Hi, I’m Ilia Jones, licensed professional counselor in Suwanee, Georgia. And I want to talk to you about acceptance paradox. This refers to accepting things that we really do not like about ourselves or about life. And it is called a paradox because we don’t like it and we don’t want to do it. However, it is incredibly beneficial to accept certain things that are just part of life, instead of fighting and resisting them or feeling and thinking negatively about them. For example, I can’t play cello. I’ve never taken a lesson in my life. I’ve never touched the cello. So, I am really bad at it. I am a failure at playing cello. But, for some reason, I decide to accept that perfectly fine. It doesn’t bother me that I don’t play cello. It doesn’t affect my self-esteem. However, I can’t whistle. I’ve never been able to whistle in my entire life. And I feel really bad about that. I hate that. I feel like a failure that I cannot whistle because it seems like it’s a super easy thing to do, but I can’t do it. Over time, I have learned to accept that I just can’t whistle. And I am not going to let that affect my self-esteem. And it is a failure, but I’m okay with having some failures in my life, because life is not a buffet table where you can grab a plate and then only go and choose yummy, delicious foods. Life is a thing and you get whatever you get sometimes. So, it’s important to be able to accept the things that we do not like and accept that some things are hard and accept that some parts of life do require and cause and result in negative feelings and negative emotions and negative events and we can accept that and that is one less struggle that we will have when dealing with those things. So, I hope this helps. Credit to Dr. David Burns at the Feel Good Institute.