Acceptance means paying calm and clear attention to both possibilities and limitations.
Acceptance is about recognizing what really is.Accepting someone means seeing them as a whole and responding to them as a whole, rather than reacting to individual impulses and identifications.
— from the book “Lyrical Philosophy of Psychotherapy” by Alexander Badkhen.
When we talk about acceptance, we seem to automatically turn to something that is unpleasant to us. This could be a problematic situation, dissatisfaction with oneself or others. Let's take a closer look at this phenomenon.
What is acceptance?
From a psychological point of view, acceptance is a person’s recognition of all aspects of reality as they are. This implies that he recognizes his body, temperament, character, fitness, health, abilities and limitations. In addition to the subject himself, acceptance may relate to the conditions of his life, relatives, friends and other people around him. Acceptance is the ability to see oneself or another accepted object as a whole, with all the “good” and “bad” sides.
Acceptance is the key to a high quality of life and mental health, so every person should strive for it. Essentially, it is about understanding that everything that has ever happened in your life is what you need. All these experiences gave you experience and forged your character, making you who you are today. This does not mean that you need to meekly resign yourself to every injustice and submit to circumstances. This means that you need to accept everything that has already happened and somehow influenced the circumstances of your life.
Acceptance implies a more conscious perception of life. Having acquired this valuable skill, a person literally gets rid of the blinders that hindered him, which were formed by imposed stereotypes. He gains the ability to think more clearly, see cause-and-effect relationships, understand the causes of various events, and predict the consequences of his own actions and decisions.
