When we think of emotional freedom, what we are really talking about is the ability to be here, to meet whatever is arising in the moment for us.
Lee Byrd
What is Acceptance?
Acceptance is the practice of coming to rest within, the true path to inner peace. Acceptance enables us to step out of judgment, giving us the space needed to be with whatever is here.
As a student I would tell my teacher my story, often a long sad tale of betrayal or some injustice that I was struggling to understand. She would listen with great tenderness and when I’d say, “Why is this happening?” She would always reply, “It’s called life.”
Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans.
John Lennon
Of course what she was teaching me was the power of acceptance. As long as I was worrying about the past or fretting over the future, I lacked the ability to be present with what was really going on. Everything I do from this place of resistance causes more pain and struggle.
It is only by taking the time to look deep into what is here now and to allow what we are truly feeling that we can make lasting change. Instead of intellectually “understanding” our pain as a way of dissolving it, we learn to meet and accept the pain, until it dissolves. A simple, yet profoundly powerful tool. This is the path to emotional freedom.
Whatever you accept completely will take you to peace, including the acceptance that you cannot accept, that you are in resistance.
Eckhart Tolle
Journaling Exercise
Find a comfortable safe space to work, one where there will be little or no distraction. Have your journal nearby.
Look around your environment. Look up, down, to each side and always behind. Notice:
- Colors
- Smells
- Noise
- What the air feels like
Close your eyes and do several rounds of intentional breathing: https://www.leebyrdmystic.com/breath-work-beginner-embodiment-exercise/
Body Awareness Meditation: https://www.leebyrdmystic.com/about/meditation/body-awareness-meditation-practice-noticing-sensations/
Slowly open your, look around your environment and take 3 or 4 intentional breaths.
- In your journal, describe in detail a situation that is currently causing discomfort.
- Breathe.
- Find the physical sensations within your beautiful perfect body. Describe this sensations.
- Ask, are these sensations ok? Can I simply allow them to be here?
- If yes, breathe.
- If no, ask, is it ok that you are resisting these sensations?
Keep asking the question, are these sensations ok, until you find rest. Once you have found inner rest around the sensations, ask yourself:
What is really going on here for me? Take time with this and just allow whatever is there to come to light.
Identifying our emotional patterns takes practice, because most of us were taught to avoid these uncomfortable feelings. It is such strong medicine to simply observe and allow emotions and sensations without an agenda or a need to make them different. Ultimately we practice the ability to be here, to meet whatever is arising in the moment.
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