"There's something wonderfully bold and liberating about saying yes to our entire imperfect and messy life"
~Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance
There's no doubt that life can be messy at times, and even when it seems to be going well, it usually doesn't take long for things to pile up again. For most of us, it seems we keep thinking that once we get everything taken care of and put in place, life will be easy sailing. However, I have lived long enough to know that this never seems to happen. The saying, "If it's not one thing it's another" seems to remain pretty accurate.
No need to fear though! We have strategies to help us deal with this, and the first one is.... ACCEPT IT! I know, it's not what you wanted to hear... I said the same thing when I first heard it, however, accepting our current situation is the first step to changing it. The Psychologist Carl Rogers stated, "The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change." This goes for our lives too. Taking a minute... a day... a week... or longer if necessary to stop and evaluate our lives is vital if we want to be living our lives in accordance to our own values and stay in our integrity. Once we figure out what needs to change, we can take action steps to slowly turn our life into what we want it to be.
Martha Beck talks about how staying in our integrity is the best way to determine if our lives are aligned with our true nature. She says that a good way to stay in integrity is to "Know what you know, feel what you feel, say what you mean, and do what you want to do." So if we're not sure what is out of alignment we should take a look at what we're are not admitting we know, not feeling what we feel, not saying what we mean, and not doing what we want to do. Once we have figured these things out we can make a plan to make the changes we need to get our life back in alignment, and have the tools we need to keep it that way.
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