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The Gifts of Acceptance: Embracing People And Things as They Are
What Would Your Life Be Like If You Accepted People and Things as They Are?
Do you wish your parents had been more nurturing and supportive? Are you wondering if you’ll ever find your perfect soul mate and dream boss? Do you wish you had “perfect” children, relatives who never fight, and friends who always agree with you? No one gets to sail through life free of turbulence. What separates people who shake it off, bounce back, and stay positive from the bitter, never satisfied, and defeated?
Best-selling author and former compulsive controller Daniel A. Miller convincingly attests that the answer is choosing acceptance. In the GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE: Embracing People and Things as They Are, Danny shares what he’s learned—through extensive research, inspiring true stories, and his own experience with hardships—about the integral relationship between accepting the facts of life and others, with their quirks, flaws, and differences, and enjoying greater satisfaction in life.
Recognizing the benefits of acceptance isn’t difficult. Yet the reality of accepting an unexpected job loss or financial setbacks, a friend’s betrayal, a child’s struggle with addiction, a serious illness, or even the annoying traits of a loved one can be extremely challenging. To make it easier, THE GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE offers insights, intentions, and strategies for practicing acceptance of parents, a significant other, children, siblings and extended family, coworkers, friends, and foes; of life’s adversities and the limitations of getting older; and, perhaps toughest of all, of yourself.
You will learn how practicing acceptance helps you
• Navigate life’s ups and downs more easily
• Enjoy greater trust, openness, and intimacy with your loved ones and those closest to you
• Survive control freaks, foes, and other crazy makers
• Lift self-imposed burdens and obligations and experience less stress, frustration, and worry
• Reduce the struggle with your children
• Strengthen bonds with coworkers and business associates
• Discover new choices and opportunities in the most discouraging situations
• Turn setbacks and failures to future successes
• Find the path to secure self-acceptance
THE GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE is a book with the potential to repair relationships, revitalize careers, and make the world a better place.
Find out how accepting “What Is” lets you discover “What Might Be”!
Do you wish your parents had been more nurturing and supportive? Are you wondering if you’ll ever find your perfect soul mate and dream boss? Do you wish you had “perfect” children, relatives who never fight, and friends who always agree with you? No one gets to sail through life free of turbulence. What separates people who shake it off, bounce back, and stay positive from the bitter, never satisfied, and defeated?
Best-selling author and former compulsive controller Daniel A. Miller convincingly attests that the answer is choosing acceptance. In the GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE: Embracing People and Things as They Are, Danny shares what he’s learned—through extensive research, inspiring true stories, and his own experience with hardships—about the integral relationship between accepting the facts of life and others, with their quirks, flaws, and differences, and enjoying greater satisfaction in life.
Recognizing the benefits of acceptance isn’t difficult. Yet the reality of accepting an unexpected job loss or financial setbacks, a friend’s betrayal, a child’s struggle with addiction, a serious illness, or even the annoying traits of a loved one can be extremely challenging. To make it easier, THE GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE offers insights, intentions, and strategies for practicing acceptance of parents, a significant other, children, siblings and extended family, coworkers, friends, and foes; of life’s adversities and the limitations of getting older; and, perhaps toughest of all, of yourself.
You will learn how practicing acceptance helps you
• Navigate life’s ups and downs more easily
• Enjoy greater trust, openness, and intimacy with your loved ones and those closest to you
• Survive control freaks, foes, and other crazy makers
• Lift self-imposed burdens and obligations and experience less stress, frustration, and worry
• Reduce the struggle with your children
• Strengthen bonds with coworkers and business associates
• Discover new choices and opportunities in the most discouraging situations
• Turn setbacks and failures to future successes
• Find the path to secure self-acceptance
THE GIFTS OF ACCEPTANCE is a book with the potential to repair relationships, revitalize careers, and make the world a better place.
Find out how accepting “What Is” lets you discover “What Might Be”!
260 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 15, 2018
222 people are currently reading
210 people want to read
About the author
Daniel A. Miller
3 books10 followersDaniel A. Miller is a speaker on control and acceptance issues, and the author of Losing Control, Finding Serenity: How the Need to Control Hurts Us and How to Let It Go, The Gifts of Acceptance: Embracing People and Things as They Are, a 2018 Library Journal Best Wellness Book of the Year, and The Way of the Wave: Nature's Model for Navigating Life's Currents. danielamiller.com
"The writing of Losing Control, Finding Serenity was a 25-year journey. Following a rapid fire series of traumatic events that shook me to the core, including an arsonist setting a fire below my son’s bedroom, a business betrayal, near bankruptcy, a natural disaster, and major surgeries to eradicate skin cancers, I purchased my first computer and began writing in a free-flow manner in an effort to make some sense of what I had gone through. I wrote about my gripping fear, unmitigated anger and resentment, powerful compulsion to control, and obsessive worrying. I kept writing as I faced new challenges and gained additional insights as to what brought me more peace and serenity, and less stress and conflict. My writings became my personal 'self-help' guide.
