Good Times, Bad Times, Ugly Times… That’s Life! And such times come in everybody’s life.
We have had a phase when nothing seemed to work for our business venture. We did our best but it all back-fired. And while we were struggling to make it work, some of our ‘good friends’ left us. It was like a double blow. All this while, we believed that they were our best friends and that best friends stick by you through hard times.
We wondered how could our choices turn out to be so wrong. We became our biggest critic and engaged in self-pity and finger-pointing. We held ourselves accountable for the uncertainties and vulnerabilities that we were facing. Of course, they were our decisions… our choices…
Sooner than later, we realized that it would not do us any good to have these pity-parties that made us more miserable. We realized that all this self-blame was unnecessary and harsh. It was not helping us in any way and in fact, it was taking the wind out of our sails.
And then we came across, Deepak Chopra’s The 7 Laws of Spiritual Success, in which he 
explains that we need to receive with open arms what happens to us, because if we fight and resist it, then we are generating a lot of turbulence in our minds. He explains that we might want for things to be different in the future, but in the present moment we need to accept things as they are. That’s the way we can make our life flow smoothly, instead of roughly.
And this made a lot of sense to us. We had already seen how it is to hold on to negativity. So, we had to opt for the second and the only option available to us which was that of acceptance.
It was time to accept things as they were. It was time to accept that all days are never the same and that things would work out, eventually.
It was a hard choice. Acceptance did not come easily to us. But when we did accept the reality, it gave us a peaceful state of mind, it made us see the positive. Owning and accepting our decisions helped us to move forward and helped us to make new and exciting choices.
Yes, acceptance is a choice.
We can complain about the rain or accept that it’s raining, find an umbrella and dance in the rain and/or sit in the balcony with a book and tea and enjoy it.
Linking this to #1000Speak a monthly linkup on the 20th of every month, which invites bloggers to blog about compassion/empathy, etc. This month’s link up is on the topic of Acceptance and also linking it to Write Tribe’s #MondayMusings
14 Responses
Acceptance is the first step towards change. The saddest part is that some people are so happy living in denial that they refuse to accept the obvious.
Truly an excellent post Shilpa thank you. For me it is something I am grappling with as we speak (I note you’ve just noted that I tweeted it – something came up as I type!) – the more one can accept reality the greater one’s joy when the hard times pass .. dance in the rain.
Deepak Chopra’s book is very inspiring.Shilpa, this post depicts the reality of life, how hurdles came and how you managed to overcome them brilliantly.Excellent post.
I was having a conversation with someone yesterday on Deepak Chopra’s teaching and shared how I feel I am not ready to read his stuffs. I agree that acceptance is a choice and one shouldn’t resist change and flow of thoughts. Your words make it so empowering:)
I have attended a short online course by Deepak Chopra and I liked it. I hope to read his books too someday.
And I learned the hard way that ‘best friends’ will not be on our side when things are not going right. They only want to share happiness, not the hardships.
Destination Infinity
I know exactly what you mean. During my worst moments, I watched people who really mattered to me just walk away and felt so lost and angry. Accepting the truth of my situation and life took a long time for someone as naive as me but eventually I did… and that helped me let go.
We will have peace of mind if we learn to accept the things as they come.
That’s a great book on spiritual laws! 🙂 Certainly wise sage advice in his words. And I did appreciate the rain and even danced in it two weekends ago: it was actually a lot of fun! Though it helps to have a great band to dance to (which was there when I did)! 😉 <3
I think acceptance is the first step if we want change.
“There are only two ways to respond either ‘Complain’ or ‘Compassion'”
Excellent advice! It’s human nature to resist, kicking and screaming, but in the end, acceptance is less stressful. Always a major blow when best friends let you down. 🙁 Hopefully, you will go on and make better friends, elsewhere.
Acceptance is so difficult at times. But you are right, it is the only way to move forward no matter how hurting it is.
Acceptance is so difficult……., but then one should understand its the only way…
Acceptance is a choice. The sooner one makes that, the easier life gets.
And, failure makes you so much stronger!! Love your personal perspective on this, Shilpa!! Yes, failure is also a good time to analyze who your true friends are!