ACCEPTANCE
work
Acceptance is an opportunity to be 100% honest with yourself. This is the first step towards a healthy relationship with yourself - built on a solid foundation of self-trust.
Many of us were trained to put on rose-colored glasses, ignore the “bad,” and just put on a happy face. There is certainly a time and place to put on a happy face, such as the workplace, and when you are around certain people. However, trying to ALWAYS be happy is unhealthy.
Why can't we just force ourselves to feel happy? Because denial is disingenuous and essentially a form self-deception that typically causes more underlying anxiety, symptoms of depression, disconnection, and more.
gifts of acceptance
The ultimate gift of acceptance, is the ability to heal, shed layers of regrets, pains, disappointments, breakthrough maladaptive protective strategies, forgive, let go, gain powerful awareness and learn powerful lessons for the future.
“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.”
James Baldwin
You cannot hide reality from yourself, no matter how hard you try. The more you try to neglect or run away from acceptance, the more activated your nervous system becomes (stress-response) - and the more you lose trust in yourself.
'Sit in the mud'
Powering through and making the best of certain situations certainly has it's place in life. In fact, going into survival mode is essential for our survival!
However, we can get stuck in this 'overcome all and power-through,' survival mode, for an extended period of time - resulting in a persistent nervous system, threat-response (toxic stress).
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“Without suffering, there's no happiness. So we shouldn't discriminate against the mud. We have to learn how to embrace and cradle our own suffering and the suffering of the world, with a lot of tenderness.”
Thich Nhat Hahn
balance & calm
Acceptance work allows for deactivation of the sympathetic nervous system, and thus, a restoration of balance and calm.
At times, acceptance may require 'sitting in the mud' of loss, heartbreak, grief and sadness, and/or 'facing your demons' of shame, regrets, and disappointments. This is also where counseling can provide support to navigate this process.
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WORKSHEETS
video analogy
sit in the mud
acceptance
