Self-Acceptance

Robert Fettgather was a psychology student during the Human Potential Movement. There he discovered humanistic psychology and has studied the discipline ever since. Robert Fettgather enjoys nature and natural settings that shape the concept of flow and acceptance. 

Maslow is probably best known for his theory of motivation. He argued that when a need is not being met, a state of tension motivates us to meet it, leading to the reduction of the drive. His hierarchy of needs explains the organization of human needs, which are universal and ordered in terms of their strength. Maslow was particularly interested in self-actualizers, people who continually seek to reach their fullest potential even as they accept themselves as they are.

Rogers suggested that we all have an innate urge to move toward situations and people that will help us grow and to avoid those with the potential to inhibit growth. He highlighted the importance of self-concept, which refers to our knowledge of our own strengths, abilities, behavior patterns, and temperament. Rogers proposed that people often develop an ideal self, which is the self-concept a person fervently strives to achieve. Rogers believed that problems can develop when a person's self-concept is incongruent with his experiences in the world.

According to Rogers, people need to feel valued and basically accepted for who they are-not necessarily what they do. As parents and caregivers, it is important to show children that we value them all the time, not just when they obey us. He believed that the behavior is what is unacceptable, not the child. Carl Rogers once said, “It wasn’t until I accepted myself just as I was, that I was free to change.”

Psychologist Tara Brach addresses the fear of Radical Acceptance based on the false assumption that if we accept ourselves just as we are, we’ll never have the motivation to improve or change. Instead, Brach (like Rogers decades before her), believes it is that deep, unconditional tenderness and acceptance toward our own being that actually creates the pathway to the freedom and change we seek.