It may seem unpretentious but accepting what is may quite possibly be the most important thing anyone can do for their well-being. Acceptance is the act of seeing the world as it is and for all it has to offer. It’s a way of welcoming all that’s changing and emerging for you and releasing all that no longer serves you. No one says it is easy, but the alternatives are worse; yearning for something unknown or grasping onto something that isn’t meant for you. Either of these amplify your emotions and prolong all the good meant for you from flowing to you.
The famous Carl Jung said it best, “What you resist persists?” It’s like attempting to nail Jell-O to a wall. The harder and longer you try, the messier the wall gets. And despite all your attempts, that Jell-O will never be held to the wall. Accept the Jell-O cannot be nailed to the wall because it wasn’t meant to be and walk away (or make it into a Jell-O shot 😊).
Let go of the struggle. It’s hard, trust me, I know! The unknown is scary, and you like to be in control. I am “Type A” to the extreme and needed to learn the concept of acceptance. And while I do practice it, I am still very much a work in process. But for the areas of my life, I have learned to do better with practicing acceptance, amazing things have happened. Things that exceeded any expectations of what I thought I wanted/needed. From taking the mindset of acceptance, I was able to step back and allow things to flow to me rather than resisting, struggling, or forcing.
I recently saw the following quote, “Accept what is, let go of what was, have faith in what will be.” So simple and so true because what else can you really do except accept your life for what it is and allow things to unfold as they may. This doesn’t mean to sit back and become a bench warmer in the game of life. You still need to very much be an active participant, but learning to know when to accept what was, what is, and what will be is the key. Pushing for something that is not meant for you or is not meant for you at this time will not give you the results you desire. Sure, you may see movement or get a taste of that dream becoming a reality, but it will likely be short-lived, or it may appear to be exactly as you had hoped only later to find out it’s not at all what you had wanted and by forcing it, you have now created unnecessary stress in your life.
Acceptance also does not mean you are agreeing or giving up. Instead, it’s recognizing the situation for what it is and not attempting to resist or alter it in any way. You’re allowing things to be as they are. It doesn’t make you weak, incompetent or mean you’ve failed. It’s understanding things are meant to be as they are and being ok with it. There is always going to be things in life you can’t change, so why try? The weather is a perfect example. Learn to accept the rain clouds just as you accept the blue skies and eventually, you’ll start to loosen the grip on life, end the struggle, and be able to accept things for what they are in the moment.
Just Breathe – Stop thinking about it, Stop stressing about it! Accept it will all work out when it’s meant to in the way it is meant to. And I promise if you get out of your own way, the result will be better than you ever could have imagined it to be.
Real Life Talk 