The Mindful Attitude of Acceptance by Jon Kabat-Zinn
The Mindful Attitude of Acceptance 6
Jon Kabat-Zinn
What is the Mindful Attitude of Acceptance?
The mindful attitudes acceptance means seeing things as they actually are in the present. If you have a headache, accept that you have a headache. If you are overweight, why not accept it as a description of your body at this time? Sooner or later we have to come to terms with things as they are and accept them. Whether it is a diagnosis of cancer or learning of someone’s death. Often acceptance is only reached after we have gone through very emotion-filled periods of denial and then anger. These stages are a natural progression in the process of coming to terms with what is. They are all part of the healing process.
However, putting aside for the moment the major calamities. That usually takes a great deal of time to heal from, in the course of our daily lives. We often waste a lot of energy denying and resisting what is already a fact. When we do that, we are basically trying to force situations to be the way we would like them to be. Which only makes for more tension. This actually prevents positive change from occurring. We may be so busy denying and forcing and struggling. That we have little energy left for healing and growing. The little energy we have may be dissipated by our lack of awareness and intentionality.
Self-Acceptance
If you feel bad about your body. At a certain point, if you don’t want to remain stuck in a frustrating vicious cycle. You might realize that it is all right to love yourself as you are. Because this is the only time you can love yourself. Remember, now is the only time you have for anything. You have to accept yourself as you are before you can really change.
By intentionally cultivating acceptance, you are creating the preconditions for healing.
Acceptance does not mean
Acceptance does not mean that you have to like everything or abandon your principles and values. It does not mean that you are satisfied with things as they are or that you are resigned to tolerating things as they “have to be.” It does not mean that you should stop trying to break free of your own self-destructive habits. Or to give up on your desire to change and grow. That you should tolerate injustice, for instance, or avoid getting involved in changing the world.
Acceptance as we are speaking of it simply means that you have come around to a willingness to see things as they are. This attitude sets the stage for acting appropriately in your life, no matter what is happening. You are much more likely to know what to do. Having the inner conviction to act when you have a clear picture of what is actually happening. Then when your vision is clouded by your mind’s self-serving judgments. Its desires, fears, and prejudices.
Meditation Practice
In the meditation practice. We cultivate acceptance by taking each moment as it comes and being with it fully, as it is. We try not to impose our ideas. About what we should be feeling or thinking or seeing in our experience. This just reminds us to be receptive. Open to whatever we are feeling, thinking, or seeing. To use the mindful attitude of acceptance to accept it because it is here right now.
If we keep our attention focused on the present. We can be sure that whatever we are attending to at this moment will change. This gives us the opportunity to practice accepting whatever it is that will emerge in the next moment. Clearly, there is wisdom in cultivating acceptance.
Source- Full Catastrophe Living, by Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., pages 33-40
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Respectfully,
Heidi & Ross
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G Ross Clark C.C.P.,
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada,
Email- TheMindfulCoach@gmail.com,
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