Achieving Total Acceptance

This is the final frontier in relationships. Achieving total acceptance toward others is a huge step in gaining happiness and giving license to others to truly relate with you. This works in those situations in your life that are positive.

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The Serenity Prayer starts, “God, give me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change...” This principle is fundamental to life in the relational sense. Accepting things that we can’t change, even little things, paradoxically demonstrates a self-efficacy toward life and our limits. It’s not disempowering. It’s understanding and agreeing with the plan of life’s reality and it’s a true marker of tolerance and maturity.

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As I reflect I know that my relationships go horribly wrong whenever my level of acceptance and tolerance are off key. We can be forgiven for not being perfect but we’re reminded whenever there are conflicts that acceptance could be central to the issue.

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Ways to improve in achieving total acceptance are:

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~ Firstly, accept yourself.

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~ Practise responding with a smile and without aggression when people disagree with you.

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~ When you feel sorely tempted to but-in and say your piece, respond to the inner-voice that says, ‘hold your tongue.’ Do what it says.

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~ If you think you can keep everyone happy all the time, get a grip -- you can’t.

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~ Practice things that will grow serenity within you, for instance, quiet time, meditation, journaling, and prayer etc.

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Acceptance is truly a value of the wise. Perfecting it means becoming more accepting whilst accepting perfection will never come. There’s a fundamental irony involved.

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A wise word and disclaimer to finish. There are times and situations in life where acceptance is not warranted and the appropriate response is to reject, not accept. This discussion does not cover that application, where things are wrong and they should be left wrong i.e. they should be rejected.

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Copyright © 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.