Ampersand Answers: Acceptance

Happiness comes from acceptance.

Mike Dooley, TUT.com 

The Question: 

How can I guarantee my happiness in this world? 

&mpersand Answers: 

Apropos of our last answer, once you use your intelligence to adapt to change, then you have a choice. Or, no, not really. The choice comes right before the adaptation. 

Assume you have the intelligence to adapt to change, but … you really, really don’t like whatever the change is. It’s hard to be adaptive when you’re unhappy with that to which you are adapting, no? 

Yes. So, there is a choice to be made, one that few humans even realize is a choice at all. And that is the choice to be happy. So, okay, play it out with me … 

Change happens. You are intelligent. You make the choice, whether you like the change or not, to accept the change so that you can be happy, which is the most important of all these events. 

Did you know that? Your happiness is your number one priority, and no, not at the expense of others in any way. Happiness is the result of acceptance.  

Now, there is a secret to acceptance. Acceptance means telling yourself the truth about what is, not necessary liking it. I liken it to reporting, or witnessing. Okay, I say to myself, this happened.

This is so. Like it, don’t like it, so what? This, as I say, happened.  

Do I want to stay happy? (I do.) Goody, I accept that this change is in my world. Now, I know we love to think of adaptation as an instantaneous sort of thing. This happened, I’m intelligent, I’ll adapt. But adaptation is slow, steady, and can be ouchy. On the other hand, once you’re through it, it sticks. 

Give yourself a break. Adaptation happens on four levels, Belovèd. Four! Spirit first, then mind, then heart, then body. It’s in order of density. But the first step is acceptance: this, whatever it is, is. Start there, choose happiness, and watch for adaptation. 

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