Stop Resisting and Practice Acceptance
To many, acceptance means to comply; to give in, or put up with things that shouldn’t, quote-on-quote, be “accepted”. I use to be on of these people. “Why should I accept my circumstance for what they are?”, I’d argue. I didn’t want to accept it. In my eyes, acceptance would mean I’d suddenly have to like my current situation — and that, was an impossible feat.
But in choosing to not accept the circumstances that were causing me harm for what they were, events that had caused me harm, I was inadvertently causing myself MORE harm that the event initially caused.
Resistance occurs when we fail to accept reality for what it is. Emotions such as frustration, anger, and irritation are ALL by-products of unacceptance. To generate these emotions we have to occupy a space where we don’t accept reality. It’s to say, “I don’t accept this for what it is” and to push it away.
It can be an incredibly uncomfortable space to occupy.
None of this is to say that we can’t feel negatively towards our current situations, we certainly can, and you should feel a right to feel negatively towards the bad that happens to you. What I’m speaking to is how we can extend negative emotions and traumatic events through our inability to practice acceptance.
