Self acceptance is tough for me. Almost 50 years ago, without knowing it I started on a path away from self acceptance. As a kid and adolescent the "real me" wasn't too well received, and so I started hiding or pretending. Those things aren't better in the long run, and in fact they're worse, but in the short term they provide an escape. I've come to rely on that escape.

Acceptance for me would be living without the pretense and the hiding. I'm not talking about being unfiltered, because a little bit of filtering makes the world go 'round. I'm talking about letting people really see me and living with whatever the consequences of that are.

That would be peace, that would be self acceptance.