Acceptance

Acceptance is vital in a spiritual practice.  It is so important that the founder of the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness declared it the first law of Spirit.  Yet I often find that what is meant by “acceptance” is misunderstood.

Acceptance is not resignation.  It is not giving up.  Acceptance, in the spiritual context, is simply acknowledging that what is in your experience, is actually in your experience.  So much energy is wasted resisting circumstances that are not what we want in our life, and this resistance is counterproductive.  

When we resist something, we energetically bind ourselves to it.  If you push against something it has no choice but to push back against you.  “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction.”  If you are in resistance and are energetically attempting to push away an experience at a level 10, that experience pushes back against you at a level 10.  It doesn’t choose to do so - it has no consciousness of its own to make choices - but is required to do so by your energetic resistance. You now have a level 20 energetic bond holding the experience you don’t want right in your face.

Resistance sounds like this…  “I refuse to accept that I got a parking ticket.  I didn’t do anything wrong.  I was parked just fine.  This is crap.  I can’t believe some idiot meter-maid would give me a ticket!  Maybe I should sue the city?  I’ll show them!  They can’t mess with me like this!  Blah, blah, blah….”  All the while, you still have the parking ticket and nothing has changed.  You’ve flooded your body with an experience with anger and aggression, which brings with it a whole host of negative impacts to your physical body and your experience of everything else.

Acceptance, on the other hand, is completely neutral.  There is no resistance and no energetic bond created between you and that which you are seeking to eliminate from your experience.  

Acceptance sounds like this….  “A parking ticket?  Huh?  I was sure I read the signs right.  Let me check again.  Oh - shoot, look.  I did read it wrong.  Oh well.  This certainly isn’t how I wanted to spend my money, but I’m so grateful I can just pay this and be done with it.”  Done.  Simple. Easy. You go about your day, still enjoying it and have learned to be extra diligent to read parking signs a few times before leaving your car, just to be double sure.  

Accept was is.  It is in your experience whether you resist or accept it.  Resistance locks it in place. Acceptance allows you to powerful move through the experience to what you really want.  You have full authority to choose either option at any time.  If you feel stuck in some area of your life, stop resisting what “is,” accept it, and work through it.