Acceptance

When faced with illness, loss, danger, rejection, failure – or even just with mild discomfort – we can spend quite a bit of our energy raging against the way things are. This is one of the ways that the mind creates its own suffering: by resisting life as it is.

The accepting and open attitude of mindfulness encourages us to live our life (and each moment) as if we had chosen it to be just as it is. Fr. Jacques Philippe writes about this from a different angle in his book, Interior Freedom (2007): "It is beneficial for us to train ourselves not only to put up with difficulties but in a certain sense to choose them. That doesn’t mean provoking them! But it means that when they do arise, we accept them with all our hearts, by a positive act of freedom, impelling us to move quickly from disappointment to acquiescence based on trust."

Don’t be surprised when things are hard, and don’t give up your power to live out your values in the midst of the difficulty. You’re living a story that will be worth telling someday – a story that’s interesting, unexpected, and never boring. Your story is one small part in God's bigger redemptive narrative, and he is with you. 

Is it dark? Shine light. Is there danger? Be courageous. Is there injustice? Speak truth. And when the suffering feels overwhelming and you need to break down for a while, even that presents choice – the option to offer our suffering to God as an act of love and union with Christ, whose suffering was chosen freely as an act of love for us.

Trusting that “God can bring good out of everything without exception" (Philippe, 2007) means that we are freed up to focus on living the fruit of the spirit – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, ​and self-control. The circumstances of the world have little power over us when we respond to them with radical acceptance (what is here is already here) and then open ourselves to God’s love and light flowing through us, even in the darkest of times.

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Jesus remained supremely free in his death, because he made it into an offering of love.

​-Fr. Jacques Philippe​

The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
-Deuteronomy 31:8

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Counseling for adults, teens, and couples is available through my private practice, Dwell Psychological Services, for clients in Grand Rapids, MI, and throughout all 42 PsyPact states. Non-clinical mindfulness coaching is available anywhere in the world for individuals or groups seeking to strengthen their understanding of mindfulness theory and practice. More information can be found at www.DwellPsychological.com or www.bit.ly/IreneKraegel.