January 2023 – Acceptance Comes Before Understanding

Happy 2023, and I hope the first few weeks of the year are starting off well for you. If not so much, then I wish for you to have enough support and inspiration to work with whatever is arising, especially the awareness that, “Even this will pass.”

In this article, I’m addressing what we often are confused on, the belief that understanding has to come before acceptance. The counterintuitive thing is that actually the two are decoupled, and acceptance requires no understanding, just acknowledgement of the reality of something, and letting that reality be true within ourselves. Which, although it is not easy (we have defenses against foreign stuff), works a lot better in the long run.

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Surrender Happens in Waves

Someone recently asked me what the magic pill of psychotherapy was, and at first I scratched my head and shrugged, starting into, “Well, there really isn’t…” and then stopped. “You know what, there actually is a magic pill: surrender.” We then went on to talk about that, what that means, but I realize I left one important thing out:

Surrender happens in waves.

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Control vs. Surrender: Some thoughts on technique and attitude

The success of, and problem with, control

We humans are wired up to want control. In a large way, we got to the top of the food chain by finding ways to control our surroundings and each other. We developed tools, which allowed us to control many things, including food supplies, housing, mobility. We developed social systems, which allowed control over how we relate to each other, opening up possibilities to grow and develop that are squashed if everyone is out for just themselves. We developed science, allowing vast opportunities to control the material world, as well as insights into how to control our selves (psychology, sociology, neurology, etc.).

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