Radical Acceptance

Radical Acceptance 

What is Radical Acceptance?

Radical Acceptance is the ability to accept what is out of your control. It doesn’t mean you have to like it or support it; Radical Acceptance means that you no longer allow the situations to negatively control/affect you emotionally/mood wise. 

• Often when a person is in pain, his or her first reaction is to get angry or upset or to blame the someone for causing the pain in the first place. But, unfortunately, no matter whom you blame for your discomfort/distress, your pain still exists, and you continue to suffer. (This even includes blaming and shaming yourself).
• This often happens to people who experience overwhelming emotions.  Criticizing yourself or others all the time or being overly judgmental of yourself/others is like wearing a pair of dark sunglasses inside. By doing this, you’re missing the details and not seeing everything as it really is.
• By getting angry and upset that a situation should never have happened, you’re missing the point that it DID happen and that you have to deal with it.
• Being overly critical about a situation prevents you from taking the steps to change the situation. You can’t change the past. And if you spend all your time fighting the past- wishfully thinking that your anger will change the outcome of an event that has already happened… You’ll become paralyzed and helpless.

SO, WHAT CAN I DO TO MANAGE THIS? 

Acknowledge your present situation, emotionally, physically and cognitively without judging the events or criticizing yourself.

How do I practice Radical Acceptance? 

• Get perspective on the situation by asking yourself reflection questions. Do you have a part in this that needs to be resolved? Can you fix the situation without breaking your own boundaries or straying from your fundamentals? What do you gain by doing this?
• Can you change or alter your perception of the situation at hand? Meaning can you adapt an alternative way to think about it that DOES NOT cause you to be negatively affected by it?
• Accept what you cannot Change/Control. This does not mean that you have to like the situation or condone it. It means you set an emotional boundary with yourself in regard to the situation; to ensure that it no longer negatively affects or controls your mood/day to day functioning.
• Stay miserable. If you do not take action, your situation will not change, and it will be difficult to achieve happiness, contentment, fulfillment and purpose.

What is a situation that you need to accept is not your fault?

What behaviour’s/reactions do you need to accept?

How are you going to achieve accepting yourself and the situation?