I accept you as you are.
This meditation is about accepting ourselves and others as they are.
Not as we want them to be,
Not as we'd like them to be,
Not as we hoped they would have been,
But as they are.
So take a moment and join me with taking some breaths of self-acceptance.
Without any illusions,
Seeing ourselves in this moment as we are,
As we feel,
Wherever we're at in our place in life.
It may not be enough for us overall,
But in this moment,
Can you say to yourself,
I accept myself as I am?
I release any expectations of who I'm supposed to be,
And I accept myself as I am.
Say to yourself,
I release my relationship with who you are not,
And I accept you as you are.
I release my relationship with who I am not,
And I accept myself as I am.
Fredric Nietzsche once said,
There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings.
Why would we then put so much energy into trying to love and build someone that we're not instead of investing all of that love into who we really are right now and letting that love create byproducts of well-being and perhaps expressions of an even better self in the future.
This works in our relationships with others as well.
I once worked with a woman who,
After almost 20 years of being estranged from her father,
Made the decision to allow him to move in with her.
He was becoming quite elderly,
And she knew he was moving closer to death.
He was living with her for a time,
And she came and saw me one day,
And she said,
Josh,
I'm around him for 15 minutes,
And he's not even doing anything wrong,
But I still want to strangle him.
This immense anger comes up in me.
And she began to share with me about her relationship with her father,
How he was overall a good man,
But quite simply not a very capable dad.
She had always sought love from him,
Sought support,
Sought someone to be proud of her and him,
And he was never quite able to be there for her.
This affected her not only in her relationship and her family,
But with her relationship with men throughout her life.
She was always looking for this support and this love from this man who couldn't quite give it to her the way she needed,
That she always in a sense was never able to receive it from anyone else.
She was single and in many cases lonely.
She was successful in her career but always struggled in her relationship.
And after talking a while,
She made two powerful decisions.
The first decision is that she was going to release this man from the role of father and begin to see him for who he was in that moment,
An elderly man who needed help.
Second,
Is she would now begin to slowly look to the universe to support her and to give her the love she sought.
No longer would she seek this love and support from a limited source,
But from all of the universe around her.
I found these profound choices that allow us to accept ourselves and others as they are.
I don't think it's true for everyone,
But this woman several weeks later shared with me that her father had passed,
But that something amazing had happened.
In their last days together,
She said she felt loved for the first time ever by her father.
Perhaps there was something about releasing him from the role and opening up to receive from the universe that allowed a healing of these two hearts.
I invite you to think of some important people in your life and to repeat the following statement with me.
I release my relationship with who you are not and I accept you as you are.
I release my relationship with who you are not and accept you as you are.
Let's think of our parents and say,
I release my relationship with who you are not and accept you as you are.
Let's think of our children and say,
I release my relationship with who you are not and accept you as you are.
Let's think of any other important coworker or friend or relationship and say,
I release my relationship with who you are not and accept you as you are.
And perhaps today if we can step more serenely and consciously into our life and honor our relationship with it,
Saying I release my relationship with who you are not and what I think you're supposed to be and accept this life just as it is today and it is in this living and this receiving that we can begin to,
With acceptance,
Live a better life right here and right now.
