept who we are then we reclaim the power to determine our worth.  The only time that someone can "make" us feel inferior is when we allow their opinion of us to be the determining factor in our worth.  Often times, it is not even someone else's stated opinion that we use to determine our own worth.  

As I think about the past few months and people I have encountered, it is far more common that I determine my own worth based on what I think someone else thinks of me.  If you think about that, that means that I am determining my self worth based on what someone else thinks of me...but I am assuming what their opinion of me is, not because of what they have said, but what I think they are thinking.  At that point, I am projecting my self-worth on to them.  Think about it....how many times have you thought, "I know what they are thinking, they don't think I am _________."  Sometimes we think this even though these other people NEVER say a word to us.  I am have been a choral conductor for 15 years.  I regularly stand in front of an audience of 200-300 people....most of which I will never meet or speak to.  However, I know that I have thought and continue to think, "I am not worthy because these people think I am not worthy."  The reality is that I am not worthy because I do not think I am worthy.  I am just using the audience as a convenient scapegoat.  

This is where Cheerful Acceptance comes in.  I need to accept my own worthiness so I can stand in front of that audience and know that I am worthy.

My goal today is to not let other makes me feel inferior...because that is just a reflection of how I feel about myself.  May you have a GREAT day and feel the power of accepting your own worthiness!

The Power of Cheerful Acceptance

From Simply danLrene

"Face your deficiencies and acknowledge them; but do not let them master you.  Let them teach you patience, sweetness, insight."  ~Helen Keller (1880-1968)

I have trouble keeping to an exercise plan.  I have a trouble maintaining a healthy diet.  I have a tendency to float from "big idea" to "big idea."  I consider these to be some of my deficiencies.  Even at the time I am writing this, I allow these deficiencies to define me.  I feel I am not worthy because I can't keep to an exercise plan or maintain a healthy diet which prevents me from reaching a healthy weight.  The key to cheerful acceptance is the ability to acknowledge your deficiencies without letting them define you.  I can accept that I have trouble keeping to an exercise plan WITHOUT letting that define me as not worthy.  the same can be said about strengths.  We also need to accept our strengths without letting them define us.  It is just as easy for me to say, I am worthy because I am talented at singing.  In order to move towards cheerful acceptance of who we are, we need to develop a belief that we are worthy because of our uniqueness and nothing else.  Our uniqueness is defined by our strengths and our deficiencies.

I have only just begun this journey to acceptance.  I know there is power in cheerfully accepting who I am and who I can become.  Knowing that you need to do something is a far cry from being able to do it.  We are bombarded on all sides with messages that tell us what we need to be/do to be worthy.  Embracing Cheerful Acceptance means having the courage to disregard all of these messages and accept who we are...."warts" and all acknowledge our inherent worthiness.  I know that once I am able to Cheerfully Accept my inherent worthiness, I will be more sure of myself.  Once I take the responsibility of defining my worthiness away from others and make it my own, I will have the power move forward and be successful, because I will accept that my success is in my power and no one else's.

Have a GREAT day!

Photo from Glynis Sherwood Blog

“Once we believe in ourselves, we can risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit” 
― E.E. Cummings

Good morning readers!  I hope you are well this morning and that you have a great day!  As I woke up to prepare for my day, I cam across the quote and picture above.  I thought both were inspirational so I thought I would share them with you.

The photo of the person on a beach sitting within a heart is touching, but I believe it is the background of the photo that speaks louder.  In the background you can see what looks to be the sunrise.  Within the sunrise is all the promise and possibility of a new day.  What this picture says to me is, "I have loved and accepted myself and that comes with me and because of that TODAY is full of possibilities!"

The quote by author E.E. Cummings ties into the importance of self-love and acceptance.  In self-acceptance, we believe in all of our gifts AND imperfections.  The reality of our existence is that we all have gifts and imperfections.  Unfortunately, many of us go through life trying to hide our imperfections.  We spend incredible amounts of energy trying to sculpt ourselves into what we think everyone else thinks we "ought" to be.  I say we, but really, I mean I at this point.  I can only speak from my experience.  Imagine the amount of energy you can save and stress you can minimize each day, if spent less time trying to create and image of who you think you "should be" and just be "who you are"  By cheerfully accepting who we are, we are able to go through each day knowing that the person we are is good enough and worth sharing with the world.  Each one of us has a unique gift to give to the world each day....US!"

