This morning I happened upon a Grasshopper Note written years ago and was once again stopped in my tracks as to how often we contribute to our pain when we reroute away from reality.

Unaccepted Reality Always Causes Pain – Grasshopper

Reality isn’t my truth or your truth; it’s universal truth, and ignoring it or keeping it at arm’s length keeps you in the embrace of pain.

As has been written before, reality doesn’t have versions. It’s truly the most honesty we experience on a daily basis. Reality isn’t a viewpoint; it’s the only point.

When we treat reality as anything other than what it is, we suffer.

You can’t dance around something you’re immersed in. All attempts to do so will keep you drowning in pain.

Resisting reality is a head game, not a body game.

Your body feels, and ignoring or attempting to explain away a feeling is a practice not grounded in reality.

Your body is grounded to what is, while your head is off on flights of fancy away from your body, away from reality.

It’s not your interpretation of what your body feels that is reality, it’s the feeling itself.

When you pay attention to the sensations in your body, you are acknowledging reality.

When you notice that your stomach flutters or your heart beats faster, you are recognizing reality. When you rationalize your sensations, you are resisting reality.

Resisting reality causes pain. The more we resist, the more we suffer.
Many consider accepting reality as defeatism when, in fact, it’s a step towards victory.

You can move forward more easily and quickly when you recognize what is. You don’t spend untold amounts of energy arguing with yourself that what is, isn’t.

Recognition of reality removes the side roads of it should or shouldn’t be this way, and lets you plan more realistically for another reality.

You can change your situation, but not your current reality. It must be accepted to return you to neutral – which is the gear you must go through in order to get to a gear that moves you in a new direction.

You will grind your life to a halt and experience all the pain that comes with being stuck by continuing to resist reality.

Acceptance of reality is the clutch that gets you into neutral. It’s from this gear that your options become clear.

All the best,

John