Meditation: Acceptance

Before trying the acceptance meditation, it’s a good idea to become used to practising the naming meditation. The acceptance meditation is really an extension of the naming meditation.

First ground and centre.
Then, as things come into your mind, say to them in your mind, “I accept you.”
It doesn’t matter what you notice or think of; you just tell everything that you accept it.

You may sometimes find yourself in a loop where after you have said “I accept you,” the next thing you notice is that you don’t want to accept the thing. That’s okay. What you do then is to say “I accept you” to your own lack of acceptance.

It’s okay to repeat yourself. If you’re stressed you’ll be quite likely to have repeating worries; you don’t need to deal with them now, just tell them that they are accepted.

This meditation is about accepting the existance of everything you notice. Before trying to change yourself or your world, it is helpful to have a really clear sense of the current state of things. By accepting everything without making judgements, you force yourself to acknowledge everything you notice, instead of denying the things that make you uncomfortable.

Meditation is most useful when practised every day, even for short periods of time.

You may not feel like accepting many of the things that occur to you. This is normal. You don’t have to feel like something or feel that it is good. All you have to do is notice things and tell them they are accepted. You don’t have to change how you feel about them.