Blossom Into You

The words of the serenity prayer can be used to help us understand what acceptance and commitment therapy is all about:

“Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

We can’t always control what happens to us but we can always choose how we respond to it.  We need courage to take responsibility for ourselves to respond to our challenges in a way that will enhance our lives, rather than just playing the victim, blaming others or waiting for someone or something to come and rescue us.  We need to accept that pain is an inevitable part of life and if we don’t, we waste a lot of our time and energy by trying to fight it, flee from it, medicate or suppress it. The wisdom to know the difference we find by being mindful, by being present in the here and now, where we take a step back into the observer position and carefully and consciously consider all our options before we act.  By identifying our values we create a compass to guide us through all our ups and downs, it is like a checklist against which we weigh all our options before making a conscious decision.  When we know where we are going, we can commit to take action and create the lives we want.