Acceptance
Acknowledging what is — not agreeing with it, and not giving up on change.
How it shows up
Fighting a fact uses up the energy you could spend responding to it. Acceptance isn’t surrender; it is ceasing to insist that things should have been other than they were.
What we do with it in therapy
A paradox I see again and again: change often begins only once a person stops resisting what is.
See also
Empty nest
The period after the children leave, when what remains between the partners becomes visible.
School anxiety
School-related distress, which often shows up as a physical symptom in the mornings.
Impermanence
The awareness that time is limited — a source of anxiety and, at once, one of the strongest sorters of priorities.
