Acceptance

Accepting Oneself

This is the time of the year of anticipation, the time when we reflect on the year gone by and the anticipation of what the New Year has in store. This is the time when we look forward with hope and cheer.

While looking forward to what might come in itself is exciting not being able to accomplish what we make as resolutions can be disappointing. This is because we look at the external to make things happen whereas we need to look internal to accept what we receive. There is a great saying that we get what we deserve not what we desire, in anticipating much through our resolutions, the inability to keep pace with fulfilling the resolutions soon leads to disappointment which in turn leads to breaking the resolutions that we have made very quickly.

The present day culture is driven by the need to accomplish and accomplish at the speed of thought, this has been created by technology, while it is possible for technology to deliver quickly, it may not be the case with every individual, because each one of us has different capabilities and given the time and space, each one of us is capable of completing what we have set out to accomplish with our resolutions. Time in its present sense does not allow for such luxuries and this creates anxiety within.

When anxiety increases the speed of the mind increases and when the speed of the mind increases it leads to disturbances in our breathing patterns which percolate to the physical body and then the individual organs. Just observe your breadth, the life force energy the next time you get angry, scared or anxious and you will know.

Therefore the speed of the mind is the cause for physical imbalances and to overcome this we need to observe our thoughts, we need to understand whether they are enabling us in accomplishing what we set out for or are they disabling us and making us anxious. Developing the awareness is key, when we are aware, we are in meditation.

The initial path to this awareness is acceptance, accepting ourselves first, accepting our capabilities next and accepting our accomplishments much later. Often we are expecting, expecting more from ourselves, expecting more of our capabilities and expecting to be able to accomplish more that what is actually required. Expectations when not fulfilled leads to disappointments and a feeling of unworthiness of self. This can be dangerous as it sets the ball of comparison rolling and when we compare ourselves with the supposedly higher accomplishments of the others, self-guilt sets in which can become disabling at the speed of thought.

As we arrive at the New Year, the action resolution to take would be one of acceptance resolution rather than expectations, thereby enabling us in taking the first step to accomplishing a journey of inner knowledge and healing.