WOIW: Acceptance

Time for another Word of Inspiration Wednesday post, courtesy of the Kraafters Kommunity on Google Plus. This week, the inspirational word is ACCEPTANCE.

When I researched this word, I found countless references on Google relative to its meaning and usage in inspirational quotes. Going through the quotes, one thing quickly became obvious, namely that they can be divided into two groups: acceptance of your circumstances and self-acceptance.

Luckily, I've never had any issues with self-acceptance. Not that I'm a confident person, far from it, but early on I realized that I am my own best friend and I don't need justification from other people to be able to accept myself the way I am. I like myself and I know that I am worthy. I choose to surround myself with people who reinforce this belief, but I'm pretty much self-sufficient in this regards. I think a lot of introverts feel the same way. It's a life skill that I'm trying to instill in my son as well. Amazingly, if you like yourself, and accept yourself unconditionally, other people will do as well.

Where I do have issues, however, is accepting situations that I cannot change. Acceptance doesn't mean giving up, by the way - it just means that you learn to make the best of every situation and try to be happy despite unfavourable conditions. If you CAN change an unhappy situation, by all means do! However, if that's not possible, you can still find happiness in acceptance. I've gathered some affirmations for my page as a reminder of this.

I started out with a gelli print, which I stuck down with gel medium. I shaded the edges with a purple Gelato (the colour 'grape' which is my current favourite). I stamped on the background with black acrylic paint giving it a distressed look. I cut a heart shape out of a toilet paper roll and textured it with gesso. When the gesso was dry I coloured it with the same purple Gelato and stamped some dots on it with black acrylics and shaded the edges with a black gelato. I printed the affirmations on regular copy paper and cut it into strips, which I glued down along with the heart. The heart also has a piece of masking tape with the word 'acceptance' stamped on it. I quite like the overall look of this page.