There are schools of thought that advocate that we should not accept our present reality. They claim that unless it is exactly as we want it to be, by accepting it, we perpetuate a state, a lifestyle, that is not how we wish it to be.
While there is value in some of the teachings out there, whether we find them as new kids on the block who have joined the bandwagon, or older kids on the block like Esther and Jeremy Hicks and their Abraham teachings, in my opinion, not accepting your present reality leads to resisting what is.
And is not resistance to something supposed to be a bad thing, something that interferes with the flow of our life?
I have a ‘glass half full’ mindset rather than the opposite, which focuses on what is lacking in our lives, rather than appreciating and celebrating what we have in our lives.
At the moment, we in this country and elsewhere are experiencing high temperatures. It is summer, and high temperatures are expected. I spend a lot of time working, but also out and about in the neighbourhood I live in. All of us are experiencing high temperatures – the retirees who spend hours at coffee shops, the housewives who are at home slogging over housework and tending to their families, the countless people working, be they servers at coffee shops and restaurants, staff at any of the many retail outlets, those who sweep the streets, those who maintain infrastructure, the delivery and courier guys, the bus and tram drivers. Few spend 24/7 within air-conditioned environments; most of us are out there doing whatever it is we are doing.
We all feel the heat, we all feel the discomfort of clothes sticking to us, we all feel the humidity, we are all mindful of not doing something silly like trying to run recreationally in high temperatures.
What most of us are also doing is we are just getting on with things. Some buy an ice cream to cool down; others sit in the shade; others fry in the sun on the beach, then dive into the warm sea (and I just hope for their sake that their system doesn’t go into shock because of the sudden change in temperature affecting their bodies).
Others still remain indoors, know their limits, have frequent showers to stay cool, wear the lightest clothes.
With perhaps a few exceptions, none are fighting the reality of high temperatures. It is hot. We adapt. To refuse to accept a present reality simply resists a reality that one cannot change just by wishing it so.
Does not accepting one’s present reality and instead focusing on the reality one would prefer thus manifest that (other) reality really, really work? I am not certain. The only thing that I am fairly certain of is that if we stop resisting what is (though always mindful of the horrendous circumstances others find themselves in), we put our nervous system through a little less stress because we are not expending energy trying to fix something, in this case, the present reality of, e.g., high temperatures.
In my view, it is more productive to accept what is. Adapt as best one can, and do whatever one can to improve what is not to one’s satisfaction.
Succumbing to it, allowing it to direct our lives, curtailing our ability to get through the days by resisting what is, complaining about it be good for our stress levels.
The world has become a very uncertain place. There is so much that we cannot control. Yet there is also so much we can control, and this is what we need to focus on: this is the reality. I can control how I deal with it, how I manage it, how I interpret it. And from there, I can do whatever is within my control to bring about an outcome that is more to my liking.
Thanks for reading.
XMBP 20.7.2026
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