To be able to master yourself, you need to have self-acceptance. Self-acceptance is defined as your complete understanding of yourself exactly as you are at this point of your life. This is a very difficult task for most of us because we cannot generalize success for everyone. Some of us may have reached our ambitions in life while some, well, may not have even started it yet. At an early age, we have been persuaded and encouraged by our significant others to do certain things in order to achieve certain things at our prime, and that we should never be satisfied unless what we have is exactly what we wanted. In real life, there will never be a finish line for our gratification. Once we have achieved something, we do something again to achieve much, much more. So, at what point in our lives are we allowed to feel good then? Have you ever thought of that?

Society today dictates most of what is in and what is not, and being in would have to be in the form of possessions such as the right sports car, the right signature clothing or the right kind of beer we sip at parties. These problems with our culture, we can say, have been intentionally produced by the media and other types of business who are very diligent in their advertising campaigns. How many times have you felt bad about yourself because you do not have what the television ad is advertising? The right question to ask I guess is “How much of something do we really need to have?” Do you really need to have that Armani suit just to sell and advertising for your magazine? Or, do you really need to drink their beer so that they will sponsor your company’s campaigns and events? Yes, we do need certain things. But what things exactly and how much? We need material things to make us feel good, that is the bottom line. If you feel the need to buy something in order to feel good then you have to address that issue first before giving in.

Freedom can be expressed through Self-Acceptance. The freedom to be satisfied and happy with who we are without being slaves because of the needs that society wants us to have. The ability to look at yourself and the mirror and like exactly what you see is Freedom. It is being happy with the skin that you are in and not the skin that you want to have.

One of the biggest transformational events in our lives would be being able to accept ourselves truly. True self-acceptance does not necessarily mean that you do not like to change anything in your life anymore or search for new paths that lead to growth. Self-acceptance is simply finding satisfactions with who you really are despite the imperfections focusing your attention only towards the directions of positive reinforcement that is necessary to continue living. When you can accept yourself in totality, you are also able to freely accept others as well. You can love yourself as well as love others in return. We are all connected and intertwined. When we hurt others, we hurt ourselves too. So instead of this negativity, use the freedom to totally express yourself in a way that balances everything around you.