Cheerful acceptance is freedom!

Image credit - Attitude Reconstruction

"What is freedom?  It consists in two things: to know each his own limitation and accept them - that is the same thing as to know oneself, and accept oneself as one is, without fear, or envy, or distaste; and to recognise and accept the conditions under which one lives, also without fear, or envy, or distaste.  When you do this, you shall be free." ~ Ann Bridge (1889-1974)

Cheerful Acceptance is freedom!  The idea of accepting everything about what makes us unique is unimaginably freeing. As I look inward, the most freeing part of this is the freedom from guilt. When I finish this journey, I will no longer have to feel guilty about who I am.  I am free to present, real, and unique with each and every person I encounter, whether I have known them for 10 minutes or 10 years.  I am free to share with them who I am without the fear (or guilt) of them finding out who I really am.  Right now, that is a very real fear for me, because I am so busy hiding who I really am from myself...to acknowledge it to someone else would be acknowledging it to me as well.

For example, last night I started getting a migraine around 5 pm. I get migraines fairly regularly and have since I was in college.  I have never really found a trigger....or a good medication for treating...so I just deal with them.  Anyway, it started around 5 and by 9 it was excruciating.  I normally take some Excedrin and bury myself under a pillow.  This time however, it did not work.  By 9:30, I was exhausted, in pain and my stomach was turning in knots.... so I laid down.  By 10, I could not sleep, my mind was reeling and I could not center on what was bothering me.  Steph asked me many times what she could do to help and I could think of anything...I didn't know what was wrong.  We went and watched more TV to divert my mind...no good.  Finally, I knew I had to slow down my mind so I plugged in headphones and listened to the "Meditation Radio" setting on Pandora and slowly drifted off in my chair.  Finally, I had quieted my mind enough to sleep.  I took the IPad upstairs and put on my headphones so I could fall asleep.

You may be asking by now, what has this got to do with Cheerful Acceptance?  Here is the punch line.  I am flying to St. Louis on Wednesday for a conference (I have not flown sine before 9/11 - and then only once before).  I have not been further than 4-5 hours driving time from Steph and the girls since we were married, Steph has been dealing with a long-term recovery that has left me in primary care of everyone since early February.  I have a tendency to be introverted when it comes to meeting new people (I am going to a national conference).  Finances have been a little tight since Stephs accident and I have to pay up front for this conference.  So, long story short, I have a few stresses going on right now.  However, I am not admitting them to anyone, including me until now.  When Steph asked what was wrong last night.  I was so busy "not showing weakness" that I couldn't even identify what was bothering me.  After I finally calmed my mind and meditated a bit, this realization came to me and this morning I get it!  Had I Cheerfully Accepted that I was carrying around all this stress, I could have talked to Steph about it, moved past it and gotten a decent night' rest.  What a tough lesson to learn!

Cheerful Acceptance is the freedom to accept everything about who you are and what you are experiencing without judgment.  It gives you the freedom to move forward and be present and enjoy the life that you are living, instead of hiding from it.  I hope that my story encourages you to find some time to cheerfully accept yourself.  Have a GREAT day!