Hungry for self-acceptance

When someone makes you an offer, you have the opportunity to accept or reject the offer. Similarly, if you propose products, services or something about you to other people, then they could embrace or reject you.  If you learn to see rejection as a process of learning how to become more effective or how to become truer to yourself, then you'll be less likely to feel devastated in the case that events don't unfold your way. Its a path to self-acceptance.

Reflect on an experience when you feel rejected.  Your attention may be drawn to things you didn't know about yourself or other people.   How do you benefit? What can you gain?  You may discover a hidden agenda, evidence of untruths, an interplay of thoughts and feelings within yourself, and about the other person who has rejected you.  Getting 'brushed-off' is an invitation to grow and love yourself more just as you are right now.  Do you realize that? 

Consider Colonel Sanders, the brains behind Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC).  Whether or not you like or eat the food from this restaurant is beside the point.  Sanders shouldered over 2000 rejections before he came upon a receptive restaurant for his recipe ideas. It took a lot of determination and thickening of his own skin before he met people willing to buy and market his special recipe.  The rest is history.  Yet, KFC success didn't happen overnight. 

Take notice of how you give and respond to rejection.  Do you shrug off rejection easily and move on or, would you benefit from taking a crash course on grace and maturity? Are you tolerant, loving and accepting of others, or are you apt to humiliate them and wound their pride? Whatever approach you take reveals to what degree you love and accept true self.

Let's reflect. So, you didn't get offered the promotion or maybe you were dumped by your partner for someone else.  Neither situation is particularly appealing on the surface, but look a bit deeper.  Rather than permit yourself to feel bad about what you didn't get, or view yourself as less than worthy, you can see every situation as doing you a favor.  Look at your new freedom! New opportunities are arising; in personal growth, in other jobs, and more fulfilling relationships. Everything is a stepping stone to something. 

When all is said and done, you benefit from observing your responses to everything that unfolds in your life.   As you evolve to understand why you feel rejected, you come to see a limited perspective can expand.  If you tell yourself you're less than you are, then you reinforce false beliefs that do not serve you.  Everything is a teacher if you see it.

In the end, you can breathe a sigh of relief if you are brushed off.  Step back and see what this allows to arise in your life.  If you didn't have doubt or expectations, then feeling frustrated, demoralized or disappointed wouldn't arise and capture your attention.  Situations only hurt if you allow attachment.  Teach yourself suffering is a state of mind.  Satiate the hunger that does not really exist.  Self-improvement is unnecessary as you love yourself as you are.

Anita Roddick & 5 Ways to vomit unexpected ideas

When Gordon Roddick desired to fulfill his childhood dream of riding on horseback from Buenos Aires to New York, his wife Anita knew she would need a strategy to support herself and her daughters while her husband realized this crazy goal.  She had long thrived on adventure and risk-taking herself, having undertaken a hippy excursion around the world before she met him.  Their duo initially survived on small business ventures, then she devised The Body Shop. It originally grew in her kitchen from basic ideas to recycle brown paper (vomit) bags as packaging.

Many people know that the Roddicks have gone on to supervise the controversial, environmental-activist-oriented empire.  Over 27 years, this company expanded from a one woman-show to a single provincial store, to include over 2000 stores in 50 countries, more than 70% of which are franchised.  How did all this come about? It was more than a reflux reaction... 

1) Find a way to pay the rent.  Sounds simple, doesn't it? A woman racked her brains for a concept that would be compatible with her beliefs, generate some money and enable her to care for her children.  Her travels had taught her about the niche for inexpensive, natural beauty products in basic packaging.  She started-out with a no-fuss attitude and a goal to pay the bills.

2) Learn along the way.  When Anita initially approached the bank for a loan, she knew littler about protocol.  She wore casual clothes and took her children.  Her enthusiam wasn't enough to win the bank's approval. Luckily, she went back wearing a suit with her husband who made the presentation and secured the initial loan.  She learned doing things her way didn't always get desired results.  With her husband away, not being able to get an extended loan, she strategically approached a friend's boyfriend (mechanic), and he gained a half-share while she opened a shop.

3) Be unorthodox.  Standing out from the crowd draws attention and can be achieved different ways.  Anita felt a social responsibility to develop in-store campaigns to promote her beliefs in protecting and restoring the environment.  She also felt an obligation to incorporate ways to raise awareness about human rights.  Her desire to develop a sense of accountability continues.  Her creativity explodes in a bouquet of impatience to change what she sees isn't working in the world.

4) Don't focus on the bottom line.  The Roddicks have always portrayed themselves as representing a company most concerned with being radical, ethical, and culturally-conscious.  The revenue stream is considered an offshoot of their integrity, principles and dedication.   The company floated in 1984 and the business was valued at $14.5 million after a day of trading. Anita feels that kind of level of success revealed public support for their message.

5) Move with the times.  The Body shop remains cutting edge because executives remain aware of trends and avoid stagnating or becoming a dysfunctional coffin for dead ideas.  The evolution of the internet and trends in other cosmetic companies have influenced The Body Shop products to be made available in new ways, such as in-home direct sales strategy.  New products emerge with the seasons and surveys keep the company closely acquainted with client desires and values.

Open those Pearly Gates

It may all begin as a self-created dream, a perceived need for semi-divine messengers. These protectors or guides can appear in a timely fashion, to advise us during situations of confusion.  Since quantum physics explains 'object and observer' are connected, we're intricately joined to whatever we desire to see. Whether guardian angels are projections of our positive conscience or lower, basic instincts, encounters may challenge our psychic integration and orient our spiritual growth.

