To Accept Others You Have to Accept Yourself

To Accept Others You Have to
Accept Yourself

You are prejudiced. I am prejudiced. We’re all prejudiced. And that in and of itself is not a bad thing.

I’m making this bold statement because, as the title suggests, I wholeheartedly believe that you have to accept yourself before you can hope to accept others — before you can hope to effect any real change in the world.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately because the Black Lives Matter movement is at the forefront of the public’s attention, in the wake of the death of George Floyd. I’ve been thinking about what message I would like to send and what part I would like to play in the movement, if any.

And, after all this thinking, I’ve decided that this simply isn’t my fight to fight. Maybe it’s not your fight to fight either, and that’s okay — accept that about yourself.

What I can do, the part I can play, is encourage you to accept yourself by Deliberately Thinking about your own prejudices.

Keep scrolling to find out why I would say you are prejudiced.

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What Is Prejudice?

There are many definitions of the word prejudice/prejudiced. The one I’m referring to comes from Merriam-Webster:

2.a (1) preconceived judgment or opinion

We all form preconceived judgments or opinions about everyone and everything. Our brains are hardwired to do so because the main function of our brains is to keep our bodies safe. It’s as simple as that.

Your prejudices, in and of themselves, do not make you a bad person and feeling guilty for having them isn’t going to do anyone any good. Accept this about yourself.

Now, what you do after you form that preconceived judgment or opinion is another story. That’s where the problem lies. Because, maybe you can’t control your initial thought — your initial prejudice — but you can control your subsequent thoughts and actions.

The sooner we accept the fact that we are prejudiced, the sooner we can gain control over those subsequent thoughts and actions. And, the sooner we will be able accept others for who they are. Yes, it’s really that simple.

I’ll end this post with a powerful quote from C. JoyBell C.,

In order to change the world, you must first change yourself. In order to have the right to see what is wrong with the world, you must first earn that right through seeing what is wrong with yourself. We do not become influencers, leaders and teachers, through pulling on our better attributes and applying those better attributes to a broken world like a healing balm; rather, we become influencers, leaders and teachers in this world, by performing within ourselves the purging that we wish to see take place in others.

If you found value in this post, you might enjoy these full-length posts that I wrote awhile ago:

Stop Worrying About Privilege and Be Grateful

Veiled Privileges to Be Grateful For

Click here for more posts with an “acceptance” theme.

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And until next time . . . have a SELF-ACCEPTING day!

SCREENSHOT TIME!

Take a screenshot to easily access this thought when you need it:

We are all prejudiced because we all form preconceived judgments or opinions about everyone and everything.

The sooner we accept the fact that we are prejudiced, the sooner we can gain control over our thoughts and actions. And, the sooner we will be able accept others for who they are.

theexpectationgaps.com