How To Practice Acceptance

Hi, folks. How you doing? My name is Nick the poet, and I'm a Cadre creator, and I'm at a work convention in Las Vegas right now and just taking a break to go live with you today. m. And had some. m. Pacific. m. Central and had some technical difficulties. So giving this a try again. And, you know, I think it's a good, you know, topic, acceptance. And I had a wonderful script prepared, but I'm going to speak to you more from the heart today. And so we know that acceptance and accepting life as it is can have a super powerful and profound effect.

And I think a lot of times when we're meditating and we're doing different wellness practices, we're really trying to become okay with the moment. Right. And that's a very difficult thing to do. It's certainly something that I, you know, struggle with. I think when people have, you know, mental health struggles or addiction struggles or just troubles with peace in their life, I think a general thing is that that struggle with being, you know, accepting of the moment, because that's really what acceptance is, is whatever's happening right now to be okay with it.

Right. And in the recovery movement, one of the lines from a very popular book is an acceptance is the answer to all of my problems today. So if I can find a way to accept whatever's happening, then I'm going to be okay. Right? But if I'm always trying to change it, if I'm trying to control it, you know, like what Luke talked about on Monday, if I'm trying to have that perfectionism about it, then I'm going to run into troubles, and it's going to block my. My happiness. It's going to be block my joy.

Because a lot of times what we're having trouble accepting is the external circumstances of our lives. But if we can tune in to our inner selves and realize that no matter what, we're going to be okay, you know, that can really bring us to the next level. And throughout psychology, throughout philosophy, throughout religion and spirituality, it's all saying kind of similar things. The stoics, if you follow the stoics, say, accept what is happening right now. Not only accept it, but be grateful for it.

Be grateful that this is happening right now, whatever it is, even. Even if it's difficult, if it's suffering, accept this. And what can we learn from it? Because it just adds more suffering to us. If we can't accept what's happening in the moment. One of the most popular prayers of all time is the serenity prayer. Grant me the serenity to. To accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Such a powerful, powerful statement, right?

Because if I can do that, if I can change what needs to be changed and accept what can. And this comes to ourselves as well. Right. We have a lot of trouble accepting ourselves, accepting our flaws, you know? And it can be especially tough when we're ambitious and we're driven to self improvement. We want to keep getting better and better in these regards, but it's a delicate balance because we also don't want to be so hard on ourselves that we are. It's bringing us down, and we're not able to show up in the ways that we want to show up.

A quote that I really like is from Anthony DeMello, and he says, we all think we need more self improvement, but what we really need is more self acceptance. Right. And I think that's. That's a powerful statement. And I think we can accept ourselves and still work on getting better. Right. We can accept. This is where I am today. You know, for me, it's like I have had this hip injury that I've been talking about, and I'm taking some actions on it. I'm doing strength training, you know, I'm doing chiropractor work.

I got a new pair of shoes. But I wish, you know, I was doing more. You know, I sometimes don't. I'm not all that I can be, and I miss opportunities, you know? And what helps me is to, you know, be accountable to what I'm trying to accomplish. And, you know, to have that. That understanding, I really need the sounding board of other people, friends and advisors, you know, to know, what is the next thing to take, because that's when we're learning about acceptance. We need to realize that we're not in it alone.

You know, no person is an island. We're all in this together. And so it comes back to the other thing, which I talk about a lot, which is the art of asking, asking for help when we need help. You know, what should I do next? How can I work on this? Is this something that I should accept? And ultimately, then we have to tune into our own inner voice, which can be difficult when we're, you know, barraged through social media and all kinds of other things about how to think, how to act, how to be. But, you know, it ain't easy.

It ain't easy. But let's keep trying. Let's keep doing it together. I wish you peace, positivity and prosperity today while realizing that we all have a lot of work. But. But we're going to do that work together, okay? Peace.