Acceptance comes in many forms, many ways, and at different times. Self-acceptance is rather important, as is acceptance of one's self from others.

Changing your life, changing your world, seems so complicated sometimes. Many people struggle against things as they perceive them, wanting something else entirely. It seems counter-intuitive at first, but the second step on the road to change involves being able to accept things as they are. Accepting reality for what it is, not hoping it is some other way, not wishing things would be different, but fully and completely accepting things as they are.

From that point, one can begin to craft and author their own life. Realizing that change happens first within, then spreads out.

Acceptance here does not mean giving up -- not hardly!! It means recognising the system one is and the systems one lives in are in a certain state -- which may not be the desired state. One must start from where one is, not from where one wishes they were, to make changes. It is also vital to know where one wishes to be as that defines the trajectory of the path.

• On Acceptance Email -- an email article written around 1998
• Radical Acceptance -- a handout from DBT describing how one can begin to accept what is, in order to move on.
• Shoganai -- Nothing can be done -- a key stage in acceptance