The perception discussion for this week is love and acceptance.
First we're going to discuss love.
What does love mean to you?
There are many types of love.
Love for your parents,
Your family,
And your children.
Love for the extended family,
Which includes friends.
Love is both a noun and a verb.
It is being and an action.
It is true of our self-actualizing people that they now love and are loved.
They have the power to love and the ability to be loved.
Love encompasses a range of strong and positive emotional and mental states.
From the most sublime virtue or good habit,
The deepest interpersonal affection,
To the simplest pleasure.
An example of this range of meanings is that the love of a mother differs from the love of a spouse,
Which differs from the love of food.
Most commonly,
Love refers to a feeling of strong attraction and emotional attachment.
Wikipedia We cannot will love,
But we can will to open ourselves to the chance.
We can conceive of the possibility,
Which sets the wills in motion.
Rollo May To be and feel loved is one of the most precious emotions we can experience.
The loss of love can leave us empty and incomplete.
Feeling lost,
Unloved,
And critical of ourselves comes from a lack of self-acceptance.
A study at Queen's University in Canada found we have 6,
200 thoughts a day and the National Science Foundation states 80% are negative.
Now we know why it's so difficult to change.
Many of us have loved and felt our world was over or the rug pulled from underneath us when we lose someone we love.
Be it a partner moving on or losing a loved one too soon.
Either way,
Grief is felt.
Allowing ourselves to grieve and understanding and accepting the grieving process is key to us being able to move on.
Acceptance helps us.
What is acceptance?
The Merriam Webster definition,
The act or state of accepting oneself,
The act or state of understanding and recognizing one's own abilities and limitations.
Maya Angelou wrote,
I don't know if I continue even today always liking myself,
But what I learned to do many years ago was to forgive myself.
Acceptance is forgiveness of self.
It's an act of excusing ourselves of preconceived mistakes.
What causes us to feel inadequate to the point that we find self-forgiveness unacceptable?
It could be not feeling intelligent,
Feeling unlovable,
Feeling unattractive,
Feeling insecure,
Feeling like you're not good enough.
As you notice the previous statements keyword,
Which is feeling.
Your perceptions make you feel this way.
Doesn't mean you are those feelings.
Wayne Dyer wrote,
If you change the way you look at things,
The things you look at change.
Acceptance is difficult if you have had many negative self talks.
I felt I wasn't good enough when it came to relationships,
Appearance and sometimes talent.
My plus was that there were parts of me I was very accepting of.
I knew I was intelligent,
Maybe not Einstein intelligence,
But I knew the world around me.
I was aware of my environment.
I just had an empathic sense for it and I was blessed with loving parents.
Having loving people in our lives makes challenges bearable.
There is a sense of security when you feel loved.
I took more chances.
Love doesn't need to come from family.
It can come from friends and others.
Nathaniel Brandon states,
The first step towards change is awareness.
The second step is acceptance.
This is so true.
How can you be aware of a situation if you don't even see a perception exist?
Peter Lindbergh wrote,
I'm firmly convinced that true beauty only springs from the acceptance of oneself,
From an awareness of who we really are.
Asking questions before we judge ourselves or others.
Who am I?
I guess it depends on the day.
I'm a work in progress.
Why do I feel this way?
Sometimes we just have to step back from a difficult situation and ask ourselves why.
Let me tell you,
Those are difficult questions to ask when you're emotional.
Hope and asking self reflecting questions can give you some peace of mind.
The poem for this week is Self from Inspire Me Perception.
Perplexing stillness lost in the cosmos of beliefs,
Concepts,
Old movies flash.
Abstract intentions.
The past is the past.
Face it,
Embark to unveil behavior.
Evolving blossom,
Efflouresting history,
Conjuring spells of soul.
Cubic cage of anxiety soars,
Halts transformation.
Conflicted thoughts,
Tension of id and ego.
No more,
No more.
Reticent shrieks guide posts,
Confusions.
Deceit impacts meditations.
Metaphysics vanishing sage contemplation finale.
Old beliefs release soul.
Heart opens,
Engages a benevolent self.
Many blessings.
