How to Accept Yourself as Bisexual

Your awareness that you are bisexual is an important milestone--one that many people struggle with for years. The next step toward a happy, healthy and fulfilled life is to make sure that you accept yourself as a bisexual person. Once you have self-acceptance, you can think about the other people in your life you should tell.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

1. Take pride in your self-awareness. There are plenty of people who are bisexual but never deal with it or come out of the closet, even to themselves. By knowing yourself, you are in a far better position to accept yourself.

2. Relax and enjoy the relationships that you have in your life today. Many happily bisexual people spend years in a monogamous relationship with one gender, even while they find the other gender attractive.

3. Commit yourself to honesty and openness in your intimate relationships. Letting a lover know who you are in the present can save stress and heartbreak in the future. Your honesty will be something that you and others can depend on, even as you are trying to understand and accept yourselves and each other.

4. Prepare yourself for the possibility that family members, friends, acquaintances or colleagues may have trouble accepting you as a bisexual. You can come out to yourself and people you trust without having to share too much information with others who may not be able to handle it.

5. Give yourself the space you need to process your feelings and emotions about your relationships and the people in your life. Even if others find it fascinating to discuss your bisexuality with you, you may need the alone time.

6. Connect with other people who are bisexual, which can be helpful in getting perspective on your own experiences.

7. Accept that all human life involves change and evolution. Your bisexuality is not a phase, but relationships can change, and at any given time, you may be more interested in someone of one gender or the other.

8. Maintain a sense of humor, which may come in handy when it comes to other people's expectations of what it means to be bisexual. If they think you are into threesomes, voyeurism and constant sexual activity with every possible partner, joke with them about how tired you are from all that effort.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't underestimate the power that your bisexuality may have over the imagination of other people in your life. If you are in a relationship with someone, she may immediately start thinking that you want whatever she is not. Try to help other people relax and accept you as you are, not as they imagine you to be.