“Okay,” you’re thinking. “I’m sold on the idea that it would be good for me to work on accepting myself, others, and life’s situations. But how do I do this?” There are five points about acceptance and the notion of unconditional acceptance that will open you to your accepting abilities. To make it even easier, I’ll also give you ten tips to build and maintain a strong Triad of Acceptance.

First, in order to open yourself to the idea of acceptance when you’re feeling non-accepting, I’ve found that it is helpful to ask yourself, “What about this is in my control, and what is not in my control?” When you ask this question, it often focuses you upon that which you can change and that which you presently cannot change. The simple act of recognizing the difference often helps you to shift your focus and release the energy that is wrapped up in the area of that which you cannot change.

Everyone has difficult times in their life, when obstacles seem to constantly get in the way and nothing goes to plan.  It’s during these tough times that many of us fall victim to blaming everything and everyone around us for the challenges we’re facing and our lack of success in creating the life we desire.

Maybe you’re in debt, stuck in a dead end job or your boss is constantly shouting at you and making you feel angry?  Or perhaps your partner leaves you feeling frustrated and doesn’t give you the respect you deserve?  It’s easy to blame what’s going on around us for our lack of happiness, bad mood and general discontent about the way life is going.  But who is truly responsible for creating the life you desire?  Whose life is it anyway?  Have you taken responsibility for your life and what happens to you?

Enlightenment is about seeing through the illusions of life and knowing what reality really is. When you are enlightened, you can have everything you want. Because you’ll know the truth about what everything is, and what does it really mean to have something. It is an irony of the world that the people who seek material things and desire to have them before thinking about enlightenment, tend to attain neither, but those that acquire enlightenment first are the ones who do. The desireless attain all their desires.

Through our beliefs, we’re the bridge between reality and all that we could ever imagine. It’s the power of what we truly believe about ourselves that gives life to our highest aspirations and greatest dreams, the things that make the universe as it is. And if the whole universe sounds like a place too big to even think about, that’s okay – we can start by simply thinking about ourselves and our everyday world.

Consider your relationship to the room you’re sitting in. While you’re thinking, ask yourself these questions: What role did I play to get myself here? How did I arrive at this precise place in this precise moment? Then consider how time, space, energy, and matter have all converged in a mysterious and precious way to bring you to this very moment, and ask: