There are some things in life that you cannot change, rather than lose sleep over those things, find a way to make peace with them and accept them.

Acceptance-as defined by the Oxford dictionary “is the agreement with or belief in an idea or explanation; and or a willingness to tolerate a difficult situation”. Thus, one must agree or be willing to tolerate those things which cannot be changed and do so gracefully.

I am black, that is something I cannot change (by the way it is not something I want to change, because I believe God decided he wanted me to be black and that is the end of that); thus, I have learned to accept what comes along with being black. It took a while to do so gracefully, but with age comes wisdom.

Instead of losing sleep over things you cannot change, work on changing the things you can change. Some things require a bit more effort to change than others; however, if it important to you then you will make the investment. It is critical to know what is important to you and to understand that you cannot change people.

Health is important to me, as a physician I see the consequences of unhealthy choices and decisions daily. While I have not always been wise in some of my food choices, I have always tried to work out and eat my fruits and vegetables.

I cannot change how some people treat me because of the color of my skin; however, I can change how I choose to respond.

Peace is important to me and as I get older I have come to recognize those things that interfere with my peace. I now make a conscious decision each day to maintain my mental and emotional peace. Although some days are harder than others, I find meditation and prayers help a lot.

Thus, the moral of this post is simple: change the things you can change and learn to gracefully accept those things you cannot change.

SOURCE OF IMAGE: serveandrally