Firstly, I want to mention that the launch of my book, Love Equals Power, will be held next week here in Melbourne. If you’re interested in coming, please write to me via the website and I will send you details. Please feel free to mention this even to anyone you think might be interested in my book. I look forward to meeting you all.

This week I want to pick up the point I made in my previous blog : “What Happens When It All Falls Apart.’ The most crucial thing to do when disaster hits, or disappointment strikes again, is to accept it. By not resisting what is happening, and just allowing it to happen, without judgment, is the ultimate of the spiritual journey.

Acceptance takes us out of our limited belief system and opens the doors to eternal possibility - a far more wondrous and miraculous realm than the world of human belief. Acceptance is our way of acknowledging that the Universe works through us, and not vice versa.

Non-resistence to what *is *clears the potential blockages that our human education, and accumulated beliefs about what is likely, has erected, enabling us to look to new possibilities. And these are infinite, once we allow the infinitude of the Universe to be manifested through us.

Acceptance is essential because it is a state of non-judgment. As humans we are all incredibly bound to our judgments, as well as our ‘right’ to judge. Our human education has informed us what is ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ and we all feel eminently qualified to discern which side of the line we will come down on in any given situation.

But understand this: we **never **have all the information. We are never qualified to make a true judgment because we never know everything there is to know about any person, situation or event. We don’t even have all the information about ourselves and the events of our own lives, let alone those of others.

Acceptance is not a passive, ‘woe is me’ state of being. It is not the ‘suffer it to be so now’ approach that mainstream religion has traditionally encouraged in its adherents to foster their submission to church doctrine. The church’s promise of bliss and peace as only possible once we’ve all died and (hopefully) gone to heaven is a rather inequitable exchange, in my mind, as well as being intellectually flawed.

If peace and bliss are possible at all and if, as the church teaches, the Universe is both Omnipotent and Omnipresent, then both peace and bliss must be possible at all times and under all circumstances. Otherwise the notion of an Omnipotent Creator is meaningless.

Acceptance requires an active and strong state of mind that is capable of enduring uncertainty, turmoil and change. It is therefore a form of resilience and creativity. In this context, it could be seen as a type of waiting with expectancy. It requires faith, and the strength of knowing, in the face of seeming unknowing; peace and serenity in times of seeming catastrophe and upheaval.

We all know people who are capable of this, and this is their secret, if you’ve ever wondered. They know that the work of the Universe - Eternal Love - is being revealed, and they are able to wait patiently for the shift in their physical circumstances to reflect this spiritual fact.

The trouble with acceptance, it is a state of being, rather than a form of ‘doing.’ We have been so brainwashed into thinking that everything is in our control, and that if we are experiencing a state of affairs not to our liking, we only have ourselves to blame. This pervasive sense of guilt is assuaged if we start doing things we think will help our situation. We are always so much more comfortable when we are doing something - anything - to change the external conditions of our lives.

The trick when we are in the ‘ebb’ phase of our experience is to accept it as a natural part of the flow of life, and to find peace within that. Know that the shift towards where and what we truly desire is in process, and the ways to facilitate its manifestation is the knowing that, in Truth, all is well - both spiritually and humanly.

We all know, when we look back on our lives, that things always work out in the end (and if it hasn’t ‘worked out,’ then its not the end!). They may not work out the way we expect, we might not even end up where we thought we wanted to be, but somehow, at some point, peace descended on our lives when, and from where, we least expected it. We know that we wouldn’t be the people we are today, with all the wonderful wisdom and experience that we now have, if we hadn’t had those ‘ebb’ experiences.

I have found that in the difficult times I am able to best cope with it all if I fill these times with joy. Doing the things I love keeps me in a space of joyful expectancy, allowing the part of my mind that tends towards anxiety, attachment to outcome and guilt, to remain inactive. This can include anything from watching a movie, swimming in the ocean,playing tennis, having coffees or lunch with good friends, or reading a good book. It might even include napping, or sleeping in, or anything else that we all deem a ‘waste’ of time.

The aim is to find peace in whatever suggests that peace is not possible. When we broach the impossible, in that very moment of acceptance of what is, the impossible is miraculously transformed into the possible.

Eileen McBride
Eileen McBride is the author of Love Equals Power 2, a spiritual seeker and teacher. This article was published on April 20, 2010.