What If This Is What I Chose?

I don’t know about your life, but in mine, things aren’t going the way I’d like. I want better health than I am experiencing. I want a listing system I’ve relied on for years as a therapist to work again. I want the political climate to be, once again, something I can be proud of.

I want things to be as they were a few short years ago – at least the kinds of things I listed. It helps to remember other things that were in my life a few years ago that I very much did not like or want. I remember wishing the association I belonged to was better and fought against the realization that it, in fact, wasn’t what I wished for. It wasn’t until I accepted the reality of it that I was able to let it go and move on.

The same holds for today. Rather than fight against what I don’t want, asking myself what might change if I accepted it?  Even more, if I treated what is currently in my life as something I chose to have in my life, how might that help me? The health issues, the broken listing system, the political turmoil.

In a way, I did choose these things: my poor health is a result of how I lived and how I ignored the signs of stress in how I was living – including remaining in a situation I didn’t want. The broken listing system – it would be a stretch to believe I had any agency over that breaking. But, having said that, I relied on that single method way longer than I should have. The political turmoil? Again, I didn’t wish it, but what is happening now is a result of a slow accumulation that most of us minimized for far too long.

I can – an am – doing something positive with all these issues. When I accept them as choices and challenges for positive growth, any anxiety I have lowers. When that happens, my tunnel-visioned focus dissipates and I am able to see a range of possibilities that weren’t available to me otherwise.

Quote of the Week

Accept – then act. Whatever the present moment contains, accept it as if you had chosen it … This will miraculously transform your whole life.

- Eckhart Tolle

The life-changing practice of radical acceptance

Announcements

Maryanne Nicholls is a Registered Psychotherapist.  To find out more, gain access to her weekly newsletter, meditations and programs, sign up at www.thejoyofliving.co . 

If you’re interested in the topic of avoiding burnout for people who do too much, you may be interested in checking out my youtube channel.