How "recent' Is recent? I was given the first blah-blah-yadda, so to speak, about 15 years ago and was like, "Mindfulness? If that's the opposite of mindlessness, then how does it work?"

Turns out, in the context I was taught, it meant "self-awareness". Wait, wasn't that term already around?!

As for "radical acceptance", it like "radical forgiveness", tends ot go in directions that are possibly Zen but also possibly great justifications for being a jerk. I'm more familiar with "radical forgiveness" (read a book on it till it said that the Jews brought the Holocaust on themselves, and realized, AH, like "The Secret" this is just "what you think of, you attract" thing, and that's been here for a while too.... Only they're victim-blaming! No thank." And I think the book is currently collecting silverfish somewhere.

I don't like "radical". Has bad connotations for me. Violent ones. Ones that go past the place my gut says "this makes sense" and into ones that make me ask, "Are they about to hand out really odd Kool-Aid, or is it just me?"

Acceptance? OK. Forgiveness? OK. Radical? Errrrr.....

I've journeyed hither and yon since "leaving" the Catholic Church. Seeking a spiritual home. Turns out, it's me. Whoops.

I've sought far and wide, for tools to help.... Stress management seminars, etc.

Other than giving me an intro to my beloved yoga? Rehashes of the same word tracks heard in decades past. You can go back to the original Mster of the Motivational Success Talk (Napoleon Hill) and it's still the same basic concepts.

I can't say that about psychology, as I view the profession as too prone to polarized and fuzzy thinking. (Quite a trick, but it's like half the psych profession wants us all in tiny tidy boxes, and the other half wants us all over the map simultaneously, and I can't get that existentially confused, it hurts.)

BTW, Arfie? Transcendentalism as I learned it back in lit class? OMG. Emerson was the best cure ever for insomnia. My prof actually told us, "Go through Emerson's essays. Highlight the shortest sentences. Ignor ethe rest. You got it."

Maybe that will help?

I suppose radical means just taking or erasing the self. Ouch. Brainsprain. Good thought-provoker, Arfie.

A student came to me yesterday and asked me what helped me with PTSD. I told her that right after I was diagnosed, I joined a weekly meditation group for 5 years and stuck with it. It really helped get me off to a good start about addressing my own anxiety, just breathing, and getting the necessary more objective perspective on my fearful feelings.

I don't know anything about Transcendental Meditation, because the kind I stumbled upon was Vipassana Buddhist meditation. A book by Jack Kornfield was my guide.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Kornfield

What mattered to me, though, was that it worked to settle me down after the shock of my diagnosis.

"Radical acceptance is the key toward ultimately making lasting changes in your life."
http://www.mindfulnessmuse.com/dialectical-behavior-therapy/how-to-practice-radical-acceptance

For me it is:
I am____________, so therefor I can make steps to improve my condition based on that being a fact.
It is just an initial stepping stone of admittance of a fact. Then what to do about it comes next.
In AA it is admitting alcohol is a problem.
In domestic abuse, Anger control is a problem
In Diabetes, body processing of sugar is a problem.

ETC....
The steps to take based on the radical acceptance without the use of qualifying statements, is to take it to the root cause of a problem.

My literal way of radical acceptance.

Jewells, your post both baffled and brightened my day, because that's what I think of as plain old Acceptance. Huh. Wonder how much that has to do with my starting out in Catholicism and a dose of Al-Anon? Or if it's just me. Huh.

Guess I'm more "radical" than I thought.

Hmm.

For sure, it is confusing stuff to share. It seems to mean something different to everybody. Whenever I get comfortable with it in my own head, I end up feeling like I am swimming through cement when I try to talk about it.

I think of "Radical" as an element of change. "Acceptance" is the road map of my life. When I want to change my direction in life, the "acceptance" is where I am now. The "Radical" is the route which might best get me to where I want to be.

Buttttttaaaa. . .

Repeat, does seem to meet something different to everybody.

I dunno. I thought it was as simple as " It is what it is."

If you do a Celtic cross tarot spread, Card # 7 that is placed represents " what you have to work with."

...what you have to work with is sometimes not what you want. It's whatcha got.

Radical itself means 'to the root' or something like that. For me term acceptance is enough. Although, idk, the term has origins in dbt or accepting what may be not only be painful, but what is abhorrent. The word radical connotes a jarring or violent action.... So the term is in wide circulation? I read a book years ago called 'Radical Acceptance' by Tara B[?].

Having my career working in a hospital a long time, the word "Radical" brings up thoughts of disease, cancer, not a good feeling word for me, Acceptance has either come in the form of numbness, which just meant you stuffed whatever it was so deep you became unaware of it's presence so as to accept whatever the circumstances were..the mind rationalizing to save sanity...or Acceptance after such great turmoil that you give up/give in and hit such a bottom that the only direction is up...where perspective and change are born, hopefully in a safe way. In some ways both sound Radical, but without having looked up the dictionary definition, numbing acceptance for me has, in the long run,been more painful, because it can/has lasted for a longer period of time. I guess what I'm saying is I sure wish it had been possible to avoid the numb and reach the second Acceptance somehow faster, but that's hindsight, PTSD doesn't have the same script for everyone that's for sure...I think I went off on a tangent!!!...I am searching for Contented Acceptance now....whatever that is it just sounds like a nice place to land! Hugs