Most of us keep two pictures of ourselves. The one we'd show: the good days, the patient moments. And the one we'd rather hide: the temper, the envy, the old mistakes. We try to live in the first and keep the second out of sight.
One short exercise in the course uses a lotus. Above the water, a flower opening layer by layer, close to perfect. Below the water, things are not so perfect. The point it draws is that beauty and imperfection come as a package. And the mud isn't only something to escape: the roots that feed the flower are sunk in it. So the exercise asks two things at once. Rise above the negativity, and let the hard realities of life feed you rather than sink you.
A teacher in the same module says something similar: understanding yourself means seeing what's beautiful in you and what isn't, both, then working on the second and moving towards the best of it. The hard part is the first step. Looking at the mud honestly, without hiding it or drowning in it, asks more of you than admiring the flower.