Awareness - Acceptance - Action

March 21, 2019

Maybe it's the rainy weather, but I seem to be on a "writing tear" today. But there is someone out there on my FB feed that needs to hear this, besides me I mean, because let's face it there’s a lot of pain and suckage in life. Am I right?! Don't a lot of us feel like we just kind of glide on the surface of life when it comes to awareness - never in control? Battered around and often overwhelmed by all the bad shit (call it what it is!) that just seems to keep coming at us. I don't know about you but compared to how life used to be "in the olden days", now it just seems too fast, too chaotic, too out of control, too random, too scary, like we are in some kind of apocalyptic spiral of doom. It's become really difficult in this world of 24/7 news cycle, social media feeds, emails, texts, tweets, phone calls - bad news from every direction - too much information - too many distractions --- to even know how we feel or what we think. We are told what to feel or think. We are more often reacting to what is happening around us instead of interacting in positive ways with the world around us. The joy of Life has been sucked out and has become a series of things that happen TO us. My dad loved to read Carl Jung. Here's a Jungian quote to think about: "Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."

I'm in a support group that talks about the importance of the Triple A's. Awareness - Acceptance - Action. The first "A" is Awareness. It is the path of wisdom. You SEE what you think and feel. You can see the beauty of all things that usually go unnoticed. You can experience each second fully when your awareness is completely open. You see the truth - not just what you want to see or what others want you to see. It opens up endless possibilities. Awareness allows us to more clearly see all routes forward clearly so we can choose calmly. It starts putting us back in control of our out-of-control lives.

Next comes Acceptance. Accepting situations, good or bad, means we can take appropriate action. It keeps us from going in circles (circling the drain). Accept the possibilities and the limitations of our situation. Happiness comes from accepting what "is" and letting go of what we can't control (...and the wisdom to know the difference -- The Serenity Prayer). Acceptance brings us to a place of calm where we can act.

Action, the third "A" should always be taken from a place of calm. There is rarely a good outcome when we act from emotions like fear, desperation, or anger. Awareness and Acceptance allow us to take Actions which will hopefully result in a more meaningful and happy life replete with tenderness, care, connection, self-understanding, sympathy, intelligence and creativity.