Is ‘acceptance’ fatalistic?

When we ‘accept’ an incident or event that happens in our lives as something that was out of our control and was meant to be, it tends to be negative. It is like saying ‘I have no choice, so I might as well accept it.’ The reality, however, is that we can decide whether to ‘accept’ it or not. Our ego should be so big that we are able to take it in our stride and move towards betterment. For example, if we are living in a rented accommodation and the landlord says the house has to be vacated the following month, what do we do? We have to vacate the house. The choice is between being troubled and saying ‘Oh God, now I have to find another house!’ OR by having a super-sized ego and saying ‘Wow, it’s time to move to a better house!’

Worrying about having to find another house is acceptance in a fatalistic manner, while taking it as a better opportunity waiting around the corner is acceptance with the absolute faith that the Universe knows better. And that the Universe’s plan for us is better than our own.

We seem to have internalized the concept of rejecting (in our minds) even a mere suggestion of any kind of change because we believe that it is negative; that we should not accept it as it will mean stepping out of our comfort zone. However, if we lead our lives in the knowledge that there is a higher power that knows better, and all we need to do is to allow ourselves to be guided by it, we will live in absolute harmony with the Universe.

Here is another example: A person is about to lose their job in a month because it is time to retire. They can either get bogged down by it and say ‘I am too old now and nobody will give me a job.’ OR they can take is as a time for great change and say ‘Hey, it’s high time I started my own business!’ So it is really up to us whether we take each change as an opportunity to grow, and enjoy it, or worry about ‘accepting’ things because we have no control over them.