What Is Radical Acceptance? A DBT Therapist’s Guide to Practicing Radical Acceptance.

We all experience pain and suffering in our lives. It’s an inescapable part of being human. But what if there was a way to suffer less? To not be so controlled by our pain? To understand how our emotions serve us and find a way to connect with reality as it is?

Radical acceptance is a way of relating to our painful experiences that can help us transform suffering into peace. In this blog post, we’ll explore what radical acceptance is, how it works, and how you can start practicing it in your own life. So let’s get started!

What is radical acceptance and why is it important in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)?

Radical acceptance is an important principle within Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). DBT focuses on helping people create their life worth living through both a validating and challenging approach to encouraging people to create positive change in their life by practicing effective skills in their daily lives relating to mindfulness, distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness.

As a core concept in DBT, radical acceptance encourages us to accept our experiences and emotions without judgement or resistance in order to create positive change in our lives. By engaging in this practice, we recognize that difficult circumstances, thoughts and feelings are a part of life and learning to tolerate them allows us to eventually let go of any unhelpful suffering and find control in creating positive changes in life.

Accepting the reality around us helps us to make positive changes as we move forward with a less destructive mindset. Radical acceptance can be difficult, and it is a powerful tool for growth through compassion and validation of our emotional experience and finding our own sense of control with distressing emotions and experiences.

How can you practice radical acceptance in your daily life?

Practicing radical acceptance starts with an understanding that acceptance does not mean approval. It is instead a choice to fully embrace the realities of life and the feelings that accompany it without judgment or criticism.

One way to introduce this mindful practice into everyday life is to intentionally pause when first experiencing a difficult feeling or emotional reaction, rather than reacting to it impulsively. This moment of pause will give you the space to breath into the feeling and become more mindful of how it manifests in your body and mind.

Taking a few moments between stimulus and response can be especially beneficial when managing difficult emotions such as anger, sadness, or frustration. Being aware of this internal space allows acceptance to move in without being drowned out by emotional reactivity.

Examples of Radical Acceptance

Practicing radical acceptance might look like focusing on deep breathing and validating feelings of anxiety while accepting that “It is what it is. I am running late for work, because of traffic that is outside of my control and there is nothing that I can do at this moment to change the reality of this situation.”

This practice of radical acceptance in daily life situations will often help to decrease intense feelings of anger and other distressing emotions to bring about more of a sense of compassion towards the realities of suffering in our daily experience.

Radical Acceptance allows us to experience a more dialectic and balanced emotional experience that opens up space for us to feel the complexities of both suffering and beauty in daily life.

What are some benefits of practicing radical acceptance?

The practice of radical acceptance offers us a way to reduce our emotional suffering and free ourselves from the negative judgements and interpretations we often create in our minds. It teaches us how to bring mindful awareness and connection to our world, and appreciate even the difficult parts of life.

By learning how to approach our emotions and experiences with authentic compassion and understanding, instead of avoidance or judgement, we can better understand our own lives, as well as those around us.

We can learn more about what leads to healthy relationships that are founded on mutual trust, respect, and communication. This will help us build resilience in moments of distress or pain, ultimately leading to a greater sense of wellbeing and reduced emotional suffering.

What can get in the way of practicing radical acceptance?

One of the biggest barriers to radical acceptance is fear: fear of judgment, fear of failure and fear of the lack of control or the unknown. It takes courage to accept our situation as it is and to accept our lack of control over life events and the actions of others.

It is important to take the time to reflect on these fears in order to move closer towards radical acceptance. Other obstacles may include feelings of shame or guilt, anger or blame towards others, or self-blame and judgement.

However, once these barriers are identified they can be worked through in order to reach a place of true understanding of our emotional experience and creating space for healing through find our own sense of control and agency in our lives.

What are the risks of not accepting reality as it is?

Practicing radical acceptance is an important tool in healing and creating our life worth living. Resistance towards radical acceptance can cause us to lean into fear of discomfort, preventing us from finding ways to cope with difficult situations or learn new coping mechanisms.

While it makes sense to struggle with acceptance of past trauma and difficult situations in daily life, resistance towards accepting what is in present reality will keep you stuck in distressing emotions of suffering (i.e. anger, self-blame, resentment, etc.)

It is important to remember that acceptance does not mean approval or forgiveness; it means we allow ourselves to sit with the reality of what is without having to deny, avoid, or shut down our feelings on the matter. We need to hold space for both radical acceptance of emotions towards a situation and the reality that the situation “is what it is”.

This is how we can move towards taking back control over our own lives to create positive change through compassion towards a deeper understanding of our suffering. Ultimately, we need to find balance between acceptance and change to create forward momentum that motivates us to change ineffective behaviors (emotions, thoughts, actions) within our control.

How can you tell if you’re making progress in your practice of radical acceptance?

When you are practicing radical acceptance, it can be difficult to measure progress. However, there are a few key indicators that you may notice in your life if you’re making progress—for example, decreased distressing emotions throughout your day or noticing that you do not feel stuck in emotions for as long.

As your perspective and attitude to life shifts through practice of radical acceptance, you may experience increased feelings of connectedness and reduced emotional distress and suffering. By considering these markers of change during your radical acceptance journey, you will be able to gain insight into how far you have come and recognize the impact of this practice on your life.

If you’re struggling to accept something in your life, know that you’re not alone. Many people find it hard to accept the reality of their lives, past trauma, and distressing experiences in daily life. Dialectical Behavioral Therapy offers a skillset to help.

Radical acceptance is an important part of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and can be beneficial for anyone willing to try it. Practice radical acceptance by accepting things as they are in the present moment- even if they’re not ideal. Remember, progress is possible and you can make positive changes in your life with time and intentional effort.