The theme of a lot of the reading I’ve been doing, and Oprah’s show this week with Ekhart Tolle, is acceptance.

Worry and guilt are non-acceptance of what “is” and serve no useful purpose in life, if they last for more than the moment it takes to recognize their existance and deal with the issue the feeling of worry or guilt has raised.

The Universe, being the cooperative place that it is, has been giving me chance after chance for practicing my acceptance skills. And I wasn’t doing so well. Especially yesterday.

So I sat down yesterday afternoon and wrote in my journal for a long time, trying to figure out what was going on and why I was having so many problems. Along the way, I discovered that part of my issue was that I didn’t have a definition of “acceptance” that really explained to me how to go about being “accepting".

Finally, after looking at the problem from several different angles, I came up with a definition that works for me right now.

“When faced with a decision, I make right choices in the moment, and it will all work out however it works out.”

So for me, acceptance isn’t about me spending all my time worrying about something that may happen, or feeling guilty about something that did happen… I’m not in charge of the “happening". I’m in charge of making the best decision in the moment that I know how to make, and in the next moment making the right decision for that moment.

That’s a very freeing thought for me… I’m responsible for something I actually have control over, my decisions.

How does one go about making “right choices"? That’s a long process of learning which voices in your head are trustworthy voices, and once you learn that, to pay attention to what they’re saying. And it’s also listening to your gut. The “right choice” always feels “right” in your gut.

I’m sure I’ll get more lessons in “acceptance", but I feel much better now that I know how to deal with them.