The Power Of Being In Acceptance With What Is #219

Welcome to the Soul-Infused Monday Show episode 219 called The Power of Being in Acceptance with What Is.

I am currently traveling still.

I am in the mountains in Colombia and last week was a little bit challenging.

I am revisiting or have been going through,

For lack of better words,

A depressive kind of state or experience.

And I have been throughout my life dealing with depression in many different ways and many different colors and I've been very transparent with it.

I generally like to be transparent and open.

It so often comes to accepting what is versus judging,

Denying,

Hating,

Rejecting and depending on how we want to feel.

Now I'm sharing this with you because I wanted to share something that I read to give you some food for thought.

The other day I was lying in bed and I woke up and if you've ever experienced depression in some way or more difficult emotions,

Often the thoughts that we have are circling in the same way,

Creating also judgment and resistance around it.

It's very easy to celebrate the great moments and joy and happiness and as soon as we feel some sadness or anger or something that's happening inside or outside of our world,

We normally very quickly approach it with judgment or resistance and either we try to deny it,

Numb it,

Run away from it or change it very quickly.

My point in sharing this with you,

I have several books here where I live and I just had a book that is called Care of the Soul and sometimes I like to grab a book and simply open it up somewhere.

I do this regularly with my own books or when I'm in a different place I like to use some other books and funny enough I think it's sometimes so interesting how the universe gives us what we need in that moment.

I opened that book and it says chapter 7,

Gifts of Depression.

I have been on the journey long enough that when I do go through experiences that I know from the past because when I was growing up I struggled a lot with depression,

I suffered from severe depression and things have changed tremendously when I go through those phases.

To talk about it is also important because there is such a power with being in acceptance with what is and it can bring a lot of healing.

When I look back when I was dealing with depression I approached it a lot with a lot of judgment and trying to fix it as quick as possible and one of the things that I remembered when I was going through a challenging time and maybe it's not depression,

That's just an example to give you an idea but being with what is is with anything in your life that you reject or anything in your life that you judge or that you feel it's not good enough on the inside on the outside,

An emotion,

A thought,

A behavior,

Something in the world.

So use whatever you hear today and pick what resonates with you.

In order to benefit from these ideas today or this conversation you don't have to deal with depression whatsoever at all.

However maybe you also know someone and you might learn something today that might benefit someone else that goes through something like this,

Dark moments how we often call them.

So I opened this book and it says Gifts of Depression and I just want to read a little bit of it as a reminder or maybe for someone that's never seen it this way to see a different perspective and again you can substitute the word depression with anything else that you are in judgment in your life.

Gifts of Depression says the soul presents itself in a variety of colors including all the shades of gray,

Blue and black.

To care for the soul we must observe the full range of all its colorings and resist the temptation to approve only of white,

Red and orange,

The brilliant colors.

The bright idea of colorizing old black and white movies is consistent with our culture's general rejection of the dark and the gray.

In a society that is defendant against the tragic sense of life depression will appear as an enemy.

An unredeemable malady yet in such a society devoted to light depression in compensation will be unusually strong.

Care of the soul requires our appreciation of these ways it presents itself.

Faced with depression we might ask ourselves what is it doing here?

Does it have some necessary role to play?

Especially in dealing with depression and mood close to our feelings of mortality we must guard against the denial of death that is so easy to slip into.

Even further we may have to develop a taste for the depressed mood,

A positive respect for its place in the soul's cycle.

Some feelings and thoughts seem to emerge only in a dark mood.

Suppress the mood and you will suppress those ideas and reflections.

Now there's way more and it goes on and on and on and on but my point in sharing this with you today is that we are so conditioned in many ways to deny or reject or judge what we believe is not good or we label it as positive or negative.

Depression as a whole and as a disclaimer I'm not a clinical psychologist or clinical doctor or anything if you are struggling with depression or if this is a trigger topic for you that might be something that you might want to discuss with someone else or not watch it or know that you are 100% responsibility for your actions.

So whatever I share with you you can pick and choose if it resonates with you and I'm sharing it from my own experience and having dealt with depression in many ways and also with my clients and again it's not only about depression today it's about what in your life are you maybe resisting or judging and how would it be different if you could actually be in acceptance with what is in that moment.

Because it's always easy to be in acceptance with the things that we want to enjoy and that are fun and light and accepted in society but how do you deal with the things that you judge and what could you do today as a step to be in acceptance with it and I'm sharing my current situation just because I like to be transparent and it doesn't resonate with everyone and not everyone likes to talk about the deeper,

The darker,

The more heavier stuff and it doesn't have to resonate with everyone because I don't work with everyone but those who do resonate and in my experience it's so important to be transparent and to talk about it openly because there's a lot of shame involved in those topics there's often isolation involved in those topics because we are not used to talk about this also in a positive way,

In an accepting way,

In a loving way and in my meditation this morning even I was sitting there meditating and tuning into what I was feeling and instead of judging it or rejecting it or going you know in those thoughts I asked internally and I asked also up to my soul what do you want to teach me.

