There is one acceptance meditation script that I have found absolutely wonderful. It is an excellent meditation for self-acceptance as well as for accepting others.
Let’s get started. And if you would like me to help you, simply book an online meditation lesson with me today.
Acceptance Meditation Script
1: Sit and meditate on your breath for five minutes to relax
For this meditation, we are deliberately targeting things that make us feel negative, things we judge (and later, times when people judge us).
We want to meditate on these things without reacting to them. To achieve that we will need to be relaxed. That’s why the first part of our acceptance meditation script is all about relaxing.
Thankfully it is very easy to relax in meditation. Simply sit comfortably and focus on your breath as it moves around your body.
Aim to take at least 25 mindful breaths. This will stimulate your parasympathetic nervous system to produce feelings of calmness. In turn, this will help you with the rest of this meditation.
2:To accept the present moment, use this meditation script for being present.
3: Meditation For Self-Acceptance:
- Visualize yourself in the way you don’t like (or doing the thing you wish you didn’t do). Clearly see yourself in this way.
- When thoughts come to mind label them as you would in Vipassana (e.g. if you experience a thought, mindfully observe the thought and say “This is just a thought”).
- Continue for five minutes. Now say, “I am human and imperfect, and I am okay with that”.
In Depth Details & Explanation
This step of our meditation is about being less self-critical.
Most people have at least one aspect of themselves that they don’t like and that they judge. You are going to change that.
Choose one aspect of yourself you don’t like. For instance, let’s say you’re overweight. Visualize yourself in that way. Create a mental image of yourself doing or being the thing you don’t like. Hold this image in your mind.
Naturally, you will think negative thoughts and feel negative emotions about this side of yourself. This is normal, so don’t worry. We are about to change it.
Hold that image of yourself in your mind and meditate on it. When thoughts come to mind, label them (say to yourself, “This is just a thought”) and do the same with feelings (“This is just a feeling”).
Continue to focus on the image of yourself doing / being what you don’t like.
The goal of this is to maintain a visual image of yourself in your mind without reacting to it.
Now say the self-acceptance mantra, “I am human and imperfect, and that is okay.”
If you struggle to do this, then practice self-compassion. Think about the reasons why you do the thing you don’t like, or why you are the way you don’t like. Accept that there are circumstances that made you this way. You can also visualize helping yourself overcome your problem in a compassionate way.
This method is based on a combination of Buddhist Vipassana, Metta (Loving Kindness) and Karuna. Studies show that Vipassana makes us less reactive to negative thoughts and feelings [1], Metta cultivates acceptance and non-judgment [2], and Karuna increases compassion [3].
By doing this, you are becoming less reactive to negative parts of yourself, more accepting, and more compassionate.
4: Meditation to accept other people
- Meditate on an image of the person you want to accept.
- When thoughts come to mind, label them and continue to meditate on them.
- While doing this, recognise that the person is human and imperfect as the rest of us. Say the mantra, “[Name of person] is human and imperfect, and I am okay with that.”
In depth instructions and explanation
To accept someone else and perhaps a mistake that they have made, start by bringing that person to mind. Notice that you will naturally think and feel negative things about them. This is normal. When these thoughts or feelings come to mind, label them (“This is just a thought”, “This is just a feeling”) and continue to meditate on that person.
By doing this, you are learning to think about the individual without being affected by negative thoughts and feelings.
You can take things further by expressing compassion for this person. Recognise that they are human and liable to human fallacy just like the rest of us. Recognise the circumstances that led to them making the mistake or becoming who they are. This will help you to accept them.
Now say the mantra, “[Name of person] is human and imperfect like me, and I am okay with that.”
5: To feel acceptance from other people,
Visualize the times in your life when you most felt accepted. Now repeat the mantra, “I am loved and accepted.”
This final stage of our acceptance-meditation script will leave you feeling wonderfully positive. It’s the perfect way to finish our meditation.
Visualize the times in your life when you felt completely accepted and loved. Truly bring these times to life in your mind; vividly imagine them. Now observe how you feel when you think about these things. Observe the feeling of love, compassion, and acceptance. This will leave you feeling elated.
And that’s it!
Congratulations! You completed our meditation. By using this script, you will cultivate the quality of acceptance, and you will start to feel more accepted yourself.
Final Thoughts
This script directly targets the fundamental nature of judgmentalism, of non-acceptance.
Acceptance is the ability to see things as they are without ignoring them, without emotional reactivity, and without judgment. For instance, if you fail to accept the fact that you are broke, what is happening in the mind is that you see yourself as broke, try to ignore it, feel negative about it, and judge it.
Flip this on its head and you get acceptance.
In other words, acceptance is: The ability to see something as it is, to hold an accurate picture of reality in your mind, to remain calm while thinking about it, and to not judge. This is precisely what we did in our meditation for acceptance.
It is important to also note that this is not about acceptance in the sense of giving in to something. Too often “acceptance” is used to mean “resignation”. It’s not about that. It is about being able to perceive things clearly without reacting to them. That is what we accomplished in this meditation for acceptance.
As well as the meditation script above, I also recommend that you use Karuna meditation.
Note that if you are new to meditation you might also like to try my 40 best mindfulness exercises.
REFERENCES:
1: Meditation (Vipassana) and the P3a event-related brain potential, BR Cahn, J Polich – International journal of psychophysiology, 2009 – Elsevier
2: Cultivating loving kindness: A two‐stage model of the effects of meditation on empathy, compassion, and altruism, JL Kristeller, T Johnson – Zygon®, 2005 – Wiley Online Library
3: Loving-kindness and compassion meditation: Potential for psychological interventions, SG Hofmann, P Grossman, DE Hinton – Clinical psychology review, 2011 – Elsevier
Paul Harrison is a passionate meditation teacher who believes in genuine, authentic meditation. He has more than 15 years experience in meditation and mindfulness. He studied meditation in beautiful Oxford, UK, and Hamilton Ontario Canada, and earned his degree at Staffordshire University.
“My goal is to provide the most authentic meditation sessions so you can harness the power of your own mind for personal transformation” – Paul Harrison
