Radical Self Acceptance

Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby: This is Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby, and you’re listening to the Love, Happiness and Success Podcast. 

[Dear Prudence by Mike Masse]

It’s just one of my favorite songs of all time. “Dear Prudence,” of course, recorded originally by The Beatles, that particular version, is performed by a really talented local Denver artist by the name of Mike Massé with an “E” on the end, M-A-S-S-E. He has a website mikemasse.com, and he does all kinds of cool stuff. So you should definitely check out more of his things. And if you ever like to hear that song again, you can call Growing Self and talk to Erica, first of all, who is a gem. And then if you’re lucky enough to get put on hold, like, if she’s transferring your call or something, we have the privilege of using Mike’s lovely song as our hold music. So, thank you, Mike, and thank you for enjoying this beautiful song with me because it’s good stuff.

And so, that is our segway into our topic today because we are talking about how to be engaged with a world as yourself, as authentically as is your truth and with the world as it is. And, practicing I think new for some of us but very important life skill of radical acceptance. And I am very deliberately posting this particular podcast for you on the week after the turn of the year because how much of the time are—you know this time of year, it’s like, “Okay, this year, I’m going to make all these changes. I’m going to go to the gym, I’m going to starve myself, I’m going to make myself do XYZ,” and it’s like, so exhausting. 

We also know from research that any kind of new year resolution thing is generally not helpful when it comes to making real and lasting change in our lives. And there are certainly things that are. We’ve talked in the past about habits and really like doing deep work on yourself. All of that is well and good. But for many people, the biggest, most important, powerful life-changing point of growth is not changing at all, but rather experimenting with something called radical acceptance, radical acceptance. 

If you want to take it up a notch, we could talk about radical self-acceptance and how we understand, and appreciate, and value ourselves for exactly who and what we are. And absolutely release the inner critic and the judgment and the self-blame and even just that uneasy feeling that you should be doing something different, something better, something more. You should have a goal, you should have a resolution, new idea. Radical acceptance is a release of all of that. 

And that’s what I really want to talk with you about today so that I can just—hopefully helpful counterbalance in your ear if you are being besieged by other forces in your life right now. Who are doing this cheerleader “This year is the year everything is gonna be different” voice in your ear, and that may or may not feel congruent for you. 

Radical acceptance that’s what we’re doing today on the Love, Happiness and Success podcast. And I’m so glad you’re here to join me. I am Dr. Lisa Marie Bobby. I’m the founder and clinical director of Growing Self Counseling and Coaching. We’re based in Denver, Colorado, but we see clients all over the world. We specialize in couples counseling, marriage counseling, and a lot of coaching. I think more of what we do than therapy these days is really in the coaching camp. But because me and everybody on the team, we have a background in mental health. Like myself, I’m a licensed psychologist, I’m a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and I am also a Board Certified coach. So I like to think that we take it to a deeper level. 

And that’s also what I try to do for you in this podcast is, give you hopefully helpful new information, new ideas and, and different ways of supporting you on your journey of growth. So we’re always talking about your love, happiness, and success. And the topics that I select for my podcast are all about you. I am listening to you, thank you, if you’re one of the many who’s gotten in touch recently on Instagram @drlisamariebobby or gotten in touch with Growing Self @growing_self on Instagram, or through our website. We have a very active blog community at growingself.com. There’s always a lively discussion in the comment section. You can also connect with us on Facebook if you like, or you could just send an old fashioned email to hello@growingself.com if you would like to share what’s on your mind lately. 

And our topic today is born of what I’m hearing from you, which is that, boy, there are a lot of you—and hey I can relate, who can’t? Who is just, like, coming out of the end of this year feeling like you’ve been through a meat grinder on so many different levels. And it’s hard to even know what to do next, or what to try, or what to grow, or if it’s even possible to have goals right now. And you know what, there’s again, a time and a place for growth and goals. And I’m right there as a life coach, but I tell you what, as a psychologist, the art of radical acceptance, radical self-acceptance will change so much more for you both on the outside and the inside than you will ever even know. 

