The Ride of Our Lives, Self-Acceptance

Several of us in our face-to-face group meditate together each week; tonight we ended with a focus on self-compassion.

Coming home, I was surprised to see Emotions Anononymous'  Today reading for April 23rd.  It begins,

"I neither liked nor accepted most of my feelings. I either denied them or suppressed them. This denial and suppression caused my symptoms of anxiety, panic, insomnia, depression, etc. Feelings always come out somewhere. By willpower alone I have never been able to stop feeling what I did not wish to feel. Only to the degree that I accept my feelings can I surrender them to a Power. "

Isn't self-compassion largely about accepting all of ourselves?

I find it a particularly powerful focus, to allow myself to become aware of, experience and accept my emotions.

Our Today reading offers this prayer:

"Help me to accept my feelings and then surrender them to You. [May I understand that, when they do not quickly pass], it might be I need to learn something from what I am experiencing."

I do believe this the last sentence of the Today reading with all my heart: "Feelings can only change when they are accepted and surrendered."

Feelings, embraced, are energy I can use: to be more fully me.

A once-favorite signature quote has some nice imagery for me.

"If you surrender to the wind, you can ride it. " ~Toni Morrison