Apathy vs Acceptance
Inner peace is very easy; Just stop giving a shit.
Well, you know, for crappy versions of ‘inner peace.’
It’s very easy to think we’re at peace and have finally accepted something, when really we’ve accidentally slipped into apathy.
You might be peaceful, but you probably won’t be happy.
All healing, growing or goals we have are only ever with one intent (if you look underneath it all): happiness.
So why is apathy an issue? Because we can’t be deeply happy about something if we’re feeling apathetic.
It’s easy enough to tell if you’re hanging out in apathy: simply pay attention to the attendant thoughts and feelings.
Apathy is surrounded by grief, disappointment, despair. Thoughts like:
- Why bother?
- There’s no point anyway
- There’s nothing I can do
- It’s out of my hands
- I just don’t care any more
- I’m powerless here
Acceptance has a very different feel. It’s similarly neutral, but there’s a core of love that surrounds it.
A good tip here is to watch for humour. If the situation feels gently amusing – and no, not sarcasm or black humour – regardless of how it goes then you’re in acceptance.
In a nutshell, the difference between apathy and acceptance is the difference between giving up and letting go.
Of course, once you see the signs for apathy town you can easily move to acceptance by just letting go of those thoughts & replacing them with loving ones, as usual.
Just a little trap to watch out for on this occasionally tumultuous road to bliss.