I see there’s this weird paradox when it comes to personal growth, that before people can really change and grow and develop and do anything different. They must first understand themselves, understand who they are, understand what’s important to them, why they are the way they are is often very helpful. And also, get a lot of clarity around what is working, what isn’t working, to begin to create a plan that will move you forward into a different reality.

And here’s the paradoxical part in my experience, both as a life coach and as a therapist, when people, as we so often do—no judgment. But when we expend a lot of time and energy into feeling upset—usually with ourselves, sometimes with other situations—when we badger ourselves and criticize ourselves and shame ourselves into being something that we should be that we’re not, it creates an emotional environment inside of us, that is absolutely the antithesis of the kind of calm, compassionate, non-judgmental way of being that true growth and mental and emotional health really requires. And there is an enormous amount of value in figuring out how to accept yourself and the world around you.

Many times when I first introduced the idea of radical acceptance or radical self-acceptance to my clients, they have a very common reaction, which is some variation of “So, do you mean I’m just supposed to give up? That I’m just supposed to tolerate these things that feel intolerable to me? That I’m supposed to stop trying, that I’m supposed to stop doing the things I think are important for me to be better or some aspirational thing.” And, so it’s like, there’s a lot of anxiety when people think about moving into a space of self-acceptance, or even general acceptance because it feels like this is hard to put into words, but I’ll try. When people don’t feel good on the inside, it is because there is this gap between how they perceive the way their world is, or how they are, and how they think they should be, or their world should be. So the larger the gap between what you want to be or what you want your life to be about, what you want to have, and your present reality, the more unhappy you will feel. And this is always true and can be useful when we apply it to generating motivation—topic for another day. 

But what is incredibly insidious, and what happens so often more often than you would think, although if you can relate to this, they’ll probably be like, “Yes, I could see other people doing this too,” is that when people believe that they should be happy, they should be free of negative emotions, or dark emotions, they shouldn’t be angry, they shouldn’t be sad, they shouldn’t feel upset or disappointed, or guilty or even shame, when people have inner experiences that are different than what we think they should be, this, in itself, can create enormous feelings of unhappiness and shame. Because we feel something that we believe we shouldn’t feel. This is a little bit mind-blowing, okay, but I want you to like, let it sink in for a second. 

The fact that we aren’t okay, the fact that we are not having a good time, or not feeling good about something is itself a cause to feel badly about and beat ourselves up. Say you are feeling a little low, or depressed, or not motivated, or don’t want to get up and go jogging at five o’clock in the morning when it’s 10 degrees out, okay? Just say that you don’t actually feel like doing that. If you haven’t cultivated this radical acceptance idea, that inner reality in itself, can then generate all of these negative feelings. This, “What is wrong with me? Oh, my God, I am such a loss. Why am I depressed? There’s something wrong with me for feeling the way that I do. Oh, my God, I wish I felt better, why don’t I feel better, I really want to feel better. Ah!” And it turns into this, like, avalanche snowball-ly thing of beating yourself up for like, being a human with human feelings, and desires, and longings, and sadness, and loneliness, and all of these other things that are actually the human experience. 

And so when we talk about radical acceptance and radical self-acceptance, what we are really talking about is how we can have an inner reality, an inner experience without judging it, criticizing it, believing that there is something wrong with us for having it in the first place.

And this isn’t just my idea, I’d like you to know that. There have actually been a number of very interesting research studies. I think one of the more recent ones was in 2018. 

A group of psychology researchers compared the overall mental and emotional wellness of people who were really pretty good at accepting the fact that they had challenging emotions sometimes, compared to the overall mental and emotional wellness of people who really didn’t like the fact that they sometimes had negative thoughts or feelings. And what they found is very interesting, and I think an important takeaway, which is that the people who identify themselves as most generally happy is having a lot of mental and emotional strength and wellness, and really like being the most psychologically resilient and hardy, we’re not the ones who were experiencing the least amount of negative or dark emotions. The people who were most resilient were the ones who were most accepting of the fact that they did have difficult feelings sometimes. Isn’t that interesting? 

