"I'm afraid of acceptance becoming complacency"

I read this yesterday from a client and it struck me that there are probably quite a few people who have this worry. A big misconception about acceptance is that it is defeat. This couldn’t be further from the truth.

Acceptance is reality. It is not passive, it is action. Acceptance isn’t something that happens to us, it is a constant practice. Most of us defer to a rejection of reality rather than acceptance.

“Things shouldn’t be this way.”

“I wish I had more/less.”

“This isn’t fair.”

This type of thinking is rejection of reality. In order to practice acceptance we have to actively shift our thinking to acknowledge that things may not be as we wish but they are how they are. Once we can accept the reality of life we can begin to enact change.

Body acceptance doesn’t mean giving up on our goals. We can be proud of where we are but still desire something more. A desire for fat loss and improved body composition doesn’t preclude us from loving ourselves as we are. In fact, I believe that both acceptance of where we are and a desire to change is the ideal intersection for lasting change.

Life might not be fair. It might not be easy. But it is real. The sooner we can accept things as they are, the sooner we can take steps to get where we want to go.