Have you ever tried accepting instead of trying to change or resist a situation?
We often want to fix a situation or a certain dynamic to our benefit instead of accepting it for what it is.
This is a way to control. Ultimately, causing ourselves more pain and suffering.
When we accept, we release the control and allow ourselves to embrace the reality. This creates the potential for personal growth through the experience that is provided. It allows us to explore the pain we are inflecting on ourselves instead of resisting.
We have a choice. We can accept or reject.
Acceptance is an active process. It must be practiced. This requires a conscious effort. Here are five ways to help you practice acceptance.
1. Stop Resisting – When we resist, we create more suffering prolonging our current state. I know this sounds cliché. But you must feel your wounds. We control out of our own fears and traumas. Face your wounds without deflecting.
2. Develop Mindfulness – With self-reflection and doing the introspective work we release the need to control or fix. Self-reflection will challenge your attitude helping to develop a greater sense of personal freedom. Where there is personal freedom there is no need to control.
3. Desires vs. Distractions – It is okay to have desires. This helps us manifest. Yet, it is when our desires lead us to rejecting our current experience that we create difficulties causing more suffering. This becomes a form of distraction and creates internal conflict. Staying present to your current situation is the path to your desires.
4. Turn sadness to Joy – Sadness is a healthy emotion. One of the greatest ways to heal wounds or accept a situation is by building more emotional resilience. This is through feeling and honoring the emotion “sadness”. We are taught not to cry, to be happy all the time. This simply denies us of the pure joy we can possibly experience in life. Experiencing sadness helps us identify what we want in life and in our interpersonal relationships. This helps develop our self-worth.
5. Seek Guidance for Strength – We can’t rely on ourselves to do all the work. We don’t always have the strength. We do not have all the answers. But, your higher power does. Ask for help from your higher power. Acknowledge your weakness. Ask for strength and guidance. When we ask for strength and help from our higher power, we release the burden from “self” to our faith. The emotional weight will lift, and you will be able to follow the guidance provided to you. Have faith you are not meant to do it all yourself.