We’ve talked some on radical acceptance in both the Adulting and Reflections columns of my blog, but what I had to understand recently is the fact that radical acceptance is what is needed in order to endure what I need to do in order to be well.
I would say this has even taken place since the thinking that I didn’t need my medicine. I over time realized that was a huge mistake to do and things although they fell out due to several factors a few years ago, they may not have been as intense as they were because I would have been able to make sounder decisions. However, I think I needed to go through that experience, however I wish I would have made the decision to practice radical acceptance years ago and not within the past month or so
It took several factors of my life to realize that life is the way it is, whether it is what I think it should be. It takes using coping strategies to cope and get through the the things that I find unpleasant and in fact many of the things I find unpleasant rarely exist, therefore I know i do not need to make a big deal out of things because others are fine with the way things are, so I do not need to make things a problem. It is also accepting the fact that things change for what they need to and I am not always at the decision-making hand of those decisions.
It can also be said that I have accepted the need to be happy with the ability to live life this way. I need to continue to be thankful for what is in my life, like having home, medicine, a job, food on the table without having to seek alternatives because we know that they are not always the best thing for me to have or be, no matter how much my brain wants me to think so. Sometimes we need to be thankful for the things we have in life whether it is what we want in life and cannot treasure what we as human beings need to be thankful for.
I know that I couldn’t live well without some of the things that I have in my life like my home, job and day program to give me purpose. If the opportunity would have not provided me to get back on my feet two years ago, I would have lost the ability to be independent or have a less desirable independent living situation. As much as I wanted to return to my first situation because of the need to do so, things didn’t work out for a reason I feel and as a result things worked out for the better and eventually I became a much happier and grateful person.
It was also the fact that I know that I need to treasure visits with my family while they are still in my life and that continually living in misery whether my own or being a part of someone else’s just isn’t healthy. It may bring attention to myself, but what good is it doing? Who is it helping? Not me and it is making the outcomes and interactions with others end in a negative manner.
I have accepted the fact that for now, this is the life that I need to live until the next opportunities provide. There are things that I think are bad that I would like to change, but in fact they are not as bad as they seem, I just make them that way. They are what they are and I am the best that I have been for some time, I just need to accept that and be ready for any change that may come my way in life. We are not always promised tomorrow and I know I need to leave a legacy for how I have overcome so much and can reach my maximum potential in life.
Dustin's Dynasty 