“You shouldn’t be feeling angry, you should be able to accept this!” Does this inner thought, or something similar, sound familiar? As we’ve talked about in previous episodes, our mind has a tendency to use things in our self-awareness and spiritual work against us. To hijack them, make a minor tweak and voilá: all the sudden we’re beaten down with the concepts we’re trying to change our lives with.
One of those things is the idea of acceptance. When our mind uses acceptance as ammunition against what we’re feeling or wanting, the whole idea of acceptance has gotten lost. We’re told by our mind to use acceptance on outer circumstances and other people’s behaviour, but we miss to apply acceptance and recognition of our emotions, experiences and wantings.
In this episode of the Uncover YOU podcast, I help you recognize if you’re stuck in the acceptance trap.
Listen to episode 27 here:
A summary of what I talk about in this episode:
Two common ways that our mind uses the idea of acceptance against us:
- Dismissing what we’re feeling by saying we should be able to accept this instead of feeling angry/hurt/disappointed.
- Dismissing what we want/don’t want by saying we should accept the situation and be grateful for what we have.
The ironic part of this is when the mind is using acceptance in this way, we’re missing to be accepting of a big part of us: our inner state of emotions and wantings.
The way out of this trap is, again ironically – acceptance. But this time also applying acceptance to what you’re feeling and experiencing and not just to outer circumstances and other people’s behavior.
Acceptance never means that you can’t or shouldn’t change a situation or pattern. It just means that you’re bringing awareness and honest truth to what’s there. And that’s always the first step in changing anything.
