In this video, Nick Kemp talks about how self-acceptance is transformative, not only for personal growth but for building authentic relationships. By embracing who you are, you become a more positive, open person—someone others enjoy being around. Without self-acceptance, it can be challenging to truly accept others, impacting the depth and quality of connections.
It’s better to accept yourself
Nick: This is interesting that you're actually touching on one of Ken Mogi's pillars, this idea of releasing yourself and self-acceptance. And yeah, it can be extremely hard to do, I certainly struggled with it.
Honestly, I think I was about 49, when I think ikigai gave me this opportunity to reconnect to Japan, focus on something I really cared about. And I don't know, in the process I seem to have lost and found myself, like I lost myself in a good way, like I was exploring this world of ikigai and reconnecting to Japan and really studying something for the first time.
I always had this negativity and incredibly low self-esteem with any type of study because of my experience at school. And then I don't know what happened, I just learned to be my own friend. And it's better to accept yourself, because if you do, you're just a better person to be around. And if you can't accept yourself, very likely, you have trouble accepting others.
And I think through all these conversations on the podcast, I just thought, I've found my area of interest. And in the process, I actually ended up creating ibasho. And it really changes your life because it is this safe haven, it does empower you and you do self-actualize. And you're understood, you're accepted.
With that, naturally you'd have this positive belief in the future, because you'd probably be planning things to do with people or even just for yourself. I think that point you made about self-acceptance is probably something you've got to do before you can sort of open the door to ibasho or create your own.