That the true path to happiness and wellness is not eradicating any challenging emotions or difficult situation, or problematic thoughts, it is rather understanding nonjudgmentally that that happens sometimes. And that not only is it normal and expected, it is okay. And that you don’t actually have to do anything, to change it, to escape it, to make it be different. You don’t have to do anything at all. Because the fact is that when we, really patiently, compassionately, and mindfully sit with exactly who and what we are, and how we feel, and think about why we feel the way that we do, and how it’s absolutely legitimate when we see it through our own mind. And if you just kind of like, let that feeling be inside of you. It just is there for a little while.

And then that sort of floats off, then you don’t have to do anything to change it. 

And sometimes it doesn’t float off. It’s sort of a persistent feeling of sadness, or loneliness, or disappointment that you carry around with you for a while. And that is also okay. It doesn’t mean anything is wrong with you. It doesn’t mean that you’re some sort of uniquely deficient human that you’re having that experience. That is the human experience. And when we can accept this as being a normal, healthy, expected part of our life, sometimes it is incredibly liberating. 

Very analogous to if you’re feeling sad, and you go to a friend or family member or your partner, somebody who loves you, and you say, “I am so sad right now, I have just had the hardest day. I am just so sad about some of the things that are happening in the world. I don’t know how we’re gonna get through this. I just sometimes it’s just, it’s just so hard.” And to have someone with you, and be with you and say, “Yes, it really is hard,” without judgment, without being like, “Look on the bright side.” Without saying, “Look, this funny cat meme I found. Watch this cat meme. It’ll cheer you right up because you shouldn’t feel sad. I’m going to make you not feel sad. Let’s fix it. Let’s do something. Let’s change it.” Right? 

I mean, how do you really feel in those moments when you’re like, “No, I’m actually sad right now.” And somebody’s like, “No, no, that’s not okay.” It feels worse. It feels like you shouldn’t have the feeling in the first place. It feels lonely. That feels like the person that you’re trying to share with how you’re feeling doesn’t understand you. And it feels like you don’t have the right to your feelings. Feels like kind of shaming, like, “Oh, I guess nobody else feels this way.” Makes you feel more alone. And think about how often we do that to ourselves without really even realizing it. You know that it’s so intolerable for any of us to just not be okay sometimes. So, we have to take an antidepressant or to do something to be better because I’m not supposed to feel this way. 

And radical self-acceptance is just predicated on this one idea that it’s actually okay to not be okay. And how do we have compassion, and tolerance, and love for ourselves when we’re not 100%. And fascinatingly, like we don’t want to attach specific outcomes to our radical acceptance practice because that is entirely not the point. 

But I will also say that often, a happy byproduct of a good radical self-acceptance practice is that when you become able to tolerate and have compassion for and just sit with nonjudgmentally, any and all thoughts and feelings that happened to be true for you in the moment, you become much better able to stay compassionately connected to other people, in their moments of not okayness. 

When we are putting a lot of energy into criticizing ourselves, judging ourselves, feeling ashamed about the way we feel, and you know, like, “I feel so bad and ashamed because of the fact that I feel shame sometimes,” right? When we have that going on, in our own mind, it’s like this almost frantic energy to escape what is happening inside of you, if it’s not happy and light and all good, which it’s not sometimes you’re not a damn robot, like, it’s part of the human experience. 

