As coaches, we firmly believe that you are more powerful than you have ever known yourself to be! In fact, you are so powerful that you alone have the ability to accept and love those things about yourself that you never thought you could.
As human beings, it is very common to unconsciously run around chasing down others who we think will fill whatever perceived voids we have.
We hope that someone will love us and make us feel better about those parts of us we have yet to learn to love or accept.
If you don't learn to accept and love yourself for everything you are and everything you are not, you can never love someone else that way nor will anyone else love you that way.
This is SO important! If you keep running into the same walls and notice that you have the same issue come up in a relationship time and time again, you are NOT alone! Relationships are mirrors.
They are there to reflect back to you what you most need to see, even if you don't want to see it! The good news is that now you can use that as an opportunity to discover what it is you have yet to accept or love about yourself! Here are some insightful questions to ask yourself in order to begin the process of self-love and acceptance:

• Make a list of things you find hardest to love about yourself.
  (Don't spend too long on this, it is not meant to be a time to be self critical and harsh!
• See if you can trace back to the first time you remember feeling this way.
  
• What patterns can you see throughout your life?
• What people are connected to these feelings?
• Where have you been less than honest and authentic in your life? (This one can be very challenging, but it may also be the most enlightening!) What do you need to do move past these obstacles?
• What are your biggest complaints about others? Where might that also be present within your own life?

These questions are designed to help you shine a light of awareness on areas that may have been previously hidden from your view.
Spend some time investigating them as if you are on a discovery mission.
You must treat the answers like incredibly valuable gems! Here is another possible strategy for achieving self-acceptance: At least once a day for the next week, look at the list you made of things you find hardest to accept.
Repeat aloud: I love and accept _______.
See if you can say it in a very matter-of-fact way.
If you have trouble, try thinking about how easily you accept that the sky is blue and see if you can accept it exactly the same way.
(Just try it!) This exercise may seem counter intuitive because most of us are under a massive misconception.
We think that if we accept something, we can't make a difference.
In fact, all of the real personal growth experts will tell you it is the other way around.
You must accept something so that you are not wasting your energy on fighting against it or resisting it.
You may have heard the expression, "What you resist persists.
" Think about it.
It's true.
You will find that acceptance frees up a great deal of energy to put towards making a difference in whatever area you choose!