“Accepting the Noise”

I overheard a conversation the other day and it’s interesting how simple conversations can reveal principles of life change. Two people were talking about home maintenance. They were discussing some of the work they have been completing around the house with all of the quarantine and related things going on. One spoke about working on his dryer. He said, “it’s funny how we just let things go thinking we will eventually get to them and then kind of forget that something was wrong in the first place.“ He went on to say, “our dryer has been making this annoying sound for the past two years and instead of doing anything about it we just got used to it and accepted the noise.” As he spoke I couldn’t help but wonder how many times in life we have just, “Accepted the noise.“ Unfortunately it seems easier to ignore some things in our life and allow them to fade into the background than it is to address them.

In recovery many people learn to quote the serenity prayer. The prayer says, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; the courage to change the things I can; and the wisdom to know the difference.“ It’s funny how we put so much energy into the first part of the prayer and work on acceptance but very little energy into the second part in which we ask for courage to do things differently. We focus on self acceptance which is a worthy pursuit. Failing to accept ourselves as we are definitely damages our self esteem, however, what could happen if we actually began working on improving ourselves while accepting ourselves? I have to wonder how much “noise“ we have begun to accept in our lives that can be addressed.

There can be no question that these are uncertain times we are living in, however I also feel like these can be exciting times. These can be times of growth. Maybe this is an opportunity for us to address some of the “noise“ that we have been accepting in our lives. What are some things that you can begin to address in your personal life? What are some things that you can control my right now and have been ignoring? If you are ready to take the next step towards regaining some control in your life and would like some help in getting there, reach out and schedule and appointment.