But when we can’t do that inside of ourselves, for ourselves, it is virtually impossible to sit with somebody else who is actually in that place. And you see that a lot, especially my role as a couple’s counselor, like some couples where they’re both just dying to be seen, and cared about, and understood, and loved for who and what they are. And it can take a lot of work sometimes in couples counseling to just sit with a couple and have one person say, “I just feel so sad sometimes and I feel like you’re disappointed in me. I feel like I can’t be the person that you want me to be. And it just, sometimes it makes me feel like just withdrawing or it’s too hard to try that I’ll never be who and what you want me to be and that makes me feel really bad about myself.” For somebody to be able to say that, and have it be heard, and received, and loved by someone who cares, without having to change it, that moment in itself is enormously healing. 

Compared to the exact same sentiment that’s expressed to a partner that says, “You shouldn’t feel that way. That’s not true. That no, let me tell you five reasons why that’s not true.” And honestly, but like the paradox here is that they’re oftentimes trying to make their partner feel better. They’re saying, “No, no, no, don’t feel that way. Don’t feel that way. Because here’s—because I’m going to tell you why you’re wrong. And that wasn’t always true. And that is not what I did, by the way.” And so it like, turns into this defensiveness and this push back, and that is a rift in the relationship. It is just one more moment, where there wasn’t understanding, there wasn’t empathy, there wasn’t tolerance for the reality of the other person. And that person all of a sudden feels lonelier and more ashamed. And more like how they feel so badly about themselves as actually true.

So, it happens in relationships, and it happens inside of ourselves, and it’s time for it to stop.

So how do we do that? How do we push back against self-judgment and move into a space of radical self-acceptance? I think it begins with a choice. You have to decide that it is actually okay for you to not be okay all the time. And to release this idea that you should be feeling anything specific, because you will feel sad, lonely, disappointed, guilty, angry, shame, I think we all do, from time to time, annoyed with yourself, annoyed with other people. 

And there’s an enormous power that comes with making a decision that it is okay. You are allowed to have all of those feelings. It is normal and expected for you to have all of those feelings. And there’s nothing wrong with you for feeling the way that you do sometimes. And that it is really the thing that will hurt you is to relentlessly beat yourself up and judge yourself and criticize yourself and demean yourself and shame yourself for not being okay, and not being happy, and not being perfect. That is what will really sink us. 

I think the idea of radical acceptance, in addition to being applied to radical self-acceptance, is also enormously helpful when it comes to accepting circumstances that are not what we really want. And there’s a story. I think I’ve probably shared this before in a previous episode. But there’s a Buddhist story that illustrates the point of radical acceptance. And that I think, again, we can all relate to.

And the story goes that there were two monks walking by a river minding their own business, and this person maliciously came out of nowhere, and just jumped them and robbed them and took their stuff and threw them into the river. And this was a cold, fast deep river, a dangerous river that we’re rapids. Now these two monks are in this river, and there’s rocks and whitewater it’s bad, I mean, it’s like really a bad situation. And the first monk is like, “What just happened? That was not okay.” And he’s like, the guys walking off in the distance like carrying their money like, “How dare you? I can’t believe you did this. I am so mad. That was angry.” And like just absolutely beside himself wrapped up in the anger, and the injustice, and the horror about what had happened. And was just in the state of “I cannot—this is not okay.” And because so wrapped up in this emotion about what had happened, he drowned. The river got him; he breathed in water and hit his head on a rock and was never seen again. 

The other monk was equally distressed and upset and that same emotion, and like “I’m so—how dare that? But this is not okay.” And then very quickly, came back to a place of radical acceptance of “I am in a river. I am in a fast cold dangerous river, does not matter how I got here. What matters is the fact I am here now. And what do I need to do right now to survive this.” And “Oh, look, there’s a branch sticking out over the water, I’m gonna see if I can paddle out over that way,” and grab hold of that branch, and hauled himself out of the river and lived to fight another day. 

Did that second monk have the right to be just as angry and upset at the injustice of what they had just experienced? Yes. And what he was able to do is mindfully accept that even though a bad thing had happened, he was able to kind of release the almost judgment, like, release the ideas about what should be happening compared to what was actually happening. And instead come into the, here and now, where he was in the river. He was accepting the fact that he was in the river and figuring out what he could do in this present moment to make his situation just incrementally better without being upset about it. 

