Weekly newsletter
I. Prompts for motivation
Can you remember a time in your life in which you found yourself struggling to figure out how to stay rooted in your practice while also taking a stand to defend your fundamental rights? How would you handle such a situation where it’s almost as if you were being pushed to your absolute limits?
Do you ever ignore signals of righteous tension related to your innate sense of moral indignation? What do you do with such an intensity of anger that awakens a fire in you to do something against a violation of ethics, fairness, and justice?
II. Thoughts for intention
While it’s true that pain is an inevitable part of life, the way we choose to experience it is up to us. Sometimes, it’s easy to get lost in a narrative over how things should be. But our mental resistance to whatever is already happening only intensifies the emotions we feel. When left unattended, it can reach heightened levels where we become overwhelmed to a state of excruciating suffering that the only way to find release is through radical acceptance. This happens when we fully understand that fighting the matter is detrimental to our health and well-being.
Practicing radical acceptance doesn’t mean that we agree with what’s going on at the moment. It doesn’t mean that we want to stay in something for the sake of testing our patience for the long haul. Only we can know what we’re willing to deal with and for how long as we prepare to make a change. While our inner fortitude is worth exercising, certain challenges reveal whether tolerating certain behavior is no longer appropriate. Instead, they could be signaling a call to action we must make as soon as we’re ready to do things differently.
III. Ideas for preparation
One way to put this into practice is to notice your thoughts and use your inner awareness as an anchor. This involves holding both the reality of what’s happening and the mental stream of ideas that show up in response to it. Sometimes, the volume of this script gets out of control, especially when we’re so used to ignoring how often it pulls us into judgment or resistance. While we have good days and bad days when it comes to using these skills, just putting in the effort every single day helps you build the muscle you need to get stronger and rise above it in the long run.
As simple as this idea is, it’s a powerful one worth repeating: you can always determine your next step. What is the next right thing available to you? What option feels warmest to you at this immediate moment? Ultimately, the choice you make has an impact on what’s to come. It can either get you stuck in a maze, unconsciously repeating the past, or push you forward while rewriting a new alternative.
IV. Quotes for inspiration
“Pain is not wrong. Reacting to pain as wrong initiates the trance of unworthiness. The moment we believe something is wrong, our world shrinks and we lose ourselves in the effort to combat the pain.”
― Tara Brach, Radical Acceptance
“Learn this from me. Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harm we do, we do to ourselves.”
― Mitch Albom, The Five People You Meet in Heaven
