Hi, welcome back to

your Daily Mindfulness.

In today's session we're going

to talk about acceptance.

And as I say that word, notice

what your relationship to it is.

Acceptance seems to be, uh, an

emotionally charged word for many of us.

And I think this is because we

often associate it with giving up or

passively resigning to life as it is.

This is just my plot in life.

Just need to accept it.

And even as I say that, I feel

completely disempowered and uninspired.

And so if that's our conceptualization

of acceptance, then yeah, it's

a, it makes sense why we wouldn't

like it, or we wouldn't associate

something positive to it.

But within the mindfulness space,

acceptance is more of a form of wisdom and

could be perceived as a power because it's

only when we accept our reality as it is

when we meet the truth of what is here,

that we can positively impact our future.

Otherwise, we have to run from

ourselves or we're only partially

embodied, or we need to suppress or

hide what we're feeling because we

haven't come to terms with the reality

of our life as it is right now.

And that can be a painful process, which

is why we often don't want to do it.

And so I'd like to just share three simple

steps that you can use to start moving

toward more acceptance in your life.

If you'd like to close your

eyes, you may, and I'll guide

you through a short practice.

But the first is just to think about

something that you're struggling

with accepting in your life.

It could be something

big or something small.

And then the Step Two is to notice how

you feel when you think about this thing,

specifically in your body, what is the

body doing in relationship to the thought?

Is it clenching?

Bracing?

Is it agitated?

And what we'll do is

invite the body to soften.

As the body relaxes, it communicates

to the mind that we're safe.

And it just helps loosen our grip around

trying to control so much of our life,

specifically this particular experience.

And then in the third step, we're just

reminding ourselves that we can't change

this moment, but we can meet it with

grace, which is a form of acceptance.

And can you settle into the experience in

such a way that there's a sense of being

held by something bigger than yourself?

This bigger thing could be connected

to your faith or the universe, but it

could also just be the recognition of

a long lineage of people who have come

before you for thousands, hundreds

and thousands of years, who have

gotten through difficult things that

they thought they couldn't accept.

So maybe just take a

moment to breathe that in.

And feel that you're held by

something bigger than you.

And so this is a practice that

you can utilize at the day.

If you'd like to open your eyes now, if

they've been closed, you're welcome to.

Um, and I wish you well on this,

this journey of acceptance,

we're here for you through it.

So thank you for your practice.

And let's now settle

in for our meditation.