Gratitude: Accepting Ourselves for the Beautiful People We Are

As far as understanding ourselves is concerned, many of us need to work harder at accepting ourselves for the beautiful people that we are.

It is important to realize that understanding and knowing are not the same. It is understanding, not knowing, that leads to right action.

We need to spend more time developing our individual gifts and less time worrying about what others think of us. I told someone this once and they asked me what would happen to the world if everyone did whatever they wanted to do and my reply was that we would have a lot more bad poets.

We need to love ourselves more, and in doing so, we open ourselves to loving others and being loved. When we fail to understand ourselves for being the miracles that each one of us is, then we lose sight of our own incredible potential. We also tend to look at others with less understanding, tolerance and appreciation than we should because we are in fact projecting our lack of understanding of ourselves onto others.

When we put more effort into understanding the reasons why people act as they do we can become more positive, grateful human beings. By removing the ego component and not reacting instantly to their questionable behavior, but instead, choosing to understand the actions first — putting ourselves in other people’s shoes — we save ourselves a lot of negative energy that can result if we are too hasty. When someone else judges us without understanding our situation we get upset, yet we do the same thing.

When we lose sight of understanding our role here on earth and we allow ego to intrude, we tend to strive towards personal achievement or victory at any expense. Many times the cost is great and the results devastating, including a body battered by stress, destroyed families, ruined friendships and an ecology left in tatters.

Once we accept that our role here on earth is to help each other reach our fullest potential, we start looking for ways to help others reach that potential, just as others try to help us reach our fullest potential. When everyone is in sync, bringing everyone and everything around them to new heights of success and achievement, then the world becomes a better place. Take care and be well.

-Harry Tucker