A pilgrimage towards radical acceptance
Learning to acknowledge the reality of the situation
IN ALL HONESTY | AT A GLANCE
This week’s column is for both free and paid subscribers, and it holds:
a featured story on allowing What Is
a few favorites I’ve been loving lately
a space to deepen the conversation in community comments
Oh, and be sure to check out the last column:
On the road to burnout
My window of tolerance is almost nonexistent. I’m nearly at capacity. My patience is running thin. However you prefer to say it: I’m careening towards burnout. Fast...
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I’ve been in a tussle with What Is, attempting to bend it to better fit the shape of What Could Be. It’s a losing battle, and yet I can’t quite figure out how to stop.
Surrender feels like admitting defeat. I see room for improvement, but in many cases, I’m powerless to bring forth change. Especially when it comes to what other people do.
In all honesty, I’m up to my neck in Judgment. Of self, of others. It whispers to me in the most inopportune of moments “Everything would be so much better if this situation/this person/this thing was more like that.”
In lieu of passing Judgment on my Judgment, however, I’d like to offer up something much more valuable: a dose of self-awareness.
I see myself. Yup, trapped right over there in the Perpetual Loop of Despair. But I can tell that I’ve gone round and round one too many times because now the ups and downs makes my stomach lurch.
Yes, I have opinions, and preferences and wishes. And at the same time, who am I to force them onto external happenings?
So, I am learning to allow What Is to be What Is. It is both simple and challenging.
Radical Acceptance, as defined in Tara Brach’s book of the same name is “the willingness to experience ourselves and our life as it is.” Psychology Today points out that Radical Acceptance “is letting go of the need to control, judge, and wish things were different than they are.”
I want to play with honoring the present moment. Not as a way to avoid accountability for personal development. Rather as a living embodiment of unconditional love.
I’ll report back soon ♥️
♥️ This guided meditation on embodying acceptance and care
♥️ This second book in the spicy, dragon-riding, fantastical Empyrean trilogy
♥️ This podcast episode on how to signal safety to a child in nervous system overload
Rest well this weekend.
In All Honesty,
Maris
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