Acceptance of what was, what is and what can be:
Acceptance is an intrinsic part of your practice, both on the mat and off.
We need acceptance to perceive what is happening, what has happened and what can happen: we also need to accept what we have control over, and what we do not. Accepting responsibility for those things in your practice (and your life) that you can control is the foundation of being able to create change. Accepting those things that you do not have control over is the best way to recognise those aspects of your life that serve as barriers to your development. But by recognising these barriers we can also recognise and accept our own attitudes toward them: and potentially change the way we perceive these things in our life, changing our attitude towards that which cannot be changed.
Acceptance allows us to consciously change who we are; Acceptance is a path to freedom from our own limited view of the world.
Acceptance: Allowing yourself to recognise truth, and embrace it
We exist within our own narrative- we weave the world around us and make stories from everything we experience and everything we imagine. When we think about an event in the past we play back our version of the story that fulfils our personal needs. To validate our experience we often attribute strong motives to other players in our story, try to interpret things we have not experienced directly and create a dramatic backstory to explain the outcomes. This process is even more extensive for our divination of the future: we imagine how events will unfold, what will be said, how people will react.
The only truth is the present moment
And still we can embellish and decorate this moment with our own story. We hold grudges against our own bodies for the injuries they sustain, as if our bodies were some form of separate autonomous vehicle for the mind. We can find ourselves withdrawing from even the slightest discomfort in an attempt to make our presence within our bodies more acceptable – rather than accepting, and understanding, how we can use our bodies more effectively, build strength and heal. Similarly we shy away from emotional distress as a form of self defence: sometimes a necessary one but sometimes a way of preventing ourselves from addressing our problems and resolving the issues we face.
Acceptance is not Resignation but Understanding
Yoga allows us to explore ourselves in a unified format, everything we are together in one place at one time with the potential to change what is – but first we must be able to accept what is without returning to our self defensive narrative. To do so is to make ourselves vulnerable, to expose our own weaknesses, to allow us to address them. To do this takes commitment and strength. Through Yoga we can start to build ourselves as being better, more accepting and understanding people. this choice of awareness and action is truly a way of serving your best self.
Hope to see you soon,
Conrad
‘Embracing Acceptance’ Workshop is to be held 12.30-15.00 on 10.03.18. @ Space Six, Commercial Union House, Pilgrim Street, Newcastle, NE1 6QE.
For more info please click the booking button below or contact me if you have any questions.