Self acceptance and American Ninja Warrior

Self-acceptance is like American Ninja Warrior for the soul. The obstacle course is your own interior landscape. You have to run that gauntlet, And what’s more, you are the only one who can do it. No one else can endow you with your self acceptance. 

Others can help you practice and do the work, but they can’t make the ultimate action of accepting. You have to train and strive and struggle and have small victories along the way as you complete each section of the course. 

In the end, when you get to the highest and most arduous part and you run up and you hit that big red button, that is when the magic happens. I’ve seen American ninja warrior a couple of times. I’ve seen that many of the people when they finally get up to the top and hit that button, they fall to their knees. I think only some of it is exhaustion. I think some of it is gratitude for all of the work all of the struggle that they went through in order to get this place of incredible victory. And I think when we finally accept ourselves, we stand in that same exact place.