Acceptance is not preceded by understanding. In fact it is the exact opposite; understanding is preceded by acceptance.
Some Back Story
As some may know I have a son who is Autistic. Where he lands on the autism spectrum he classified as low functioning/non-verbal, or classic autism as I have heard been dubbed before. He challenges my understanding everyday, and I have to start with accepting that there are going to be struggles, and we may not always communicate, or see eye to eye on things.
I don't expect people to understand him, or the things we go through as family; however, I do appreciate the acceptance of my son, and my family unit. We only want to be accepted as who we are, as do all people in all their varying forms.
Lots of emphasis gets put on awareness,but not as much gets put on to acceptance. Awareness of things going on, and how people are is terrific, but if you don't have acceptance how are we supposed to grow our understanding?
Cultivating Understanding
To be able to truly become a person of understanding we have to start at the beginning. What is the beginning? The beginning would be when you were just a young child, and free of your current state of mind, and views of the world.
As we were growing up our environment shaped us, everything that came in and everything we consumed auditory, visually, and everything in between helps shape the person we are. This is how our biases shape, and grow as we become adults. The more you can keep your mind open to different ideas, and different possibilities the better you will be at becoming a person of understanding.
Wow this one is quick post. Kidding! What I want you to do is remember a time you understood something that you had accepted, and were trying to get others to understand and accept. How did that go? What was the outcome? Was it a positive outcome or a negative outcome? How did it make you feel? I'm willing to bet that whatever it was may not have gone over as well as you hoped, and you felt disappointed, and maybe even angry. Normal, don't worry. It could be because the people you were asking for the understanding couldn't do it as they hadn't accepted what you were proposing. I don't know.
What we are going to do though is help you, and others become more understanding of others. We need to first realize that some of who we are maybe mislead from our youth. We have been programmed to believe in certain things, and in a certain way from birth. This programming isn't easy to break, and doesn't always allow understanding to come in, because it has closed off the channel for acceptance. Once you have accepted this, you are on your way. Hey, this is a lot like forgiving yourself; remember that post? Well here it is. A lot of accepting, and understanding comes from within yourself. You must accept yourself and all your flaws, and perfections.
Putting acceptance first opens your heart, and your mind to understanding. Once you acceptance in your heart you can understand anything that comes up. A great example of acceptance, and understanding is from the LGBT+ community. People within this community come out to people they love, and trust all the time, and all they want is acceptance, and then understanding. What happens a lot of the time is they get raked over the coals, ridiculed, disowned, and pushed out. This is not how we as a community of Earth should NOT behave toward anyone, sadly thought it does happen. What we should be doing is taking the time to listen, learn, and allow acceptance of what is being said, and maybe done. HOWEVER, we should not accept intolerance of any kind, but we should accept that is out there and understand that this is coming from a place of fear, and help those find acceptance of what they are afraid of, and get them to a place of understanding.
Understanding can only be accomplished through acceptance. If you can allow acceptance in to your life, and heart you will have no problem with understanding others, and where they are coming from.
Ride Hard, and Live Long
It's been my pleasure to write this for you.
Sincerely,
Rob
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