Acceptance Meditation - Turning Resistance Into Acceptance

I'm going to lead you through a meditative exercise based on acceptance.

We're going to highlight any areas of your life where you experience resistance and we're going to transform that resistance into acceptance.

I'm going to guide you through a method of practising the alchemy of acceptance.

So just for a moment let's relax,

Just become aware of your breathing for a moment as we begin this meditative exercise.

Just feel the air brushing the inside of your nose as you breathe in and as you breathe out.

Feel how your stomach rises and falls with your breath and feel how with each breath you become a little more relaxed.

Each breath becomes a little deeper,

A little slower.

And now that you're relaxed let's bring your attention to different areas of your life where you may experience resistance.

And as we go through these areas be mindful of any situation where you feel resistance and make a mental note of this situation because we'll return to it in a few moments.

So first of all let's focus on the physical area of our lives.

Let's focus on our bodies.

Perhaps there are some areas where you feel discomfort or pain in your body either regularly,

Sometimes or on an ongoing basis.

So be aware of any physical discomfort that you maybe feel at this moment or which occurs in your life sometimes.

And just make a mental note of the resistance that you feel to physical discomfort.

It could be a pain which occurs sometimes.

And habitually when we experience pain or discomfort we try to move away from them.

We try to resist them.

But it's actually more productive for us to move towards the pain and discomfort because as we move towards it our attention merges with it and as our attention merges with it it somehow becomes softer and somehow it dissipates rather than being concentrated in a single point.

So let's move on now to the activities of your life.

All of the daily activities that you have to practice in your life.

Your chores and tasks.

The things you have to do in your job.

The people you have to encounter in your job or in your family life.

Maybe there are some aspects of your daily life where you experience resistance.

There are some things you don't enjoy doing and you feel frustrated when you do them.

It could be something as simple as a household chore like doing the dishes or doing the vacuuming.

It could be doing presentations in your job or zoom meetings.

Anything else that you don't enjoy and where you feel resistance.

So again make a mental note of any areas where you feel resistance.

And then let's move on to your life situation.

By this I mean where you are in your life.

In relation to your ambitions,

In relation to notions of success or career or achievement.

It could also be the environment you live in.

The physical environment,

Your house and the area,

The town or city you live in.

It could be your relationships,

Your partner,

Your family.

Maybe there's some aspect of your life situation which you find difficult to accept and which creates discord and frustration inside you.

So again make a mental note of any area where you feel resistance.

And finally let's turn to life itself.

There are certain aspects of life itself which many people find difficult to accept.

One is the process of aging,

How our appearance changes as we get older,

How our body changes as we get older.

Some people find it hard to accept that process and they try to defy it.

They try to resist it by trying to remain young or at least trying to look young.

So perhaps you feel resistance to that aging process.

Also you may feel resistance to death.

A lot of people understandably feel anxiety when they contemplate death and the concept of death creates resistance and discord inside them.

So dying or death may be an aspect of life that you need to accept.

You may need to work on accepting the reality and the inevitability of death.

So let's think in terms of maybe one or two areas amidst those four different aspects and let's work on those one or two areas where you may need to practice acceptance.

I'm going to take you through a method now of transforming resistance into acceptance.

So first of all let's return to one of those areas where you feel resistance in your life.

So bring that situation or activity into your mind for a moment.

Just imagine it,

Contemplate it and be aware of any negative thoughts or feelings which are associated with it.

And as you are aware of those feelings or thoughts,

See if you can also be aware of the space between you and them.

Remind yourself that you are the observer of your thoughts and feelings.

There is a distance between you as the witness and those thoughts and feelings.

So be aware of that space and be aware that you don't have to allow these thoughts or feelings to determine your mood.

You can remain in a state of stillness,

In a state of well-being as you observe them.

And now what we're going to do is to release the resistance you feel to the situation.

We're going to imagine that there is a cord which connects you to the situation which is attached very tightly so that it creates tension.

