Accepting the self.

However hard we try to overcome nature, both environmental and personal, there are some things we cannot change. One of which is the notion of acceptance. All humans, whether they admit it or not, are plagued by the desire for acceptance. Whether it is that of our family — beginning with our parents — friends, or society; we act so that we may be accepted. A lot of trauma in adulthood stems from a lack of acceptance, which sometimes turns into outright rejection, in childhood. There is a variant of acceptance less documented, less acknowledged, and harder to address: that of self-acceptance. Notions of the quest to accepting one’s self permeates in scientific, technological, philosophical and interpersonal endeavours. Religion and other forms of divne worship have delegated the need for acceptance away from the self and over to the spiritual, the immaterial, the unquantifiable. It is easier to be accepted by a notion that won’t hold you to account. Today’s society, beset by a hyper-capitalist mindset, blazing in the glory of the individualistic aspiration, has emerged as one plagued by the spectre of a lack of self-acceptance. Capitalism requires conformity, it requires acceptance to revolve around a set of cultural definitions that always comply within the framework of consumerism. To be accepted, you must fall into a defined set of notions, spanning from the innocuous cultural artefact, to the gender, sexual or racial norms that have plagued our species’ history. Capitalism thrives on pushing these norms to their extremes. Its purpose and identity, relies on the fact that it can provide you with…