Serenity Now! Learning to Accept

Working with your trauma response, instead of against it

Do you struggle to settle into acceptance?

I’ve noticed I have a pattern I dance through when I’m resisting acceptance.

• denial

• alternatives

• dissonance

• driven

• defeat

• breath

• shift

This is how I roll over and over again, especially when I’m motivated by a flight response. And since I’m a passion-driven person who craves both adventure and structure––and can be compulsively creative––I can spin in a circle on those first three like the extra cycle on a washing machine. Around and around I go, then drilling down hard on a chosen path, breaking when I realize I can’t force it.

The irony that always surprises me is that crisis is like smoke in an enclosed room, and when you get down low, there’s air down there. I’m able to catch a breath and the fresh air creates enough space for me to glimpse possibility. Then, I’m able to accept and shift.

It’s the damn Serenity prayer in action.

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,

the courage to change the things I can,

and the wisdom to know the difference.

This week has been a model of what happens when the cycle is over and I, newly renewed and able to see things in a different light, take a step forward.