 Welcome everyone to depression to expression. My name is Scott and today we're talking about self Acceptance, how can we be more content with mistakes that we made in the past? How can we not let them affect our present? How can we have a flourishing and fulfilling future while not being our own worst critic? Well today, I'm sharing five steps five waves five waves five ways five different perspectives You can take and things you can integrate into your daily life that may help you with this this notion of self Acceptance so these five steps are about you know getting to a state of self-acceptance and showing Ourself some compassion as I said We're always our own worst critic and when we put ourselves down all the time when when we do something wrong when we When we mess up something when we make a mistake when we embarrass ourselves when we we're not in a Place where we think we should be in life. We blame ourselves and You know, there's nothing beneficial about that. So the first step to Self-acceptance is to think of something that you did in the past revisit your past a little bit and I know it may be painful and Tell yourself that you did the best you could at the time You Did the best you could at that time now the reason I say best is this can mean two things Maybe you did at that time give a hundred percent effort and something still just didn't work out The mistake was still made you are still hard on yourself even though you did the best Well, what if you reframe it as you did what you thought was right at the time I think of the mistakes I've made in the past if you go back to you Know when you're a teenager and growing up and our minds are a little smaller and the world is a little more compact And we're not as smart and open-minded as we are now and it's easy to think that that in that moment That you you thought you were doing the right thing You're you thought you knew it all it's easy to have a large ego at that age You thought you knew it all you thought you were doing the right thing and you thought you were doing the best thing Well have that perspective now How many years ago ten years ago five years ago at that moment in time you did the best you could you thought what you were Doing was the right thing Sure, you know it was wrong now, but not at that moment and you can't change that so that's accepting the mistakes that we make in the past as Noticing that I was somebody else back then I Don't have control over that person. I'm not that person anymore But he or she did the best they could at the time They thought what they were doing was right and it's now done and it's time to move on So that's step number one towards self-acceptance is looking at the past and realizing that it's over and you thought you did The right thing and the best you could at that time number two the second step towards self Acceptance is to know that perfection isn't the goal Your goal in life is not to be perfect the goal in life is not to avoid all Mistakes the point of life is not to avoid failure You know we all have different meanings that we put towards different things and we all have a different definition of what our lives should entail And what our lives mean, but in my experience It's the imperfection. That's the beautiful stuff. That's the gold the failures are What are what you know sprout new growth? The failures and the mistakes are what make us better human beings The failure is the soil in which in which we grow So if you're if you're trying to be perfect all of the time and you make one mistake well How can you be accepting of yourself in your situation when every time you veer off the path just a little bit? You're that much harder on yourself Acknowledge that perfection isn't the goal acknowledge that life is imperfect in itself Know that there's going to be mistakes and there's going to be plenty of hard times ahead There's going to be failures No matter how much you prepare There's going to be mistakes made and Know that that's okay. Know that that's all in the plan. Know that that's how life is supposed to be Because if you have the expectation that you're going to make no mistakes Well, you're setting yourself up to be disappointed you're setting yourself up to not accepting What life actually has to offer and that's a lot of shit? Life has a lot of curveballs to throw at you. So step number two is know that life Isn't supposed to be perfect and that perfection is not the goal number three We can think of self-acceptance as self-satisfaction. Are you satisfied with yourself? Do you like where you are in life? Are you happy with who you are right and if we're not satisfied with something? If we are dissatisfied, well, we can look at what things we can do to change that to be more satisfied with our life situation And who we are so I challenge you with number three think about things that you can change right away That can make you feel more accepting and more satisfied with yourself, right? How can you feel more accepting towards yourself? When you can look in the mirror and say I love who I see right now Is it something as simple as as changing what you're wearing? Is it as simple as shaving and looking a little more clean cut, right? Is it something to do with well, you know what? I haven't called my family in a really long time and I feel a little guilty about that Because I'd like to be the son or daughter that contributes to the family and has open lines of communication, right? Where are your values there? So are the things that you're dissatisfied with and If there are what actions can you take to solve that? Because when we have unsolved problems in our lives, which there always will be This there's of course going to be dissatisfaction But the very first step is to have an action plan note that there are problems But more importantly note that there are things we can do about them that we have the power, right? We have the power to solve them So part of that self-acceptance is to know that I have the power to solve all of these problems and everything I'm dissatisfied with in my life And I know that once I fix these and when I'm on the path to fix these I'm gonna be more of an accepting person of myself So if there are quick things you can fix do it, you know shaving and all of that was just a quick example But if there are quick things do them right now for long term write them down and have a plan of action Number four, okay I know that it's really really easy to look at the negative all the time. Of course. It's way easier We can train our brains so much, but you flip on the TV and I guarantee it's all negative news That's what sells that's the story We've been told that life is such a tragedy and and it's such a negative place And we just see what's happening around the world and we're kind of skewed towards this negativity And that's what happens in our minds a lot of the time When we think of our past the things that really stick The things that we constantly think of Well, those are the mistakes. Those are the times we messed up We think of the times where we had no control and we are taken advantage of We think of the hard times and the suffering in our past But believe it or not You have a lot of good in your past that you can reflect on a Lot of times where you faced a problem head-on a lot of times where where you thought you couldn't do something And you did it when you faced a fear head-on when you were really proud of yourself When you were truly happy when you made a difference in the world and in your community There are tons of these examples and step four is To be more self-accepting is to realize that you have made it really far And you have done things in your life that make you worthy of love and Worthy of others accepting you and worthy of you accepting you It's about self-love Reflect on your past know that you did a great job think of specific Scenarios when you did a great job at work when your mom and dad Told you that they were proud of you Right when you had a family gathering when you had a laugh with your friends Think of the good times That's self-acceptance to know that I did a great job. I'm continuing to do a great job I know deep within my being that I am worthy to be here That I'm worthy to be loved by me So reflect on your past and and write these down Daydream a little there's nothing wrong with daydreaming daydream think of those good times number five last And definitely not least we have uniqueness This channel is all about self Expression, how do we express ourselves in ways that make us feel unique make us feel like a real individual How do we express ourselves that makes us love ourselves? How do we express ourselves so that we're aligning our lives with what we believe in and what we value? That's what depression to expression is all about. I believe with all of my heart that This channel offers something unique that I offer something unique to the world by sharing stories of depression Anxiety offering strategies crying on camera being a little bit vulnerable online. I think I think I'm doing a great thing I think I'm unique in that I like what I'm offering So what I'm offering to you and what I'm asking you to do is think of what makes you unique What makes you unique? What's something you can do what's something you think about what's something? That nobody else has but you what's some strange talent you have What do you really like about yourself? This can be so simple. It doesn't have to be a big thing We don't have to play the comparison game. Well, I play the guitar, but my friend is a better guitarist So that's not really unique about me. No, you play the guitar differently than your friend does We don't have to compare and get on the same level as everyone else That's not what self-acceptance and self-love is all about. It's knowing that you specifically have something to offer You like nobody else So what's something that's unique about you? Write them down. What's something that you really like about yourself? This can be anything. Do you like the way your hair looks in the morning? Do you like the way that you swing a tennis racket? Do you like your own smile? Do you like your own like really? I'm not sure what it is. Do you do you like the way? You I'm running out of ideas. I don't even know I gave my I gave my ideas and Alex up for you I was going to say do you like the way you? You manually shift a car if you drive standard. That's a terrible example, but what's unique about you? I Know you can have fun with it, and I know there are things that you can list you can list a hundred things man I know you can it's hard It's a hard process Because as I said, we're our own worst critics No matter how many people love us if someone says great job to you if someone says I love you if someone says you're Compassionate you're empathetic, you know, you're an incredible human being That doesn't mean anything to us if we don't believe it ourselves If we don't have that self-compassion and self-love if we don't like where we are in life Or we we can't congratulate ourselves and give ourselves a pat on the back what other people tell us doesn't mean anything It starts with you It starts with self-love. It starts with accepting our past failures It starts with knowing that life isn't perfect It starts with knowing that life is extremely difficult and no one has an easy time That's something we're not unique with everyone goes through hard times Everyone struggles with this exact thing this exact idea of self-love. We all struggle with from time to time That's why we have to work at it. That's why mental health and training our minds and being Being present and working on self-improvement and self-growth is a lifetime skill. It's a lifetime practice You don't go to the gym once Do 20 curls and say I'm fit. I'm done. That's it. Your muscles are huge. That's it. No That's not it You go to the gym three times a week for the rest of your life to maintain health Maintain the muscle and physique that you want same with the mind. You can't meditate once and Think that you're going to be happy for the rest of your life and super Zen You can't do these self-acceptance practices once and think you're okay We need to constantly think of these things not too much But just enough so so we know that our we're developing and that we're not stuck in the past and that we're not constantly Comparing ourselves to others and that we're content and satisfied with our life. That's what this is all about that's what this channel depression to expression is about and the testimonials and and the comments on this channel just continue to blow my mind at At the level of intelligence and and the self-awareness people have within, you know The self and and how they know where they're steering off the path and and they know that that life isn't easy But they're accepting towards that. So I challenge you to try these five things Towards self-acceptance five steps and please let me know what you think in the comments, please Spreading some love in the comments. Just say hi to everybody. If you haven't subscribed yet, please do plenty of videos About mental health on this channel. So Lastly, I just like to say to everyone stay strong Keep being you and don't forget To express yourself. This has been Scott from depression to express. Huh? Huh? depression to expression Take care