Self-acceptance is the secret of heart connection

Connection with others is founded on connecting with ourselves. This inner connection is possible only when we accept ourselves. We are then called to see and accept others as they are, if authentic relationship is to be established. Once connection is there, change may follow.

The greatest gift of connection is the opportunity it offers to see ourselves. In a moment of connection, a great deal of our habitual anxiety about ourselves drops away.

Might it be possible to let go of some of this anxiety ourselves? Much of it is borne of a sense that we are in some way incomplete, undesirable or imperfect. Being human, we are all of us at heart infinitely more than enough. The challenge is not to measure ourselves against some conditioned or imagined yardstick, and project or hide ourselves accordingly. The challenge is to be all that we are.

If we suddenly acquired those characteristics we thought we needed, or lost those we wished not to have, it would not in fact make the difference we believe. It is in being ourselves not in modelling ourselves in this way or that we become radiant, attractive, engaging, connected. It is then also that we realise that it is being ourselves that authentic growth and development occurs.