accept-it

Accept it as if you chose it — Eckhart Tolle

A few months back, I was experiencing a difficult situation in my personal life. As I struggled through the situation — one day fighting to change it and another fighting the urge to want it to change, I began listening to the Power of Now by Eckart Tolle. This is one of my favorite books and I have listened to it many many times over the years. I thought i knew everything the book said but I was desperate to change how I was feeling and grasping for direction. I plugged on my headphones and listened to Mr Tolle’s soothing voice as I walked through the woods near my home. Suddenly, I heard something in the book that I had never heard before. The author said “Accept it as if you chose it”. I froze in my tracks. I could not believe what I had heard. The statement was challenging me to do the most fearless thing I had ever considered. Until now, I had learned to accept reality, believing that acceptance would bring peace and end the inner turmoil. Acceptance brought clarity that perhaps what was happening was the result of things that had happened in the past. Acceptance also brought to the surface that perhaps one day I would look back and understand the purpose of what I was going through. I understood these concepts and had, in the past, been able to put these in place, albeit with some difficulty.

But here I was being asked to take it a step further — or rather a leap forward. I was being asked to choose the very thing I was struggling against. I began asking myself how would I react if I chose the situation. How would I think and feel about it and what would be my actions? Just turning the belief around from ‘this situation should go away” to “I choose this situation”, changed everything drastically and in a flash. All along I knew in my heart that what I was struggling to let go of in the short run was what i did not want in my life in the long run. As soon as I chose it, the internal turmoil settled down.

I am not saying that I remained in the settled peaceful place. But I had a radically new paradigm now, and again and again I was able to use it to end my internal struggle and feel empowered at the same time.

About Rochna: Rochna Hazra is trained in Marriage and Family Therapy at Virginia Tech. She includes the emotional, psychological, spiritual and family aspects of a person in her work. Originally from India, she combines the Eastern traditions of mindfulness, non-judgment and a holistic approach to healing with the Western approach of realism and solution-focused action.

Rochna uses Cognitive-Behaviorial techniques to help you overcome anxiety and depression.

Rochna is also a Certified Advanced Relapse Prevention Specialist and trained in Sex Addiction and Mindfulness-based Therapy and Relapse Prevention.