And also not getting attached to any outcome. There might not have been a branch there. There may not have been a way to make that incrementally better. And so we would have floated along for a while, just in the river. I am in a river right now, sort of looking around what’s happening next. But it’s this, like, mental state of being present, mindful, without judgment or angst in the face of difficult circumstances. Because when we get all wrapped up in our anger or injustice of it all worked up, shaming ourselves around, “Oh, my god, this is so terrible that I feel the way that they do or that this thing is happening.” It becomes impossible to get out of it on our own that the inner experience that we are having in response to something external, an external circumstance that is happening, “to us,” or that we don’t want that be happening right now. Or that same level of angst and judgment around an inner experience that we think should be different is what will ultimately sink us. 

And the big, the big lesson, a big shift is coming into a space of being able to say, without judgment or criticism, “This is happening, this is happening.” And can I solve the problem? You know, if there is a solvable problem, let’s go ahead and do that. But you will be much better able to find solutions and actually solve problems. If you’re in a space of acceptance, right? Then like laying on the floor, bawling your eyes out. “So what is happening, what do I have to do, but one foot in front of the other.” 

And then also, when it comes to that radical self-acceptance, to be able to say, “I don’t like this. I don’t feel good about this situation. I wish it were different. I feel sad that this is happening. And that is okay. I’m allowed to feel sad that this is happening.” And as we’ve been discussing in other podcasts recently, not only is it okay for you to feel sad or angry about something, what is the hidden gift, even of the sadness or anger? 

If it is motivation, to say, “You know what, I don’t want to do this again, what do I actually need to do to not have this particular life experience again, because I don’t like it.” Or “If I really listen to this sadness right now, what is it telling me that maybe I need to listen to, like, why am I sad? I am sad, because I miss my friend, or I miss my life, or I miss feeling stable in my world, or I miss maybe a relationship that has ended. I feel sad about that.” And you know what, sometimes that sadness can point us in the direction of a thing that we would like to create in our lives, but that we don’t know what that is until we listen to the sadness. 

But you know what, sometimes sadness says, “You have the right to grieve. You can be sad, and experience a loss and feel the sadness of that loss.” It is grief, and it is okay. Because the path through grief, like so many other things, is not rejecting grief, talking yourself out of grief, making grief go away. It is embracing it. Allowing yourself to be sad and angry and all of the things for as long as you want to or need to. And then that’s it. That is actually the work of grief. It’s giving yourself the time and space to feel those feelings and trust that even in dark emotions, especially in dark emotions, sometimes the act of feeling them and being present with them is in itself, the paths through them. 

I know that sounds weird, particularly if you have been a negative emotion avoider. When I present this idea to some people who have worked really hard for a long time to not feel bad things, or you know that they label as bad in their own mind, right? That’s oftentimes part of our work is having to say “that’s actually not bad, it’s healthy.” It’s a challenging emotion. And it’s incredibly healthy to feel legitimate sadness, and anger, and grief, it’s a good thing. So we have to reconceptualize that, first of all. 

But the other part and I don’t know if this is true for you, but I’ve had people say, “I am afraid that if I accept this feeling if I allow this feeling to come in, and be inside of me, and if I really let myself feel sad or mad, or any of these things, that I will be consumed by this emotion. I will be lost forever. I will always feel this way. And I will never, ever be okay again.” I know that like when I say it out loud, it doesn’t sound like a rational thing. But it is so true when people have become afraid of fear, afraid of sadness, afraid of big emotions, it is because they have been avoiding it for so long. And that’s part of the like, cognitive framework that makes them push it away as “No, I can’t let this in because if I do, I will be steamrolled and lost forever. This sadness will be a bottomless pit. I will never, ever be okay again.” 

