How to Practice Acceptance
Explore the benefits of acceptance and learn how to do it more often.
By Tchiki Davis and Sarah Sperber
KEY POINTS
- One of the key ideas underlying acceptance is that difficult emotions are an inescapable part of life.
- To be more accepting, consider reflecting on your habitual attitude toward yourself and trying to be more gentle.
- You can also cultivate acceptance by noticing your resistance, questioning your patterns, being mindful, and considering your inner child.
We all have a general sense of what it means to “accept” something. There are many aspects of life that we could simply “accept” — financial circumstances, unhealthy relationships, unfulfilling jobs, etc. However, in psychology, acceptance means “taking a stance of non-judgmental awareness and actively embracing the experience of thoughts, feelings, and bodily sensations as they occur” (Hayes et al., 2004).
One of the key ideas underlying acceptance is that difficult emotions are an inescapable part of life: at different times we will find ourselves sad, angry, disappointed, bored, frustrated, grieving, heartbroken, etc. No one, even the most even-keeled individual, is free of these emotions. When these emotions inevitably do arise, there…
