Agreed. Unless you have the context of the authors journey from their book or other works, it can read both ways. Usually it’s the whole “I embraced my mess when I became aware enough”. How do you become aware enough without first trying to change? Catch-22 in my opinion. That’s why I think changing for the better sometimes starts with no awareness, but rather a feeling inside saying you need to make a change (Japanese concept of Yugen)
As the article tried to explain, this is about making peace with ourselves and handle feelings of self-rejection, guilt, shame and so no.
Then the healing begins.