Over the past year it has been hard to avoid being reactive. I’ve found anger, cynicism, frustration and blame present in my thinking.
Nurturing negative stories and the fears that are part of them, make one an easy target for the alarmist media.., our own inbuilt alarm signals which are finely tuned, can leave us feeling helpless- the world seems chaotic and out of control.
Most of us tend to think in black and white terms- something is bad or good, or that our view of the world must be the more real one, that everyone else’s is suspect or at least distorted. Or that things should be the way we want them- but often they’re not.
This of course is the time to practice the skill of Radical Acceptance, a term used in Dialectical Behavior Therapy training, which is the art of finding the middle way between acceptance and change, and embracing paradoxes.
So since we have such busy thinking minds, rather like untrained puppies, we need to practice leashing these puppies more and “turning the mind” back again and again to acceptance of what IS, right now. Now that of course may mean turning that puppy on a strong leash, over and over to Acceptance, even though we don’t like what seems to be happening and we don’t agree with it- in fact we may hate it. This is not about value judgments or giving in. It is about making a conscious choice to accept the present moment, and to deal with it. The paradox is, that once we have accepted “it is what it is”, our minds often start engaging and problem solving in a more productive way!
If you are interested in this point of view (and finding more peace and clarity) then come to the Mindfulness training workshops I offer ( see Events), or learn about Radical Acceptance in an individual session . It can certainly make a difference to your ability to cope with stress and change.
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