I thought I'd found acceptance...I realized lately, I have not. Is it something to be worked on, or does it come to you? I feel like I need to work on it, but I don't know if that even makes sense. ~sigh~...sorry, having a rough go at the moment, but what a great thread!
Both! My alcoholism forced me to
accept that I am an alcoholic of the hopeless variety. I have had to work on accepting things that I struggle with, doing this often and long enough I have found
acceptance of many things comes easier, not everything, but many things.
The serenity prayer aides me immensely in sorting out things I have to accept and things I can change. When I struggle with something I pray & meditate about it, I repeat the serenity prayer very slowly applying each word or phrase as needed to get me to either acceptance or change/action.
Think about it, it took many years of drinking for some of us to get the way we are/were, recovery I have found is not like the instant gratification of alcohol or a drug, it takes time, work, & practice applying the steps of recovery to move forward one step at a time, it takes time and sadly time takes time.
When I first got into AA I wanted the peace and serenity those with 20 years sober had when I had only a few months. Well I am a little over 3 years sober and things are falling into place, I remind myself that it is spiritual progress and not perfection, I am doing okay as long as I am working on moving forward and not resting on my laurels.