The Road From Resistance To Acceptance

Let’s start with some simple definitions. 

Resistance is “the act or power of resisting, opposing, or withstanding”, or in psychiatry: “Opposition to attempt to bring repressed thoughts or feelings into consciousness” (Dictionary. com, 2019a)

Acceptance, meanwhile, is “the act of taking or receiving something offered” (Dictionary.com, 2019b)

Now that you know the difference between the two, how do you get from resistance to acceptance?

The Road From Resistance To Acceptance

Stage 1: Aversion – This can look like emotional armor, avoidance, or distraction. It’s normal to feel aversion at first.

Stage 2: Curiosity – This looks like a subtle softening toward whatever we are resisting.. You may notice that avoidance isn’t getting you anywhere.

Stage 3: Tolerance – At the midpoint on the road to acceptance, we start to tolerate whatever we are resisting.

Stage 4: Allowing – only subtly different from tolerance, here we become conscious of thoughts that still come to us about how great things were before.

Stage 5: Friendship – at the final stage we have arrived at acceptance and friendship. We have made peace with the change in our life and have accepted it as a welcome friend.