“Accept your own imperfection. Accept imperfection in others… don’t have the expectation that others should be perfect.”

In keeping with yesterday’s theme of curtailing criticism and judgement, today’s discussion follow’s the same idea. Patience. Tolerance. Understanding. Acceptance. How often do you think of or act on these words each day? And, do you start with yourself? Do you aspire toward self-acceptance?

Does that inner critic continue to nag you? if so, try to become aware of when that voice comes up, listen to it to see why it is really talking to you, give it a hug and ask it to sit quietly next to you as you move on throughout your day. Be willing to accept that you’re human, and as such are not perfect all the time. At the same time strive to do your best, continue to grow, but be willing to accept those imperfections that come up.

As you become more tolerant and patient with your own imperfections, you may notice that you become more patient, tolerant, understanding of others. This in turn leads to greater self-acceptance. Taking action in this way becomes an ever-expanding spiral. You extend acceptance to yourself which in turn allows you to more easily accept others.  This leads to greater internal peace creating more space from which you can extend acceptance to yourself, then in turn extend that out toward others.

Keep these ideas in mind as you move into meditation today and notice your behavior through out the day.  Spend a day focusing on acceptance for yourself and others, and see how it feels.

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