“Acceptance means to be in the embrace of what is without resistance. True acceptance is one of the most powerful and life-changing practices you can choose for your life journey.” ~Kirra Sherman
In our last blog we asked…
How can we draw attention to words that are powerful, impactful and transformative. More importantly, how can we build a new vocabulary in healthcare so these words easily flow into conversations between diabetes care and education specialists and their clients?
Join us today as we launch into a series of posts that will focus on words to inspire solution-focused thinking and practice…words which we embrace in practice and believe you will find them impactful in your conversations too. Each post will introduce a new word to weave into your conversations when talking about diabetes or life in general. (Think of this as similar to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary “Word of the Day”.)
Today’s word is Acceptance
We’re referring here to self-acceptance, as well as acceptance by the healthcare team in recognizing that people respond to change differently. We chose this as the first word because we believe it is foundational to solution-focused thinking. It underlies everything else.
Accepting oneself can be hard!
Being realistic about personal strengths and challenges is often easier said than done. For instance, we both love the outdoors and hiking, especially to take in a beautiful fresh view. However, with the ticking by of the years and impact of a couple injuries, we find we can’t quite embrace all of the things we used to do……like hiking up to mountain tops! Yes, that’s a bit of a bummer. We will never climb Half Dome in Yosemite National Park, pictured above! Yet, we’ve come to eventually accept that, and focus now on what we can do and find joy and happiness in that. So, we take flat hikes instead of climbing, we take a cable car ride to the top of the mountain, and we simply enjoy the beauty of it.
Striving to be honest with ourselves and accept who we are, our abilities, and acknowledge when we’ve reached our limits is the goal. Without acceptance it’s impossible to move forward.
Acceptance is critical when living with a chronic condition like diabetes.
People need to feel safe when engaging with their care team to acknowledge what they can do, along with what is challenging for them. Diabetes care and education specialists on the other hand, need to support those that live with diabetes as they learn to accept changes and new challenges in dealing with diabetes.And, practice acceptance understanding that people react to challenges differently. It’s critical to accept the person in front of you as they are, without judgement.
A solution-focused challenge
So our first challenge to you is to build your capacity for acceptance. Bring this word front and center in each encounter. Develop acceptance as a personal strength and help cultivate it in others.
Here are 5 solution-focused questions you can incorporate to focus on building acceptance:
- Could you tell me about your strengths and qualities you are happy about?
- What is one thing you have come to accept in your life that took some time to process?
- How did you feel when you were finally able to accept that challenging situation?
- How could you use those experiences and feelings to move you forward to accept a new challenge now?
- How can I help you come to realize acceptance in your life?
We hope you will enjoy this new series. Please share with colleagues and students and encourage others in keeping acceptance top of mind in interactions.
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If you are a health care professional and interested in learning more about our solution-focused practice and approach, when you subscribe to our blog, we’ll send you in return a FREE resource of 10 Solution-Focused Questions to start a solution-focused discussion with your clients.
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