Marsha Linehan’s Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Radical Acceptance are the topics of this Mumbai Mirror article.
Practicing Radical Acceptance
By Hvovi Bhagwagar
Learning to react calmly to events we cannot change is good for our own peace of mind
We go ballistic when someone rings the doorbell twice, the Wi-Fi slows down, or we’re stuck in traffic that seems to move at snail’s pace. These may seem like small problems, but sometimes they can frustrate you to the point of rage. However, all these emotions are natural. The problem really arises when we try to pretend we’re not feeling what we’re feeling and we end up blaming others or reaching for solutions that are often just mindless. The result of reacting this way is an increase in suffering. Instead, we should try to accept the situation as it is.
Marsha Linehan , the iconic psychotherapist who introduced to the world a therapy called Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), calls such acceptance “Radical Acceptance”. Simply put, radical acceptance means tolerating what cannot be changed with calmness instead of increasing inner pain by saying “This isn’t fair” or “I can’t stand this”. Your colleague got a bigger raise than you did, you missed an important meeting because of traffic, someone you care deeply about was just diagnosed with a lifethreatening condition. These experiences evoke sadness, despair, anger and a sense of loss...
Read the entire article here .