Pema Chodron expresses it nicely from a Buddhist perspective…

“…the point is not to try to change ourselves…practice isn’t about trying to throw ourselves away and become something better. It’s about befriending who we are already. The ground of practice is you or me or whoever we are right now, just as we are. That’s the ground, that’s what we study, that’s what we come to know with tremendous curiosity and interest…”