Acceptance as a time and energy saver

Stress, anxiety, anger, frustration (etc) are all feelings thatcan arise from unfulfilled expectations. The expectationof something happening that doesn’t or hasn’t happened.Whether that’s an expectation of yourself or someoneelse. An expectation that can be either conscious orunconscious.

And these feelings are completely normal. They are allpart of the normal human experience. However, whilewe are experiencing these feelings, or rather while we areencompassed by these feelings, we are stuck. We’re oftenlocked into judgmental thinking or criticism, or fearful orhopeless thinking (all can be categorised as low qualitythinking). And this type of thinking can be really timeconsuming. While we’re in that kind of thinking we don’tmove forward. Time marches on but we stay stuck in thesame place. And whilst we’re there, we can also feel ourenergy draining away.

When we accept what is the current reality – acceptthings for what they are, not what we expect them to be,things get a whole lot easier. When we accept that what’shappened has happened – accepting that it has happened,then that low quality thinking starts to fall away to allowspace for more fruitful thinking to emerge. When thatfruitful thinking emerges we can move forward, changingwhat needs to change, correcting what needs to becorrected.

It would be unrealistic to expect never to experience anyof the feelings noted, but we don’t have to get stuck in thethinking that creates these feelings. Sticking with thisthinking wastes our time and saps our energy. Acceptingwhat is, once we notice these feelings, helps us to moveforward more quickly saving our time and our energy.In writing this what comes to mind is the Serenity Prayer:“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannotchange; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom toknow the difference.”

When we accept what is, it gives space for the wisdom tocome through to enable us to see what we can or cannotchange.