I was asking depression itself what it wants to teach me.

Now just take a deep breath for a moment and choose in your own life whatever it is that you're struggling with.

Could be something completely different but what if instead of judging it,

Seeing it is something bad or trying to fix it or get rid of it or numb it you tune in and you ask what is it teaching me and there's beauty in connecting deep within and when you accept what is in that moment without trying to change it,

Without being attached to a different outcome,

When you can fully be present and in acceptance with what is in that moment it creates peace.

Peace doesn't necessarily mean oh it's everything is exciting and roses and bubbles and yay.

No being at peace means that you are at peace with what is and that peace is such a delicious feeling even if there's still underlying other emotions or sadness or fear of the unknown or insecurity or brokenness whatever the human experience is experiencing.

When you use the power of being with what is it can create peace in that moment and that brings you back to the present moment.

Does this resonate with you?

Now it's easier said than done to be with what is and I know that it's a concept,

It's a skill,

It's a training,

It's a constant intention setting but how does it look like and why is it actually so challenging?

Let's use depression just because it came up today.

When we are in a mood of sadness or we feel like there's no purpose or it feels dark in those moments it seems like and it feels like this is all there is and the fear underneath is that we're gonna stay stuck there.

When we are in a state we sometimes even forget that this is only temporary because it is.

Everything is temporary,

Everything is constantly changing,

Everything is constantly moving if we don't resist it.

Now in that moment when we feel a certain way and we hate it,

Judge it,

Deny it,

Want to get rid of it.

When we think about accepting it,

It is as if it would feed that wrong belief that it's permanent,

That we're never gonna get out of it.

So by accepting it,

It seems like oh my gosh I'll surrender,

It's just you know there's no way out,

It's a giving up so to say.

However being in acceptance creates the opposite if we don't listen to those flawed logical thoughts.

To give you an analogy I came up with an image this morning that I found also interesting.

When we are in those,

For lack of better words,

Let's call them dark moods.

I don't say bad or good,

Negative or positive,

Just dark moods to give it an idea.

In those moments we often forget all the good stuff that happens,

Who we are.

It's as if a cloud comes over us and distorts our vision.

And in the past when I was struggling with depression and I was already coaching people,

I was already a therapist,

I was working.

When I went through depressive moods I started to doubt myself and I was judging myself and I was saying how can I still struggle with this after so many years of work and I should be different and all of that.

I don't have that anymore.

I still go through cycles of depression,

However in those moments I do not forget who I am and I'm not only not judging myself for it,

I see it as a skill that gives me the actually the opportunity to work with people on a much deeper level.

So even when I go through cycles like that,

I know who I am as an analogy because we forget that sometimes.

Let's say you speak a language,

Let's say you speak English,

Let's say I speak the language of the soul and you know how to.

You've done it for years,

You feel very confident with it,

Comfortable,

You know how to express yourself and you know the words for certain expressions,

It's just something that you have.

Now something happens and you are in a very dark mood and you don't feel like talking to anyone anymore,

You doubt yourself,

You are ashamed of yourself,

Whatever your version of it is,

You might not speak anymore for a while for whatever reason,

It's just an analogy.

Now you did not forget the language,

You did not forget how to speak even if you don't feel like doing it in that moment,

Even though if you are in a dark place,

You still know how to do it,

You didn't forget about it,

It is there,

It does exist but in those moments sometimes we forget about it.

So if you are in acceptance with what is in that moment and you are in acceptance of whatever so-called uncomfortable situation,

Feeling,

Thought and you can hold space for it knowing that is a moment in time,

Knowing that it's a cycle and even if you don't understand it,

It has a purpose somewhere.

So the power of being in acceptance also allows you to stay in motion,

To stay in movement and you only get to take one step at a time.

Don't go too much in the future,

Don't go too much in the past,

One moment at a time.

Being in acceptance with what is brings you to the present moment.

Okay I'm gonna go through a few of the comments and if you have any last questions let me know.

Here's one comment,

Yes oh my goodness yes I needed this,

Accept it,

Stop judging and resisting wanting to be rid of it.

I'm so happy to hear that,

Yes you're not alone with that.

So many including myself,

Anyone basically that is conditioned in some way in this human experience,

We have that conditioning or programming or tendency to reject what we think is not good.

However who is labeling what's good from a soul's perspective,

Everything is an experience and I have moments even in the darkest feelings when I say to myself it's a privilege to experience this,

It's an experience that I'm having if I remove the judgment and I can practice more and more to be with it.

