Encouragement for self-acceptance

Sometimes beginning meditation students think that a meditative practice will eliminate all uncomfortable feelings. They want everything to be peaceful, blissful, serene. But that's not only unrealistic, that's a form of grasping for the pleasurable states. Meditation, rather, gives us the skill to accept ourselves utterly as we are. Stephen Levine speaks to this in his book, A Gradual Awakening:

Coming mindfully into the moment is accepting ourselves fully. We know that there are feelings we don't know the root of, feelings we're not in touch with: "I feel a certain way, but I don't know why; I have this uneasiness, but I don't know where it's coming from - and, here I am, just open to it, just sitting with it." We can allow ourselves to stay soft with that, not to close in on it, not to cause resistance in the mind and body. It's all right not to know - it leaves room for knowing.

We can experiment with our practice to see what's going on inside ourselves. We can observe what anger feels like, what joy feels like, what separation from the flow feels like, what fear or worry feels like. We can see what letting go does. We can experience all of ourself. We make room for all of ourself and return wholeheartedly into the flow with a self-accepting mind not caught in judging other mind states.

I love that sentence, "We can experience all of ourself." This is why meditation is so profoundly healing if we let it be. Whatever aspect of ourselves we may have rejected in the past, we can now accept through meditation. May this happen for everyone who reads these words!