THE REAL KEY TO
Happiness
by Dr. Kate Siner
P
eople ask me all the time
what true happiness is made
of. My answer is always selfacceptance. The truth is that our
happiness requires our acceptance,
especially of parts of ourselves we like
the least.
If you don’t have much context for selfacceptance, then you might not know
what it’s all about. Let me put it into
some concrete terms.
When you accept
yourself, you’re okay with
who you are. You’re also
okay with who you are
not. You’re always on
your side, no matter what
happens in your life.
Self-acceptance definitely takes some
practice. We all can get carried away
with thoughts that are self-shaming,
self-judging, or self-criticizing. When
you catch yourself thinking these kinds
of thoughts, I suggest that you douse
yourself with self-acceptance because it
really is the best antidote to feeling cut
down or simply not good enough.
You can get a sense of how self-accepting
you are by asking yourself the following
questions:
• Am I at peace with all my decisions?
• Do I love myself—even my not-sogreat parts?
• When faced with information that
supports a less than noble view of
myself, can I love myself and also
challenge myself to be more?
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