Coping with COVID-19: ‘Radical acceptance’
If you’re having trouble adjusting to all the changes brought about in response to COVID-19, you’re not alone. Many are struggling with feeling anxious, overwhelmed, angry and a little bit helpless.
It’s uncomfortable to deal with such uncertainty, and change is stressful. There are some things we don’t have control over, and none of us has all the answers.
Instead of giving into hopelessness, a useful coping skill to employ is called RADICAL ACCEPTANCE.
Radical acceptance is a simple acknowledgement of reality as it is—not as we wish it were, not as we think it should be, but as it is in the present moment with all of its flaws.
To be clear, radical acceptance does not require that you have to like or endorse this reality as your preference. Instead, it just means “calling a spade a spade.”
When applied correctly, this skill removes the added tension that comes with judging a situation as good or bad, right or wrong, and it allows us to use our energy instead to assess our resources in the moment.
Radical acceptance helps us clarify our goals, given the current circumstances rather than dwelling in the “shoulds” or the “if-onlys.” Radical acceptance of the present moment helps us move toward planning and problem-solving. It helps us take responsibility for what we can do, and it helps us let go of the rest.
Had enough reality for now? Take a break with this dynamic daddy-daughter dancing duo:
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