Why is it you're worst nightmare or greatest dreams may come true, or something in between? Whenever you think you may be the recipient of a godsend, a timely event or encounter which seems to arrive 'just in the nick of time,' it will relate back to a vision you had for yourself. Call it awareness of a goal or intention, a desire to invite or attract things you think you need.

You may crave certain kinds of personal relationships then, happen to meet that special someone quite unexpectedly. Did something beyond you hear your call? Read your deep thoughts? Perhaps you feel you need a dramatic experience to shake you up a bit. These need not be grand visions. Pearly Gates may open and send you an interpreter to assist you with judgment and prophecies.

Consider the idea that a parking ticket on the widshield of a normally-vigilent driver. Weeks later, this turns out to be the exact sum of money required to join an organisation of newfound interest. Was the ticket a heavenly sign of a forthcoming opportunity or, a warning of penitence to result from a future association? As our life choices seem to expand, we experience a far richer existence. Our soul's evolution on Earth follows a path which we can't predict.

To reclaim who you are, grasp why you see your reality, you may benefit from invisible help. A school-aged girl arrived home to encounter her cousin on the front porch swing. The girl entered the house to report the visitor, but was distracted by her sobbing mom. She told her daughter that her cousin had suddenly passed on that morning. She also warned the daughter to avoid the porch swing because it was broken.  Was the child's vision prophetic, a hallucination that resulted from her over-active imagination or, a reflection of deep spiritual connection?

You decide whether you perceive guardian angels , based on what you choose to see or, what you choose to disbelieve.  Your behavior and faith slants your percpetion of any heavenly tidings you may receive. Open your senses and gain access to a vision of the power behind the Pearly Gates and how it helps you. Tap into yourself.

Transcend your indignities

If you've never dreamed of approaching your wit's end, but wondered if you had anything more to lose, you may aim to make greater sense out of what you discern as apparently senseless suffering. Some people believe to live means to suffer and to survive hardship enables you to find meaning in suffering. When you imagine a purpose to your life, you might also imagine an eventual purpose would be served in dying. Yet, each person must follow a solitary path to self-discovery, and accept the responsibilities associated with embracing an inner sense of purpose.

Consider Viktor Frankle. He was a psychiatrist who lived through Auschwitz and watched his family and millions perish. His writing takes an uplifting view of our capacity, as human beings, to transcend any predicament, to accept ubiquity of suffering, and discover a sense of accountability for our lives. Among Frankle's books, his most well-known is called "Man's Search for Meaning." In it, he teaches us that no matter what our experiences, we can weave threads of pain into a solid pattern of new meaning and responsibility.

Move beyond initial shock to release and liberation. How will you grow to take more responsibility for your life, no matter how disconcerting your circumstances? If you evolve to feel worthy of your suffering, you realize you can rise out of the temporary gloom.  Tap into the reasons you feel motivated to endure and come out of your current difficulties.  You may have children or other loved ones who need you.  You may have a talent you have yet to fully develop or share.  You may have a wealth of ideas you plan explore, dreams to realize.  You may have past experiences worthy of keeping, savoring and expressing at a later time.

As you grow to desire to form a deeper relationship with yourself, you need to make room for revelations, to make room within yourself. The voice of silence can be the hardest one to hear. Learn that part of you is always witnessing your thoughts and feelings. If you feel depressed or uncomfortable in some way, and someone asks you how you know, you'll realize why and how. Your body will provide you with wisdom in forms of answers. Pay attention and listen to them. Exert effort to understand your reasons for humiliation, fear, anger, injustice or other indignities.

Let go of your pre-conceived notions. Take this opportunity to release judgement and practice unconditional forgiveness. Admit to yourself mysteries exist beyond the depth of your life experience. Can you trust without limits? Are you willing to take steps to heal yourself? Are you really home? As you come to know and admit why you feel how you feel, you penetrate to your core. You'll discover that you desire a mind that will be committed to your soul, committed to unveiling the flow of emotion and apathy about your unprotected and insecure life. Embracing vulnerability may be the key to transcending and growing stronger as a result of your indignities.

What do you seek from yourself?

Everyday, we're bombarded with instructions from many directions. Institutions, strangers and peers advise us to behave in certain ways, adopt certain beliefs and make certain decisions. Some advice will oppose or contradict other advice. How will you decide to sort through it all and figure out what you really seek from yourself? The implications of your response will be far-reaching.

If you're unable to focus on an area or areas you desire to improve, then it will be very difficult to concentrate and complete things.  If an influx of ideas confuses you about what you should do next, you'd benefit from evaluating your choices systematicall,y and narrowing your priorities. As you come to recognize self-improvement is a process where different actions promote different kinds of personal growth, then you may relax more about the order in which you progress.

You may have heard the idea that life is a particular kind of game and people spend much of their existence grappling with the object to learn the rules. You decide whether you play fair. You decide to create rule or adopt existing rules imposed from outside yourself. Realize that how others suggest you do to improve yourself or your conditions isn't always compatible with your own ideas. If you wonder why people aren't more clear about what they want from you, maybe you could open your senses. The answers will resonate inside. 

Each time you make choices that enable you to feel good about yourself, this implies this is something you want from yourself.  Reading about positive life occurrences that have been experienced by others has potential to open your mind to possibilities of choices all around you. How you evolve to see yourself will determine where and how you desire to change. You must decide for yourself on your baseline, that is, what parts of you, your attitude or self-image will be desirable to overhaul.