If we start each day cheerfully accepting who we are and what we have to offer, we can take risks without worrying about how it will change society's view of us.  If we know that who we are is good enough then we can, as the quote says, "...risk curiosity, wonder, spontaneous delight, or any experience that reveals the human spirit."

Have a GREAT day and have the courage to cheerfully accept who you are!

Good Morning and Welcome to the Cheerful Acceptance Blog!

Hello Friends and welcome to my blog!  I am brand new to this idea of "blogging" but I needed a space to verbalize my thoughts and get some feedback from others with more different wisdom than me.  I am writing this from the figurative "edge of a precipice" in my life.  I am approaching my 39th birthday (not too close...July...but still) and am in the process of what may be a "mid-life spiritual awakening"  (my thanks to Brene Brown who coined this term in her book, "The Gifts of Imperfection."  It is a great read and I recommend it to anyone thinks they might need some help understanding how to embrace your imperfections.

Anyway, the picture above is from Blue Mountain Lake.  In the past few years, my wife Stephanie and I have becoming a bit more outdoorsy and for our recent 15 year anniversary, we stayed in a cabin at Blue Mountain Lake.  One morning, we decided it would be fun to walk on Blue Mountain Lake.  The picture above is take from the CENTER of Blue Mountain Lake.  For me, it was awe inspiring.

It is possible that some of you who read this blog may be tempted to ask....Why is the title of this Blog "Cheerful Acceptance"?  There is a story at the heart of this answer.

One of the many roles I play each day is father.  I have two beautiful daughters and they are the joy of my life!  I have no doubt that as my blog progresses you will get to know Vienna (named for the city of music) and Ellone (pronounced Ell-oh-nay and from the video game Final Fantasy VII) very well.

Vienna, my eldest, has been going through some rough (becoming  a teen-ager....13) adjustments and while I love her dearly, she has made some particularly bone-headed choices as of late.  As part of my job, Steph and I assigned consequences for her most recent "less than stellar" choice that included grounding her from social activities for a while.  She came to Steph and I to ask to be allowed to go to something with a few of her friends. she asked and then said, "I will do anything if you let me go."   She ran through a battery of things she was willing to do (laundry, litter box, shoveling, dishes, garbage, etc..) but all of them fell in the "chore" category and we didn't feel they measured up to the severity of the crime.  I looked at Steph and said, what can she offer that would be acceptable.  Steph, apparently frazzled from the amount of whining our children had recently displayed said, " I would love it if she would stop whining for a while...that would be worth it."  Vienna looked confused, but said, "I can do that!"

I thought for a minute....and said, "No, that is not enough....  It isn't enough for just to not have you whine.  I need you to not give me the teenager attitude every time I ask you to do something.  We don't ask you to do a lot, but when we do, we get the whining followed by the eye-rolling and dismissive FINE!  What I want is for you to cheerfully accept that these are things you need to do to keep your parents happy and that this life will go by much better if you learn to cheerfully accept."  I know that I was far more eloquent during the actual conversation, but that was the general idea.  Ever since then, whenever either of my daughters start to whine and such, all we have to do is quietly say, "Cheerful Acceptance" and the behavior usually stops.  It has even gotten to the point that recently, when Vi-vi starts to whine about something she follows it up with, "I know, I know...Cheerful Acceptance."  And then she goes and does it.

Thus was born the Cheerful Acceptance idea.  As I continue to think about Cheerful Acceptance, I see it as being a very powerful concept.
According to dictionary.com, one of the definitions of Cheerful is hearty or ungrudgingly.  Additionally, one definition of Acceptance is the act of assenting or believing.

So Cheerful Acceptance is the "act of assenting or believing heartily (meaning with the heart) or ungrudgingly (whole-hearted)."

In the case of my daughter, this referred to assenting, but it could also refer to believing.  I believe that there is power in learning to Cheerfully Accept more things in our life....both good and bad.

Thank you for reading my first post....I hope you will enjoy reading and commenting on this and my future posts.