And so then, of course, what we do in therapy, or sometimes coaching is to actually have a little experiment or somebody practices sitting with me, and touching that anger or that sadness that they’ve been resisting for so long into practice. Just accepting it nonjudgmentally without trying to change it, or make it go away. And we talk about what it feels like in their body. We talk about how it makes their face feel flushed, or their stomach hurt, or that makes the tears come. We talk about the thoughts that come up alongside of it. We talk about the feelings, and then after a while, there’s not really anything more to talk about, we’re just sitting there breathing, looking at each other. 

And then I say, “Now what are you aware of?” “I feel better. Actually, it sort of, like, didn’t last as long as I thought it would. I’m actually alright.” And that, that is really the moment of healing and truth because when people stop resisting their truth and rejecting their own feelings and begin to accept, radically accept any and all of how they really feel, that in itself becomes a point of resilience and truth. And is a point of huge growth. 

Because when people are okay to be not okay, when they can say, without judgment, or self-criticism or shame, like “I feel ashamed of myself right now. Or, you know what, I am kind of judging myself right now.” And that’s okay. I do that sometimes, like without it turning into this big horrible thing. They can then be like, “I’m judging myself. I do that sometimes.” I don’t want to judge myself and be able to sort of walk themselves through that the way you would compassionately take a child by the hand who’s wandered into something that maybe is not really to their highest and best like, “let’s go over here.” It’s like this friendly way of being with yourself. Like, “You know what? You don’t have to judge yourself for this. You don’t have to beat yourself up. Let’s go back and listen to that podcast. Dr. Lisa recorded a couple weeks ago, where she made us list out all of the awesome things that we have done and all of the strengths that we have, why don’t we revisit that again, because that is true.” Yes. 

And to also be able to sit with that inner child sometimes and say, “You know what? You have every right in the world to be sad. And to wish things were different and I love you. And I’m just going to sit right here with you while you have these normal, healthy, legitimate feelings that do not need to be changed. They just need to be felt and embraced. And we’re just going to sit here and do that together without any attachment to any particular outcome, and certainly not with any expectation that they’re going to go away because they don’t need to. It’s all okay.” 

Radical self-acceptance. So much compassion, so much love in this perspective. And before we close today, I would also like to share that if you’ve been inspired by these ideas and like, “Yes, I want to get better at radical self-acceptance,” you will invariably find that it’s hard to do that. And I would like to just invite you to consider that—it is hard to practice radical self-acceptance, and it is also okay to struggle with radical self-acceptance. Yes, and not have it turn into another thing that makes you feel bad about yourself. If you are not always perfectly self-accepting, because it’s hard. And it’s okay. 

So, radical self-acceptance, and also radical acceptance of reality is a—I think, incredibly healing and affirming, and empowering way of being, that is also irrefutably true, and is also something that you have 100% control over, no matter what else the world throws at you. And it can be difficult and disempowering to set goals and be pushing yourself onward and upward and constantly and all these things. And again, time and place for that, but that foundation of radical acceptance and radical self-acceptance is a strong floor to stand on. If you decide to build on it down the road, great. But it’s really hard to do, to do more until you accept what is. 

And so that’s the idea that I would like us all to be sitting with this particular New Year season. I hope it helps you value and accept and appreciate all of your experiences that are valuable and worthy, without judgment. And just like “Dear Prudence,” you too get to be in the world and loved and appreciated for exactly who and what you already are. You don’t have to change anything. And you have the right to feel exactly the way you do. And so do others. As you practice self-acceptance and self-compassion, you may notice yourself having more compassion and empathy for people around you. And happy byproduct as you feel more accepting and comfortable in yourself. You will also, as a happy byproduct, strengthen your most important relationships while you are, at the same time, strengthening your relationship with yourself. So all good things. 

I hope that you enjoy it. And I hope that you also respect and appreciation for the parts that aren’t fun because there are light and dark and all things, and it is all valuable and rosy, just like you. All right, talk to you next time.