"Increasingly, it became apparent to me that there existed an inverse correlation between the compulsion to control and inner peace and security. I found that when I was able to let go of control, life’s 'natural currents' were freed, and when I engaged those currents intuitively and un-forcefully, unexpected and exciting rewards were bestowed upon me in all areas of my life. Conflicts diminished. Family bonds strengthened. Intimate relations became more intimate. My creative horizons expanded. And work became more rewarding and profitable.
"My writings eventually evolved into my book about control. It is my hope and desire that the 'decontrol' tools and strategies that I propose will enable others to gain the freedom and contentment that comes when you let go of control.
"In writing the book, it became apparent to me that the best antidote for control was acceptance. I decided to explore the acceptance dynamic through research, talking with others about acceptance, and examining my own struggles and experiences with acceptance. Five years later, The Gifts of Acceptance was published. The book garnered some awards and earned a starred review on Library Journal.
I had not planned to write another book. But while moving some boxes to a storage shed during Covid, I came across 15 chapters of an unpublished book I penned in 1988 called The Wave. The book was an attempt to use ocean waves as a metaphor for aligning with our life currents with greater ease and clarity. However, I didn't then know or understand enough about the workings of the Wave to articulate the concept well.
I decided to give the book another try by writing a couple chapters. Things flowed so smoothly that nearly 40 years later, The Way of The Wave: Nature's Model of Navigating Life's Currents will be published on March 18, 2025. Because the book is more personal than the others, I decided to narrate the audio book version."
"The writing of Losing Control, Finding Serenity was a 25-year journey. Following a rapid fire series of traumatic events that shook me to the core, including an arsonist setting a fire below my son’s bedroom, a business betrayal, near bankruptcy, a natural disaster, and major surgeries to eradicate skin cancers, I purchased my first computer and began writing in a free-flow manner in an effort to make some sense of what I had gone through. I wrote about my gripping fear, unmitigated anger and resentment, powerful compulsion to control, and obsessive worrying. I kept writing as I faced new challenges and gained additional insights as to what brought me more peace and serenity, and less stress and conflict. My writings became my personal 'self-help' guide.
"Increasingly, it became apparent to me that there existed an inverse correlation between the compulsion to control and inner peace and security. I found that when I was able to let go of control, life’s 'natural currents' were freed, and when I engaged those currents intuitively and un-forcefully, unexpected and exciting rewards were bestowed upon me in all areas of my life. Conflicts diminished. Family bonds strengthened. Intimate relations became more intimate. My creative horizons expanded. And work became more rewarding and profitable.
"My writings eventually evolved into my book about control. It is my hope and desire that the 'decontrol' tools and strategies that I propose will enable others to gain the freedom and contentment that comes when you let go of control.
"In writing the book, it became apparent to me that the best antidote for control was acceptance. I decided to explore the acceptance dynamic through research, talking with others about acceptance, and examining my own struggles and experiences with acceptance. Five years later, The Gifts of Acceptance was published. The book garnered some awards and earned a starred review on Library Journal.
I had not planned to write another book. But while moving some boxes to a storage shed during Covid, I came across 15 chapters of an unpublished book I penned in 1988 called The Wave. The book was an attempt to use ocean waves as a metaphor for aligning with our life currents with greater ease and clarity. However, I didn't then know or understand enough about the workings of the Wave to articulate the concept well.
I decided to give the book another try by writing a couple chapters. Things flowed so smoothly that nearly 40 years later, The Way of The Wave: Nature's Model of Navigating Life's Currents will be published on March 18, 2025. Because the book is more personal than the others, I decided to narrate the audio book version."
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Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
June 20, 2020
This book contained nothing earth-shattering, but I did enjoy reflecting on the topic of acceptance as I read it. I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that its difficult for me to accept those around me for who they truly are, but there is so much peace that comes from doing so that I need to do better at having that in the forefront of my mind.
A quote from Thomas Merton from the book that really spoke to me: "The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
A quote from Thomas Merton from the book that really spoke to me: "The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them."
July 15, 2023
One of my favorite self-help books that I have read so far. It goes lengths to explain how to accept yourself, others, and things as they are in general. At first, it can seem like it is promoting complacency, allowance of abuse, or poor actions from yourself/others, but that isn’t the case. It has a great balance of emphasizing that you can still want to improve yourself or your relationships with other, but there are certain areas within yourself, relationships and more where you just have to accept things and people as they are. As I’ve read this I’ve already noticed changes in my mindset and actions, and swaying my opinion towards and acceptance mindset has brought me more happiness.
December 7, 2018
I felt the early chapters were eye opening and helpful, but when it came to the meat of the matter (time to work on me), I felt it would have been more helpful to have more strategies and more insight on how to be self aware and self accepting. Fell a little short for me.
June 12, 2021
This is a really helpful book. Its an easy read with the flow of personal stories, and every chapter was practical. I gained healthy perspectives that allow me to process life’s disappointments, changes, and losses in ways that open up new choices, gratitudes and hope for the future.