And it's uncomfortable sometimes but that's okay too,

It's temporary.

Yeah Destiny's sharing,

I just want to be rid of it.

Yeah yeah you're not alone I understand that and at the same time that wanting that wanting to get rid of it,

First of all it's not really working and it creates more resistance and it blocks it from actually being released or from being experienced because once you make the experience and you allow it,

It can move on.

And Pamela is saying yes I am now accepting myself and my body thoughts and it feels peaceful like I am finally my own friend.

Yeah beautiful,

It's okay if it feels unpeaceful sometimes too.

Like nature has different seasons also in many places and the Sun goes up,

The Sun goes down,

Well the Sun doesn't actually go up and down,

The Sun is a fixed planet but it's for us the perception is the Sun comes out,

Sun goes down,

It rains,

The Sun comes out,

There's darkness and lightness in nature,

There's a shift from darkness to light in nature and it's normal and the trees are not resisting it and fighting it,

The birds are not resisting and fighting it,

The ocean is not upset about it,

It's just nature and we can adapt from nature because we are part of nature.

And Tina is sharing a takeaway,

Tuning in and asking what are you teaching me?

Yes that's a very very good takeaway.

Let me recap here real quick.

Remind yourself of the power of being with it.

Whether it is easy for you or not or whether it takes some time or not,

It's okay to struggle with it a little bit.

At the same time my recommendation is to practice it as much as you can and every time you find yourself judging yourself or judging something or somebody or you are in that urge,

It's not good enough,

I have to change it and you hold on to it,

You feel the energy is different.

There's an energy of acceptance versus denying and there's also difference in energy of giving up because it's not worth it or it's never gonna be better.

That's not being in acceptance.

In acceptance is your whole space,

You breathe through the discomfort of it or the experience of it and you can even take it a step further and ask what is this teaching me right now?

What am I learning?

And I have one other comment here that I want to read.

Sometimes acceptance feels unnatural and giving in to what is a defeat.

My default is usually judgment which only keeps me anxious and stressed.

Yes,

I want to tune into that real quick because there's something there.

Sometimes acceptance feels unnatural.

So interestingly enough I think acceptance is very natural.

What's unnatural is the fighting nature and that's unnatural.

Just ponder on that.

But yeah,

You're not alone.

It's exactly what I shared.

Your default is to usually judge or keep and that keeps you anxious and stressed.

Yes.

And be in acceptance that that's a programming and you can breathe through it without judging you and you look at it.

You let it be an experience and then it is uncomfortable and you breathe through that.

And you can ask if you wanted to also what is this teaching me?

It's teaching me,

Maybe it's teaching you to be more than accepted.

You know I don't have all the answers but I think it's,

It's,

There's enough food for thought and to tune in and I invite you for today.

For the rest of today walk around and observe your thoughts.

Observe what you think about certain things and certain feelings and when you catch yourself being in judgment or in resistance or in denial even or trying to numb.

My numb go to has always been food,

Right.

But for you maybe it's something different.

But just observe yourself.

How,

What are you thinking in that moment?

What are you doing in that moment?

What are you feeling in that moment?

And take a breath and set the intention even if it's just for one moment to be in acceptance with what is.

And remind yourself that because you're going through something uncomfortable doesn't mean you forgot everything else you experienced.

Doesn't mean you're gonna stay stuck there forever.

It means you are having an experience.

The soul,

The soul is experiencing something and that's food for the soul.

And from a soul's perspective it's a moment in time.

And I know for the humanness in us,

For the human being,

That's a hard thing to grasp.

When you allow yourself to be in acceptance with what is in that moment it can truly create peace.

And if you manage to do that one moment at a time that's worth it even if it's only one moment today.

Thank you for being here today.

This was my food for thought today.

Before you leave please do me a favor.

Tune in and share with me what's your biggest takeaway.

What's the most valuable thing you've heard today?

And if you're watching this you can leave me a comment below.

If you are listening to this on Insight Timer or Spotify please leave me a review.

It means the world to me or send me a message.

What is your biggest takeaway from today?

What's the most valuable thing you are taking with you today?

Share it with me and this beautiful community of like-minded people.

You are not alone on this journey.

This is a challenging time for a lot of people right now in the world.

There's a lot going on and there's always gonna be something.

So take a deep breath,

Tune inward,

Reconnect with yourself with the truth of who you're being and connect to your soul and be in acceptance with what is as much as you can today.

It's gonna benefit you and it's gonna benefit anyone around you and it's gonna benefit the world.

And another takeaway,

Accept each moment at a time.

Peace one moment at a time.

Great takeaway.

Fantastic.

Thank you for being here today.

I love you.

I appreciate you.

If this was valuable share it with a friend and come back next Monday for a new episode of Soul In Juice Monday.

Much love.