This word and the act of acceptance has been on my mind since I was putting on my face cream this morning thinking, "you got some wrinkles now lady“. Instead of my normal reaction of sadness and despair towards this thought, for some reason today I said "Yep I do I am older than I was and this is my face now“. At that moment there was no drama or stress that followed, only acceptance. I smiled and took my slightly wrinkly face off out for the day.
This awesome moment I just had with myself felt like real freedom and truly set the happy contented tone of my day.
I have since then pondered about how crucial this act is to our well being. Really all mindfullness meditaion (the one that has you watch and not judge your thoughts etc) is the acceptance of thoughts and non attachment to them with any particular emotion. If you feel rubbish one day and you seem to be finding the "black" in everything, it's far better to just accept "Ah I'm a bit black today, hey ho this too shall pass" rather than to get all worked up and to start trying to "fix" yourself. The fixing thing can appear in many ways, such as thoughts of " I must get happy, im so miserable, what's wrong with me?" and they are not fun or at all helpful. Chances are something will come in and lift you up into a happier place anyway if you are not stressing about trying to find it.
A dear friend of mine also took this step of acceptance last week when her young baby was torturing her with no more than 2 hours sleep in a row. She was freaking and trying all the tricks in the book including "sleep training" which was totally againt her gut instinct. Then sudddenly one morning I asked how her night was as her answer was "Ah I gave up, sod it she is only a baby once, we go with her flow, it is what it is". She said: "I had a glass of wine and cuddled up with her in the same room and decided in that moment that perhaps I wont sleep so much this year and that's ok". Then what followed? The next night 4 hours sleep, the next 5 and well, the whole atmosphere shifted and the hours of peaceful sleep started to roll in day by day. Acceptance gives space, peace, clarity and calm to allow the best for us to come forward and shine. So next time you are about to stress out, stop for a minute and think - "What if I just accepted this situation or that person and their reaction or behavour as it is". How would that fit for size?
Much love and light
C xx