To conclude Week 1 ‘Accepting What Is’ in our six-week programme ‘Creating Hope and Staying Positive while facing Covid-19’ we are sharing a passage from ‘Readings from Middle Routine’ which illustrates how we can apply the idea of acceptance in our ordinary lives to help us look after our mental health.
Acceptance: As a human being I will naturally make many mistakes and involve myself and others in occasional trouble and loss. However, this is the reality of life and an inevitable part of the good relationships and progressive improvement.
Active acceptance means a willingness to respond to life as it presents itself, not only day by day but moment by moment. We can’t stand on the sideline and watch. We are always on the field, evaluating, deciding, acting – going on probabilities when we can’t be certain. All the time, we are referring to a built-in set of values, and applying rapidly a healthy sense of proportion.
If we can accept that others make genuine mistakes, which cause them to learn and mature, then why should we be immune from making mistakes? Humanity can afford these natural mishaps and injuries that give-and-take of these hurts and losses is to accept that we are human. If we will not accept that, we cannon have, and do not deserve to have, mental health.