Acceptance
What do we mean by the word “acceptance” in mindfulness? It does not mean accepting our current condition or sickness as something that will always be so. It does not mean accepting injustice in the world as being normal and there’s nothing we can do about it.
It means accepting the truth of this present moment as just that, the way things are right now. If you are lost in the bush, it’s best that you accept that truth rather than rush around in all directions with no clear plan. You can then put your full attention to getting out. Maybe we are sad, sick or happy, right now. If this is the truth then we might as well be aware of it and not fight it. From a position of knowledge and acceptance for example that we are sick, we may take steps such as medication to deal with that sickness. We may live in the present moment fully experiencing our sadness or happiness, in the full knowledge that this is what we are experiencing now and that the next moment, hour or day may be different - or the same.
Why would we want to accept or feel sadness? Again the answer is that this is the truth of the present moment, feeling it and living it fully allows us to experience this moment, the only one that is. It also allows us to stop fighting off the sadness if this is our habit. Fighting off sadness and other “negative” emotions can take up lots of our resources. Allowing or accepting the truth of our current sadness can free up these emotional resources. We can still of course address the causes of our sadness - or anger or fear. Similar remarks hold for happiness. If we can fully live in a happy moment we need not expend energy trying to prolong it, simply enjoy it. We can still arrange to be in situations that promote our happiness, but we do not need to waste energy trying to hold on to happiness or feel down simply because we are not now currently happy.
This waste of energy is often associated with our thoughts. We spend time desiring happiness, wishing we were not so sad, hoping that our sickness will ease. If these thoughts move us in a useful direction then fine, go with them, but so much of thinking is non-productive and unhelpful, and since it is directed at the future takes us right out of experiencing the only moment we’ve got – right now and now and now.
Any mindfulness exercise is an example of acceptance. Each breath arrives and is accepted just as it is, short, long, deep shallow. It rolls out and its passing is just observed, not regretted. The next breath comes just as it is without anticipation. The same is true of observing body sensations. They simply are and we observe them as the truth of this present moment with as little judgement as possible.
As Jon Kabat-Zinn says in “Full Catastrophe Living”, “Acceptance as we are speaking of it simply means that you have come around to a willingness to see things as they are.”