It is not uncommon for us to look for acceptance and validation from the outside world.
When we were young, perhaps we didn’t receive the love and attention that we craved.
Perhaps we were compared to others and felt that we didn’t measure up.
Or maybe we didn’t receive the comfort we needed at a moment of despair or pain.
There are many reasons why we might look to others for approval and support.
That can be a trap. Looking for something as elusive as acceptance from others is a tricky game.
We may get it, or we may not. Yet there is a better way to go about it.
Ultimately, all acceptance comes first from self-acceptance.
We may look for love and validation from others, yet when we love and validate ourselves first, the desire for it from others dramatically decreases.
Not that the desire for the love and approval from others ever goes away.
Yet if we are aware and conscious of that desire, and learn to direct it more inwards than outwards, we can find what we are truly looking for.
The side benefit is that when we truly accept ourselves, others are much more likely to as well.
Once again, doing the inner work of self-reflection and self-realization brings on more rewards in the outside world than we imagined.
For there is no inner world or outer world, there is only one world, the world of now.
~ Sam Liebowitz, The Conscious Consultant
