ABSTRACT
This chapter explores acceptance and beings with difficulty in the Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) programme in terms of: the flavour and spirit of acceptance; the layers within acceptance; the underpinning learning that supports acceptance; and the paradoxes inherent in the process. Acceptance can be confused with resignation and giving up. It certainly involves giving up the struggle against our experience, so it can be contrasted with resistance. It engages us in a turning toward rather than a turning away from present-moment experience. Paradoxically, acceptance of the present can be a place from which change arises. Mindfulness-based participants engage with the programme in the hope of arriving at different states, yet through the repeated exposure to mindfulness practice and process they are being taught to simply experience what is present, moment by moment. They are learning that it might be possible to learn to be at ease with not feeling at ease.
