101 Positive Affirmations

Today is all about acceptance.

Sometimes I find the whole concept of acceptance hard. I know when my spine fractured, I could not accept that this was my life. Nor could I accept that this was what my body looked like.

I went through psychological hell every day. I was in fear, then anger and slowly, slowly I came to accept that I could change the fact that I had fractures, but I could accept that the way to healing was by stopping the fight, laying down my sword and looking at things from another perspective.

Whenever acceptance comes knocking on my door, I dig this out and boy does it calm me down.

The Serenity Prayer

God grant me the serenity

to accept the things I cannot change;

courage to change the things I can;

and wisdom to know the difference.

Living one day at a time;

Enjoying one moment at a time;

Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace;

Taking, as He did, this sinful world

as it is, not as I would have it;

Trusting that He will make all things right

if I surrender to His Will;

That I may be reasonably happy in this life

and supremely happy with Him

Forever in the next.

Amen. -Reinhold Niebuhr

Life is unpredictable. In life, stuff happens that sometimes does not make sense. But as Steve Jobs says, you can only connect the dots backwards. When you look back over your experiences there will naturally be some that are easier to accept than others. While you cannot change the past, we can change how we feel about our experiences.

The road to acceptance

When it comes to acceptance, it means that we need to make room for our experiences and choose consciously how to deal with them. Do you fight them or do you deal with them and understand that in your experiences are gifts and lessons?

Acceptance is a choice

You can see the positive or do you fight what is going on? Why would you want to wander around a littered battlefield, feeling anger or other unhelpful emotions? You will discover contentment and become more peaceful when you accept what has happened instead of constantly fighting to change things, that cannot be changed. I do understand that it is not easy, but you do have a choice about how you feel and view life.

Acceptance is powerful

This is not about giving up or not taking action, rather it is knowing that pushing against a closed door will always hurt. Whereas finding ways to open the door and walk through it without resistance will deliver far greater rewards. This is a more powerful option. Don’t fight, but rather use the power of acceptance in a more graceful way.

Acceptance is living fully present in the moment

It’s not about the past, while that is a great source of reference for peeling the onion. There will be stuff that you wish had never happened, but you know that you cannot turn back time. The past is a place of reference and not a place to dwell. Neither is it about the future because we cannot force it.

We can create visions, make decisions, and we can take action, but we already know stuff can happen to throw these visions off course. That is why it is essential to understand yourself, just a bit more… and learn to accept stuff that happens. Although I like to believe that we are always on the right path.

Acceptance is one of the keys to finding your Happy To Be Me factor

Acceptance will give you longer lasting happiness or as I like to call it contentment. I am certainly happier when I shrug my shoulders, swear a bit and look at how to turn my experiences into learning points.

Acceptance helps you to stop judging yourself

It’s easy, isn’t it to look in the mirror and judge? I did. The more I judged the worst that I felt. When I said ok, I cannot change fractures, but I can change what I eat, I can change my energy and perspective, and I can tell my body I love her just as she is.

And finally there are some things that you should not accept

When things cross your values, which are illegal, immoral or unethical, then standing firm and in your personal power is the right thing to do.