The Power of Acceptance. But not the kind you think.

Why we often miss what's truly important.

Many of us have a hard time accepting a compliment. I know that I do. While I may say “thank you”, inside I sometimes go into cringe mode or ask myself why I am being thanked. I didn’t really do anything.

These are the lies our semi-conscious brain tells us. I use semi-conscious because it is my personal belief that much of what goes on in our heads sits between true consciousness and our often unconscious operating system that runs us on a daily basis.

Today a growing number of esteemed philosophers, psychologists and neuroscientists tell us that mounting evidence points to consciousness existing, or to use a more thoughtful word (pun intended), emanating from outside the brain itself. True consciousness includes us but is not in or of us.

As we meditate, one approach is often to ‘watch the watcher’. Or, with separation and detachment, observe our thoughts. Thoughts. Our unabated chatter which talks to us, instructing, re-enforcing or tearing down our beliefs, decisions and direction. The chatter which, unfortunately, forms our individual realities.

The chatter you hear isn’t you, really. It is the enabled extension of ego. This is at least the best way I can say it at least. It’s sort of like a plug in… a GPS navigation system linked to your self driving car.

Our mind’s chatter is having that auto-navigation system’s audio feed turned on. But perhaps the audio feed in our heads (our thoughts) is on so we can over-ride it. “I don’t want to go left here. I’m taking over”, you tell the system grabbing the wheel. But often, the audio navigation scolds us when we attempt to take back control, “well the last time you did that you got us hopelessly lost, so your navigation skills suck. Just follow what GPS says to do.” Often, we acquiesce and comply to what we are being told by our ego, irrespective the facts. After all, our perception becomes reality for us.

For us humans, our fragile egos like to be in charge.

I mean think about this for a second. Our egos are akin to arm chair quarterbacks really. The ego sits there somewhere safely inside of us, in the plush first row viewing seats commenting and directing. It never has to do any of the hard or the dirty work. It just…consults. And, it spouts its rhetoric with its own best interest in mind and conveniently leaves that out of what it tells us. The individual part the ego expressly represents its own best interest, rather than the collective whole of us.

Ok, what about Acceptance? What does any of this have to do with Acceptance?

Here is the thing I am learning. Yes, this is a work in progress. My insight and understanding of this comes through my own meditation and making fleeting connections with the great something that exists around us, underneath, behind, and beyond us. The energetic field of intelligence, wisdom, and love, which also houses the manifested and un-manifested of everything that is always there-always has been, always will be. The everything. Sorry to make the comparison ego, but you loose.

These connections are still somewhat fleeting, like catching the signal of a distant radio station on an analog car radio, the closer I travel to that station, the stronger and more consistent the signal.

And now for the curve ball.

We are presented with synchronicities and opportunities daily. Appointments with the Universe or Destiny, if you will. The chatter of our ego is the noise that drowns out that signal or alternatively chooses to ignore them, often without even informing us that it happened.

We must learn to turn the volume down on what we perceive, that has the color-commentary courtesy of our ego. It’s time to turn the ego’s audio feed off, or at least way down.

We must actively move our being-ness into a place where we are aligned and accept what the Universe has in store or available to offer us. We have to say, “as an interconnected part that participates in some part of everything, I accept this and am open to receiving and acting on what’s presented. I don’t need to understand it, I don’t need to control it, I am willing to simply accept it in gratitude and follow my heart. My brain (logic) can come along for the ride, but it can’t drive. And ego, if you come along at all, you have to ride in the trunk.”

I realized not all that long ago, the reason I had become stuck was I had unplugged from all of this and like so many of us, was operating as a separate entity. Fighting headwinds here and disappointment and frustration there. Swimming against the current.

Just a few months ago the universe got fed up with my “I’ve got it from here’ approach and decided to apply the tool in its toolbox labeled ‘use in case of emergency’. If you follow my writing, you know what happened next.

The great Taoist philosopher, Zhuangzi reminds us, “A path is made by walking on it.”

We often walk on a path that is wrong but our ego hides that from us. So we press on. Often without meaning, fulfillment or purpose other than living the same year 70 or 80 times over.

In my next piece, I will share my now daily practice which has helped me to create the spiritual and emotional muscle memory I require to follow a path I was intended to walk but chose to ignore dozens if not hundreds of times.

For better or for worse, "A path is made by walking on it.” Just recognize where you are at and be open to recognizing and accepting improvement and change from something that is well beyond our understanding.