Radical acceptance is a critical dialectical behavior therapy skill and part of Brookhaven Retreat’s 12-week DBT cycle that teaches women the emotion regulation skills necessary for lifelong wellness. When we radically accept our lives, we let go of emotional suffering and open ourselves to healing and joy.
Many women who have experienced trauma and emotional breakage find themselves struggling with depression. In order to attempt to avoid the pain they feel, women live lives of denial. Refusal to accept our circumstances, though, intensifies our suffering and interferes with our ability to find joy in life. Often, our lives of denial are as unhealthy as the denial itself.
Non-acceptance is sabotaging to recovery, which is why Brookhaven Retreat focuses on self-discover and owning ones own truth. Radical acceptance teaches women to completely accept their entire reality.
When women accept the emotional fractures that have lead to mental illness, they stop fighting against it. Letting go of an emotional struggle opens the self to healing and peace. While it can never make a painful situation disappear, it facilitates control of painful emotions and lessens suffering. Only with acceptance comes the ability to change ones life for the better.
To practice radical acceptance, accept that there is a cause to every situation. We can then work on accepting that life can be worth living despite painful events. Accepting our emotional situations better opens us to transforming suffering into recovery and joy.
