Dr. Shadé Zahrai

So it's a beautifully liberating state.

When you don't accept yourself, that is when you self-reject.

You self-reject before anyone else can.

So there are two things that I'd recommend you do.

Okay.

The first, well, actually, there's three.

The first one is that you need to acknowledge that until you accept yourself, nothing will change.

If you are someone who is saying, I don't believe it.

Yes.

In that case, what you want to do is use other strategies and tools that allow you to strengthen the self-acceptance in other ways that naturally will help you recognize that you are valuable enough.

in spite of not believing that initially.

Okay, so the very, very first tool is very simple.

We call it the careless list.

What you're going to do is grab a sheet of paper, divide it into two columns.

On the left, I want you to write down all the things you want to care less about.

I want to care less about my physical appearance.

I want to care less about what people in the street think of me when I walk by.

I want to care less about what my family keeps saying about my acne or my weight or how I look.

Actually acknowledge it.

Give it a physical outlet.