A Coaching Power Tool created by Allan Sousa
(Professional Training Coach, PORTUGAL)
What is Acceptance?
Acceptance is letting things flow. It means
to willingly take in what is offered, to hold without protest or reaction.
All of our suffering is caused by a resistance to “What is”. We tend to fight the reality we are experiencing in everyday life.
So how can we practice acceptance to release resistance in our life?
Let me describe a real and personal example that I had to deal last week.
My son suddenly became sick and I had to stay with him for some days. There was nothing I could do about that, but there were times (most of the time) that I resisted that fact and literally fought with the situation and with myself. By experiencing that resistance I had a painful time..
There is a conscious choice we have in dealing with these kinds of issues and determining whether or not to fight. So why is it so difficult to let go of this resistance , to not accept what is the reality of the moment? That was my question last week. I said to myself:
I am aware that I have choice, so why do I continue to resist this?
First, I decided I would look at the situation and see what, if anything, could be done about it. Then I would do what is possible and feel at peace with myself because it gives me a sense of doing what I could in the situation. At that point, the rest was out of my hands.
Once I got to the point where I had identified what I could do, if anything – and figured out how and when I was going to do that, there was nothing left but to accept the situation.
So accepting the reality as it IS, is indeed a greater and more peaceful place to BE.
Some of the tools that helped me were:
These are some ways I found to deal with this particular situation to allow myself to enter the ACCEPTANCE state.
I feel much better now!