ABSTRACT
Investigating the possibility of reversing the instinctive trend to retreat from dif®culty and to actually ``lay out a red carpet'' for our unwanted feelings is a core theme of the MBCT programme, especially in the second half. By the time participants are presented explicitly with this possibility midway through the programme, they will have had several weeks of practicing ``being with what is'': of working to gently cultivate acceptance of unhelpful habits of mind within their daily mindfulness practice. Plenty of unwanted experience will have spontaneously emerged in this time. The Guest House poem by Rumi (see above), which is shared with participants, points to how this is taken a step further, by cultivating a deliberate, intentional ``turning towards'' and ``inviting in'' of our dif®culties. This is a further step along the road of training the mind to operate more and more in ``approach'' mode in relation to experience. This Point explores acceptance and being with dif®culty in the MBCT programme in terms of:
· the ``¯avour'' and spirit of acceptance; · the layers within acceptance; · the underpinning learning that supports acceptance; and · the paradoxes inherent in the process.
