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Accepting

Accepting – A Practice for Managing Anxiety 

How often have you listened to someone tell you, “Just accept ‘it.’ It is what it is.” If the ‘it’ is something painful or even horrible to you, how helpful is such advice? No wonder the result from such information often adds to the feeling of being trapped or overwhelmed by anxiety. The “It” becomes something solid and in control of us as we are frozen by contemplating how to live with it.  For many, the message is to accept that you cannot work, you cannot go out with friends, or for some, your loved one is sick or dying. 

When such conditions are labeled as It, they generate stress and anxiety. In response to all the fear associated with the pandemic, the World Health Organization has created a new diagnosis code for Anxiety Disorder. It designates Code F41.9 as “an unspecified anxiety disorder which is often characterized by anxious feelings or fears often accompanied by physical symptoms associated with anxiety.” The American Medical Association for 2020 uses the ICD-10-CM Diagnosis Code F06.4 for anxiety that goes with medical conditions. 

Such codes are for those with health issues, and high levels of anxiety require medical treatment. General anxiety has become a disease. Most of us would call it dis-ease when dealing with worries about friends and relatives while cooped up in our own homes listening to 24-hours-a-day news about horrific events in the world. As awful as it is to be living in a horror movie, we can change our script. We can do so by treating life as a verb, not a noun. We can practice connecting fully to life by accepting what is as-is. We can remind ourselves that conditions are constantly changing and that there is no it. 

Even your body is changing as you read this. As The New York Public Library’s Science Desk Reference (Stonesong Press, 1995) notes, “There are between 50 and 75 trillion cells in the body… Each type of cell has its life span, and when a human dies, it may take hours or days before all the cells in the body die.” In other words, being a human means, I am a dynamic process, not a static “it.” Occasionally, I look in the mirror and wonder where the young woman with brown hair went, I still prefer to experience life. 

Experiencing life means accepting all of it, not just clinging to what I want the world to be or what I think should be or what I have lost. Accepting life as is can be an exciting practice. We become an explorer, a scientist, or as I like to pretend, a surfer. Having spent time on the beaches of Bali, I use the surfer phrase for accepting. “What’s happenin’ dude?” 

To manage what is happening, I must become aware of the causes and conditions that I see in front of me. Doing so, I am forced to explore what is going on and remember that I am not all-knowing. There are so many events and conditions of which I am unaware. The only state I can control is how I respond. 

Our challenge, like the surfers, is to ride the waves of change. We can step into the day or occurrence with an open heart. We can choose how to deal with a moment. An easy way to practice accepting is to give and receive with an open heart. 

Some simple techniques include:

  • Be kind toward self by noticing frustration and fears as part of the human condition without reacting;
  • Choose what to listen to during the day. “Yep, here is all the news about the cases of and deaths due to the virus, again. I will listen to some music instead.” 
  • I’m feeling down; I will go outside and experience sunshine. (or rain, or wind by standing outside or sticking head out of the window and notice body sensations);
  • Watch a comedy before going to bed;
  • Play a puzzle or an online game that is calming; 
  • Take a walk and experience what you see, smell, hear and touch;  
  • Call a friend;
  • Read something inspiring, calming or fun; 
  • To accept change, I will (wear a mask, drop off food at a nursing home, send my grandchildren funny cards, etc.) 

The pandemic will eventually be a part of history. Let’s write our history by creating the story we want to remember. Let’s embrace these changing times by accepting what is and doing what we can to care for ourselves and others. Remember, laughter is healing for body and soul.