Living with our strength in the world requires far more of us than distraction, avoidance, and indulgence. If you want to find peace of mind and purpose, you will have to let go of finding a way out and instead pivot toward finding a way in.*
(Steven Hayes)

My guess is that if you’ve found yourself in a Zoom or Teams call over this past year at some point the person or persons at the other end will have had to let you know “your muted!”

My bad! – self-muting.

But muting was a thing before Zoom or Teams came our way and Steven Hayes throws up three ways we can do this.

We avoid and don’t go near or acknowledge the most difficult things; or we distract, busying ourselves with something else, or we indulge, finding something that gives us comfort. Yet our strength comes through facing these.

They are a part of us, and what is meaningful and purposeful and satisfying for us may be tied in with them.

My own experience was that when I turned towards my pain it wasn’t what I thought it was, and in facing it – I still must – I grew stronger.

We find our true voice when we embrace our pain and difficult circumstances.

(*From Steven Hayes’ A Liberated Mind.)