And we're going to imagine that that cord dissolves away freeing you of the tension and freeing you of the resistance.

So at that point you will enter a state of acceptance.

So we're going to go through a process of letting go of our resistance,

Allowing the cord to melt away and then we'll switch into a mode of acceptance in which we are completely open to the reality of the situation.

So let's do that now.

We can do this in parallel with our breathing.

So in a few moments we're going to take a long breath out and as you take the long breath out I want you to imagine that you are letting go of resistance.

You are making a mental intention to release your resistance to the situation and as you do that the cord which connects you to the situation is falling away,

Dissolving away and you are entering into a mode of acceptance.

So let's do that now.

Take a breath in and as you breathe out just let go of your resistance and enter into a mode of acceptance.

Just breathe in and release your resistance and switch into a mode of acceptance towards the situation.

And as you do that you can feel the conflict created by the situation falling away.

You can feel yourself switching into a mode of harmony.

So let's do that again.

We can try that with another area of acceptance.

So just return to one of the areas of your life where you feel resistance.

Bring it into your consciousness.

Contemplate it.

Now it's important for you to move towards the resistance.

It's important for you to acknowledge the situation,

To explore the feelings which it gives rise to.

So rather than moving away from it we are moving towards the resistance.

We are moving towards the situation itself.

And as I said before that applies to pain.

Normally we try to resist pain and to move away from it but it's actually better for us to move towards pain and to allow our attention to merge with it.

So let's do that now with the situation where you feel resistance.

Let's move towards it.

Let's be aware of the feelings it creates.

And now we can move into the process of releasing resistance and switching into a mode of acceptance.

So again let's breathe in and with the out breath we can let go,

Make the mental intention to let go of resistance.

To allow the cord to dissolve away and suddenly shifting into a mode of acceptance.

As the duality and conflict in relation to the situation fades away and we feel a sense of oneness and harmony.

And you can do that with any of the areas of your life where you feel resistance,

Any of the other areas which you may have identified earlier.

It's a three stage process.

The first stage is acknowledging the situation and the negativity it creates.

The second stage is exploring and observing the negativity.

And the third stage is releasing,

Letting go of resistance and shifting into a mode of acceptance.

And I'd like to end this meditative exercise with one further visualisation.

I'd like you to imagine that the whole of your life is spread out in front of you as if it's a landscape opening wide panoramically in front of you.

So just imagine your whole life,

All of the activities in your life,

All of the people in your life,

All of your ambitions and plans,

All of your memories,

All of your past,

Everything is spread out in front of you as if it's a landscape.

And now I'd like you to open up completely to the landscape.

Just open wide in acceptance,

Embracing every aspect of your life.

So just be aware that your life as it is exists as the reality of your life.

So you have no choice but to accept and embrace the reality.

Even if there are some genuinely negative aspects of your life,

You have to embrace them and accept them in order to change them.

So even negative aspects of your life will benefit from an attitude of acceptance.

An attitude of acceptance is often the beginning of real beneficial change in our lives.

So open up to every aspect of your life,

Embrace the reality of your life as it is right now and accept the whole of your life as it is right now.

I'd like to finish with the second part of the poem,

The Alchemy of Acceptance.

And this deals specifically with old age and death.

The Alchemy of Acceptance part two.

Old age may be a process of decay that withers your body and mind and poisons you with bitterness as you yearn for the freshness of youth.

Or old age may be a process of liberation that enriches you with wisdom and makes you more present as the future recedes and lightens your soul as you let go of attachments.

And the only difference between them is acceptance.

Death may be a cold black emptiness that mercilessly devours your ego and makes everything you own seem valueless and everything you've achieved seem meaningless.

Or death may be a perfect culmination,

A soft twilight at the end of a long summer's day when you're filled with heavy tiredness and ready to sleep and know that you'll wake up again to a bright new dawn.

And the only difference between them is acceptance.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.