"Happiness can only exist in acceptance."
To cultivate acceptance, instead of thinking about parts of us as broken that need to be fixed we need to have compassion, self-compassion. Self-compassion is about responding to ourselves and our flaws with kindness and love. We need to accept ourselves as we are, fully and completely.
Recognize things the way they are.
Suffering is going to strike all of us even under the best of circumstances. The more we wish our lives to be different the worse we feel. What we resist persists. Most people seek pleasure and happiness and strive to avoid pain. But we cannot avoid pain. Instead, if we learn to develop a new relationship with the pain we can find a sweet spot, a serenity. Learning how to sit with our pain, both emotional and physical, knowing it will pass is one of the keys to finding happiness. If we recognize and accept that some hardships are part of life we can reduce our suffering. Turn toward our difficulties with non-judgment and self-compassion. This includes emotional problems. Be more accepting and compassionate about yourself; experience your thoughts and feelings just as they are, moment to moment. Doing so helps to alleviate your problems, whereas judging yourself can accentuate them.
Self-compassion is most effective when we are no longer fighting the physical or emotional pain but giving ourselves the same kindness we would give others.
"You work so hard to fix yourself, but maybe what you need isn't another tactic, another book, another five-step plan. Maybe, what's really holding you back is the idea that you need to be fixed." - Vironika Tugaleva