Acceptance.
Let's go to the wisdom of the waves for our daily dose of gentle inspiration.
Everyone has periods of feeling disconnected.
It's why we are here.
We disconnect so that we can reconnect.
This is the reality of life,
And so it is.
Everyone needs acceptance.
The problem is that our modern day understanding of this is very different.
Many of us are led to believe that acceptance means being passive,
Means resigning to things we don't like,
Tolerating them.
When we hear about acceptance,
It implies we need to accept it,
Just accept it.
You should accept this.
Here we will view acceptance as very different from this common way of understanding.
To do this,
We need to honour the original meaning of the word acceptance.
The original Latin definition of acceptance means to receive.
First off,
Acceptance from this perspective is about giving space to our experiences on the inside.
What is this?
Our private experiences.
Our experiences inside the skin.
In other words,
Thoughts,
Feelings,
Sensations and urges.
We could say that acceptance is making space for our experiences inside the skin.
It could also be termed allowing,
Or inner allowing,
If you prefer.
In this context,
Acceptance is not agreeing that a situation you don't like is okay,
Or agreeing that what someone has done that goes against the grain of your values is okay.
It's not about tolerating,
Resigning,
Putting up with our inner experiences.
And because of this,
It is,
Quite simply,
About making space,
Allowing our inner experiences to be.
If you have a personal situation involving somebody else,
That can well be changed by you to improve it,
But it is challenging to do so,
Then it will be necessary to make room for the difficult thoughts and feelings that try to pull you away from making this important change.
As mentioned before,
Acceptance means to receive,
And in this context,
It is about allowing our unhelpful thoughts and feelings to be there during that difficult encounter,
Without them dictating our actions.
These niggles that we have,
We can observe them from within and make room for them,
Choosing to act from alignment,
From a deeper sense of self.
The more accepting we are of our inner world,
The more space we will have to bring kindness to others so everyone benefits,
Enhancing moments of meaningful connection for ourselves and those around us.
And this is something to be grateful for.
