Acceptance in the Moment
The one thing that I have been learning from my daily meditation is to live in the moment and within that moment to accept whatever is happening be it good or bad.
If we are trying to change things then we aren’t accepting what is in this exact moment. We have to be open to each new moment without expectation. Let go of the past as each new moment emerges.
Some may want to call me a hypocrite as I just did a podcast about expectation where I said that I just expected things to happen in my life. Like when I wanted to find a publisher I had the mindset that I expected it to happen. That is fine in the goals that you set and I believe it is a mindset. What I am talking about within living in the moment is to accept whatever is happening in your life right now, at this moment without expecting anything, but to welcome each moment no matter what it looks like, good or bad, boring or exciting, controlled or busy, confusing or instructive, messy or precise.
I had to put this into practice this week. I was supposed to go up to Brisbane for a ‘Performance Time Trial’. We were treating this like trials for Tokyo, as we have no ability to go to World Cups again this year, so must prove we deserve a spot on the Paralympic team. A course had been set up on a race track similar to Tokyo for us to race on. The last 6 weeks I have worked my butt off to be as lean and as strong as I could be and things were going extremely well.
I packed the TT trike, most of my suitcase was packed and by Friday I was really looking forward to getting together with the team the following day. Then, as I was driving to a function listening to the radio, the news came on and I heard the one thing I had dreaded the most. A man in Brisbane had been diagnosed with Covid and he had been out in the community for about a week before he realised he had it. As soon as I heard that news report I knew in my heart that my trip would be postponed. Now, most of you living outside of Australia would have thought ‘But why? It’s just one case.’ However here in Australia, we have worked really hard to stop Covid. Victoria has had no cases at all for a month and they tend to close the state borders if an outbreak occurs in another state and if you leave you may not get back in without spending 14 days in hotel quarantine and thousands of dollars! And I knew that the team staff would be concerned about the possible spread and making sure we were all safe.
Needless to say about 2 hours later I got the disappointing call that I wouldn’t be flying up, at least not on Saturday. The rest of the team had already been up there and I had opted to fly up later, now most of them were being flown home that night or the next day.
For the first time in a long time I felt gutted! I had worked so hard just for this one day to show how fit and strong I was and in one moment that was gone. I really wanted to cry. This is when my meditation brain took over and I remembered to accept what was happening right in that moment and then let it go. Disappointed…yes, but accept what was and move forward, be grateful for how fit I was feeling, be grateful that my team cares so much about me and accept that sometimes things don’t always go according to plan.
So what happens now? I’ve realised that I don’t have control over everything in life, but I do have the control to accept what is. So I will continue to work hard on my fitness and believe that eventually, I will be able to put myself to the test. I implore you to learn to accept what happens to you each moment, cherish that moment and believe that there is a higher power making each moment be exactly what you need. I think the Serenity Prayer sums it up beautifully: God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.” – Lao Tzu