The Inherent Nature of Accepting

“I am and always have been inherently accepting.”

To accept — to welcome, with whole hearted joy–is the opposite of to reject — to turn away from, avoid, try to deny. All of us have been rejected, and we don’t like it. It hurts. Why is that? Because to be accepted is a core need and exists because acceptance is a core quality of our Inherent Nature.

Until or unless we “learn” to reject others, we automatically accept them. Our instinct from birth is to accept the touch and care from our caregivers and those around us. It isn’t until we experience hurt that we stop accepting. Not until we know betrayal that we start doing our best to avoid it. We reject in order to protect. But unfortunately while this defending mechanism may have been necessary in some circumstances, we just may have learned the lesson a little too well; we may have shut down our accepting mode in favor of a protecting one, and forgotten all about the fact that in order to be fulfilled, we must be open and accepting to what comes to us.

When we were small, some of what came to us was crushing and overwhelming. We were little people in a big person’s world. We felt things with an intensity that might not have been at all intended. And so we learned to buffer or filter what life brought us. This was a survivalist adaptation, and served us well in our vulnerability.

Now we are now adults and no longer as vulnerable as we once were. Unfortunately, we carry that childhood vulnerability unconsciously around with us and will need to do some inner healing work to stop identifying with our wounded child and realize that our adult nature is strong enough to deal with whatever comes into our lives.

Accepting means being willing to allow life to happen in and around us without trying to stop or control it. Of course there are things and situations which we will need to reject — or rather, choose to reject: Those things which would do us or others harm, be they beliefs or actions. Fortunately our Inherent Wisdom is there to assist us in discerning what those things are and so we can make the choice to avoid or accept them.