How Powerful is Acceptance in the Healing Process?

First of all, acceptance doesn't mean complacency. We do have to work on what we think should improve, and we should hold ourselves to adequate standards.

Acceptance means recognizing our situation as real, which allows us to understand and improve it. This includes accepting unpleasant facts about us, which can be painful.

But remember: healing is also frequently painful. And that comes from facing things we dislike about ourselves or our reality.
 

To practice acceptance, we must understand that there are no "bad" emotions. We know that some situations provoke bad emotions in us, and that makes us want to avoid them. But it's ok to feel whatever it is because that is part of living a truthful life.

Accept what you can't change, and act upon that: we can't always control our situation, but we always have a couple of options when it comes to reacting to it. Accepting what you can't change frees you from your expectations, and allows you to act the way you want, based on your options.

And even though sometimes we don't want changes in our life, life is all about change. We have to accept it to act appropriately to that reality. As Sadguru once said: "If you're resisting change, you're resisting life."

Because you can only act reasonably once you've accepted things as they are, you need acceptance before you can heal from anything.