Acceptance

Accept people and situations as they are.

Are you feeling impatient regarding a goal? How do we celebrate the current moment? How do we release the desire to control our environment and live in the present moment? How can we know what is within our control and what is not?

Perspectives

5 Things Everyone Should Know About Acceptance, by Megan Bruneau, therapist

"As I got older, I began to understand why desiring something else—something that was, for the most part, out of my control—was causing me more pain than accepting that, at least for now, this was the way it was going to be."

The Power of Patience, by Sharon Salzberg, author

"If we can be quieter, more in the moment with what is actually happening, a world of perception opens up for us based on where we are, not on where we one day hope to be."

How Rain Can Nourish You, by Jack Kornfield, psychologist

"Recognition is the first step of mindfulness. When we are stuck in our life, we must begin with a willingness to see what is so. It is as if someone asks us gently, what is happening now?"

Citations about acceptance from religious texts

Action

Demonstrate acceptance today.

What is something in an other person in your life, or in yourself, that you completely disapprove of or completely reject. Take an action to show yourself and the world that you are at peace with that aspect of the person. You accept it.

Perhaps you can imitate it, actually embody it or live it, in a way that they will see. Or actually compliment them on it, if that is appropriate.

If that is not possible or reasonable, then tell yourself (or write down) that you accept that person as a fellow soul, as a human, beyond the trait that you find unacceptable.