Once we say "Yes!" as to what life offers, we accept to live by it's flow. Definitely, this is much easier said than done. For us to focus our attention on the positives, "loving every aspects of our living, and turning away from irritating situations, is vital to feeling akin to the principles of life rather than fighting life". But, how do we do this? Just how do we master our minds, which are sometimes fuelled by self-righteousness and self-will, and become a humble entity in life who is here to make best contributions, rather than dwell in negativity?
To Simply accept something involves three aspects:
• Acknowledgment of reality; This involves admitting that reality - including unpleasant reality, exists. You see it as inevitable that many things will not be to your liking. You view uncertainty, frustration and dissapointment as aspects of normal life.
• Absence of any demand that reality seem not to exist; This means that, although you prefer yourself, other people, things, or circumstances to differ from how they are at present (and you may even work at changing them), have it in mind that there is no 'Law of the Universe' which says they should or must differ.
• Keeping unwanted realities in perspective; You do not like some things, and find them unpleasant - you have to avoid catastrophising them into 'horrible' or 'unbearable'
Various people have trouble with the idea of acceptance. They feel that to accept something means they have to like it, acknowledge it, justify it, be indifferent to it, or resign themselves to it. Acceptance is none of such things. You can hate something, see it as unjustified and continue to prefer that it doesn not exist. You can be concerned about it. You can take action to change it, if change is possible. However you can still accept it by rejecting the idea that it should not exist and that it absolutely must be changed.
Every one of us is faced with situations that may seem to be too daunting or too difficult to handle with love. Yet, I realise from experience that learning how to rely on my beliefs in the infinite and divine universal source made a lot of big difference between feeling like life's victim, and feeling strengthened to go by the flow. After I lost my first love, I was horrified, angry, and overwhelmed with grief. Even though I now understand that acceptance was the only answer then, I still needed to pray for forgiveness to fill my heart for her. I had to go forward in my life and turn my tremendous grief into something positive.
Sometimes it is hard to see the lesson and gift in the circumstances that seem to be out of the principle, especially for those small, but annoying instances in life like the noisy neighbour, betrayed friendship, corrupt governance. These are the changing times, however, when we get to practice our several hours of meditation and mindfulness practices, and accept with compassion this new occurrence in our lives. We need to simply remind ourselves that we are all souls on a journey and that folks are sometimes unconscious of their effect on others. Once we refuse to personalise any disturbance the universe has brought into our world, then we are rewarded with not only more peaceful lives, we can also rejoin the flow of life.
Life might not exactly always bring roses and riches but by learning to say "Yes!" to what life offers, and by learning to apply the strategy of acceptance to life events both small and large, we open ourselves to the gift of living by the principle. Lastly, don’t make these principles into demands. They are ideals. Probably no-one could practice them all consistently. Rather, see them as absolute ‘musts’ for managing your stress, use them as guidelines to a better life.