I’ve only been in the workforce for 6 years. It took me 6 years to understand the principles of passion, happiness and freedom. And guess what? I’m still not done! I’ve learned that what I know today is not what I will know tomorrow. I am a constantly evolving being in a constantly evolving existence. It would be impossible for me to claim “Hey, I’ve figured it out!” Acceptance derives from a deeply engrained truth that: shifts happen!
What does water, a rubber band and a parabola all have in common? Each will flux and shift, yet retain its original form of existence. This is how we must be. When a ruthless or long and tedious journey catches you in its furnace, you have two options, really. You can resist or you can accept. When you choose resistance, you are making a statement that you are not enough. Any substance that resists its own creation cannot sustain itself in the long run. It cannot reach its full potential and will singlehandedly derive the very fear that it is escaping from in the first place. This happens as a default. If you’ve ever heard the saying, “What you resist, persists.” you may be familiar with this concept, or rather-universal truth. For example, if you are in a job that you are not fulfilled in, you may have any of number of low vibrational thoughts, “My boss and co-workers do not treat me well”, “I deserve a bigger paycheck”, “The actual work I do fails to have a deeper meaning.” Negative thoughts, or low vibrational frequencies are excellent tools, often housed in the consuming world of resistance, that direct you to where the healing needs to happen.
So how do we shift from a feeling of resistance, to acceptance? The first thing you want to do is isolate the predominant negative thought that you’re having. For example, ” “The actual work I do fails to have a deeper meaning.” The next step is to ask yourself the right questions. Choose from one of these two investigative techniques 1) What is my negative thought? 2) What does this thought mean to me? So, your exploration would look something like this, take the statement or negative thought “My work is meaningless to me.” You would then say, “Because my work is meaningless, I do not feel fulfilled.” We can now interchangeably use technique 1 and 2, until we reach a core belief. So, “If I am not fulfilled, I will not be happy.” The core belief is no longer about your job. The core belief is about you being happy. Happiness is now your total focus.
This exercise will immediately shift you into a place of acceptance, because what we tend to feel the most resistance from is negative thoughts or experiences. When you learn how to uncover the innermost workings of your self, you will learn that all you’re truly searching for is self-love and acceptance. For example, once you can accept that the resistance is not to your job, but rather to your happiness you will be empowered to take steps towards activities that make you happy. Understand that regardless of what your core belief is: happiness, love, abundance, health, in order for you to align with the experiences of that quality, you will need to align your thoughts and feelings with experiences or people that cultivate that core affirmative belief in you. The one thing to remember in our exploration here, is that a core belief can be either positive or negative, and we must always uncover the affirmative belief and not the resistant one to begin the true spiritual work at hand.
So, if it’s happiness that you’ve uncovered. Ask yourself “What does happiness mean to me?” Does my happiness come from people, environments, activities? Does happiness mean a lack of stress? Are there any causes of stress that I can eliminate from my life? Consider that the triggers of happiness for you may be unhealthy habits, or addictive tendencies. Regardless of where this core belief leads you, understand that happiness, just like health, love, peace and freedom-is a choice. It requires your active and willing participation as well as the commitment towards achieving your goal: happiness! And remember, what you know or want today, will not be what you know or want tomorrow. Don’t forget to flow with the spirit of the times in your life. Don’t forget that acceptance is a daily practice and not a belief!