23. How To: Stop Fighting Reality with Radical Acceptance

In this week's episode, Liza and Molly take on the challenge of introducing the skill of Radical Acceptance, or, as they prefer to call it, "Radical Acknowledgement [of Reality]." This is some of the "deeper work" in DBT, as it has the capacity to both reduce suffering and create meaningful change in your life.

We start by defining what Radical Acceptance is (hint: it is NOT approving of or liking reality, being passive, or against change), and discuss what it is using a wide range of examples. We then explore how this skill reduces suffering in a variety of ways; for example, radically accepting past regrets often reduces feelings of guilt and shame, and radically accepting (or radically acknowledging) behavior that you disapprove of can decrease anger toward others.

Finally, Molly shares a personal example to demonstrate that when you stop fighting or ignoring reality and truly acknowledge that everything is caused, the result is often grief followed by a deeper sense of peace, meaning, and the capacity to get on with building a Life Worth Living.

This episode is all about what radical acceptance is, and next week we will be talking more specifically about how to practice it. We hope you enjoy :)

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