Acceptance is defined by Wikipedia as: the recognition of the reality or a situation, recognizing a process or condition without attempting to change it or protest it. This is a tough word for most of us to handle or, for lack of a better word, accept.
It is part of our human DNA to compare ourselves to others. We often ‘rate’ ourselves or judge ourselves when we feel we fall short or are missing something that we perceive someone else to have. Why is what they have better anyways? Why can’t I do that ‘thing’ as well as they can? I’m not sure if my standards are good enough.
Acceptance can also refer to a situation. This can be difficult when events don’t go as planned or if something unexpected happens. For instance, receiving dire news or being a part of, or experiencing, a traumatic event.
If it is something that we don’t like, we tend to push it away, not deal with it, hold it at arms length, close our eyes, hearts, isolate ourselves…whatever it takes to not accept the current reality. After all, we preferred our past one much more…even if it wasn’t ‘perfect’.
So how do we welcome acceptance? How do we better learn to ‘go with the flow’? There is no one solid answer here.
It’s difficult to sit in ‘the feels’. To be uncomfortable. To feel sad, angry, frustrated, hurt, vulnerable, abandoned, empty and any other multitude of emotions.
Processing these feelings usually isn’t an overnight type thing. It’s not a ‘one and done’ either. We are challenged in acceptance every day, sometimes in multitudes and, sometimes, it reaches out and grabs us without us even knowing, causing us to question our values or our ‘enoughness’.
It’s a personal process. What does acceptance mean to you?
