Sometimes people ask me if I truly believe in what I write in these posts. They wonder whether I’m just spouting empty words, regurgitating second-hand phrases, preaching something that I’m not really living, talking about the menu rather than eating the actual food. Or they project that I’m doing all of this “Deepest Acceptance” stuff for the attention, the fame, the adulation, the money, or that it’s just some hobby that my heart isn’t really in, some club that I’ve temporarily joined.
But let me be clear about this, once and once only.
As those of you who know me personally will know by now, I only ever write, speak and teach directly from my own experience. Anything else now feels empty, false, second-hand, dishonest. I have no interest in popularity, money, adulation or second-hand love. I only want to share with you what saved my life, and ended psychological suffering, and brought the kind of ease, rest, and relational intimacy I once could have only dreamed of.
I adhere to no particular tradition or lineage, and use words freely to try and describe what I’ve discovered through my own deep exploration of life, inviting others to that first-hand discovery for themselves. Life has become a wonder for me, a miracle, and the crippling suffering, depression and anxiety that I used to experience every day of my life has vanished. I am not a saint, or a guru, nor am I lucky – I have just been willing to deeply explore my experience, to meet discomfort rather than run away from it. To look life in the face. To never turn away, even when I felt like turning away.
What I share in my books, podcasts, retreats, one-to-one sessions, Facebook posts – this is not merely a pastime for me, not some fly-by-night philosophy I’ve picked up, nor some fashionable belief system I have taken on and have started to preach, no, this is a living teaching forged in the fire of my own pain, deep exploration, direct experience, and tested over and over again for years, with thousands of people all over the world, in my own intimate relationships, with my parents, friends, partners, with everyone I meet. I have been living and sharing this teaching every single day of my life for over 6 years now, and the understanding and love of it has only deepened.
This teaching is not just a dead set of concepts. This is a vibrantly alive truth, available to all, regardless of background, and my intention has only ever been to share this truth with those of you who are open, and perhaps ready, to hear it. It is a movement of love, and will always be. I am grateful to you, my friends, for being here, and for listening, even when you don’t agree with what I say, even when the words are difficult to hear.
Please know that I mean every word of this, and always will.