Acceptance
One huge lesson I have learned over the past year is acceptance. What a gift that has been. Pushing back, resisting and fighting against the inevitable or even a real threat to your present survival only creates ridges, anxiety and stress.
The first thing I learned was that if something is going to happen that you cannot control then fighting against it and resisting it will only feed the fear and pull in the space between you and the coming event or threat. By putting one’s attention on the negatives you will contract the distance between you and whatever it is, dimming and thwarting your view. You need space to view the world around you, you even need space to view your own thoughts and fears. When you are pressed up hard against the mental energy that you create you haven’t got a chance to get a clear look at the situation in front of you.
I adopted the viewpoint of acceptance, a “que sera whatever will be” sort of attitude. With a bit of space between me and whatever the danger/threat, maybe I can confront whatever it is in a calm state of mind and see what parts of the problem that I can control.
Once again it gets back to very basic fundamentals. As usual the first step is to confront what is happening, what is threatening your survival or happiness, what it is that you cannot control. For me the next step is to glean as much information and knowledge that I can get my hands on or my wits around. Then I’ve got to shape up and accept responsibility. Blaming others or external forces surely isn’t going to help (apart from feeling a weak level of justification). Once armed with the above the next thing for me to do is to take control of the components that I am able to, peeling back the layers as I go.
When I speak of acceptance I don’t mean giving up. I simply believe “what is is what is”. It is one’s ability to observe the obstacles that exist and somehow gather the tools and abilities to get over each one towards a desired end result.
Life is a wondrous experience . Not something to be squandered with petty regrets, shame and blaming external forces.
There is always something that can be done to make things better.