May 17, 2018
I loved Daniel Miller’s first book “Losing control, finding serenity”, which was a wake-up call for me and whose pages I’ve read (and highlighted) dozens of times. So I had high expectations from this new book…but I was disappointed. Too many anecdotes for my liking, a lot copied from his first book, as well as entire quotes. There are some great insights on topics like releasing control, increasing acceptance, and going with life’s flow. But in my opinion, the main shortcoming of this book is that it never goes really deep into the topics it examines. It seems to me that it stays on the surface, gives few advice, shows some real-life examples and that’s all. More: I could not relate to topics like aging, having serious diseases, having foes, or a difficult family, because - fortunately - I have not experienced these so far, so I lost interested in these chapters, which make a big part of the book. Maybe older people could relate better to all of this.
In a nutshell: there are some good insights but little depth.
In a nutshell: there are some good insights but little depth.
January 20, 2024
I haven’t really been big into self-help as a genre, but saw this title, and decided to pick it up from the library. I appreciate its brevity, as often these books get repetitive to fill page space. I do find myself thinking critically about my own behavior, and how I perceive others, but some of the anecdotes, I find myself disagreeing with (does that mean I’m not accepting it? Lol).
For example, some of the stories are basically a “let go” and then magically the thing that they wanted ended up occurring later on. One of those was where one man let go of his wife’s alcoholism, and two years later, she entered herself into an AA program. Another one was where a daughter let go of her mom‘s lack of emotional intelligence and nurturing, and her mother later was able to show her more emotional stability later on in life. I found this a little bit, irritating, as it comes across as saying “well, if you just let go, everything will work out in the end” where life often doesn’t really work that way.
I also found myself irritated in the “accepting our loved ones“ chapter, as the example there described a man frustrated with his partners, lack of ability to communicate clearly on what she wanted, leaving him frustrated. The book describes him as having issues stemming from fear of abandonment in childhood, but doesn’t it seem reasonable to want your partner to communicate clearly? And if they don’t, to just deal with it?? Seems like an unstable relationship overall, but I guess that’s where that person would have to possibly make the boundary that if she does not communicate clearly, he would leave to find a better suitable partner?
Another example from this chapter: a man and woman argue over one being organized, and the other being cluttered. The book quotes “Unbeknownst to Alan, Rhonda didn’t like clutter either and constantly struggled with what to do about it” so, she also was not able to communicate? Then later the book says she responds to his harping by saying “I don’t have time to organize and sift through everything. You try taking care of the kids, doing the shopping and cooking, the laundry…” so her issue is not primarily the clutter, it’s that he (in her eyes) is not being a good partner in terms of domestic labor? He considered what adjustments could be made to accommodate both their needs by suggesting maintaining certain clutter free areas around the house so that he could retreat to them when he desired?? How about helping with the domestic labor, sounds like that would solve the problem!
That chapter ends with the recurring theme, “interestingly, on more than a few occasions, I have found that when I minded my own business and didn’t pressure my loved ones to change their ways, they ended up, changing them on their own.” So again, just give up and people will change? Yeah, right.
Not a fan of the “Accepting our Parents” chapter. Man who has issues with his father states “my dad did the best he could as a father, who is still coming of age. He simply didn’t have the tools to show me the love and affection I needed.“ I’d like to know why Millennials are the ones to break the trauma cycle from past generations. We don’t have the tools either but we’re collectively trying to not traumatize our own children! Why should we be compassionate towards these failed parents who probably shouldn’t have had children in the first place? “We did the best we could” Congratulations on sucking in the past, how about apologizing and getting therapy in the present so you can improve the situation and your negative role? “It is best to lower our expectations of our parents and ask ourselves whether they can realistically meet. The perceived needs that underlie those expectations. I believe they can’t in most cases. Ultimately fulfilling those needs, whether they be the need to be supported, nurtured, or validated, is our responsibility to ourselves.” Are you serious? What a useless parent if you can’t support, nurture, and validate your child!
Then in the next section, a man treats his children terribly, being mean and cruel. When asked if the father had redeeming qualities, the daughter shared that he was “kind and generous to friends, and was a dapper dresser, tipping his hat to women, and quite charming” How in the world do these “positive attributes” remotely make up for the injustice his own children suffered at his hand!?
The other chapters have similar nonsense examples. The redeeming factor is essentially asking the reader, what are you going to do about it? The shortest version is coming to the conclusion “it is what it is”. I don’t know that there really is a HOW to accept any of these issues presented, other than stating that once they ARE accepted, your lot will magically get better. I appreciated the reflective questions throughout, and the last chapter was a bit more helpful than most.
A few quotes I liked:
“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.“ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.“ James Baldwin
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The serenity prayer, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr
For example, some of the stories are basically a “let go” and then magically the thing that they wanted ended up occurring later on. One of those was where one man let go of his wife’s alcoholism, and two years later, she entered herself into an AA program. Another one was where a daughter let go of her mom‘s lack of emotional intelligence and nurturing, and her mother later was able to show her more emotional stability later on in life. I found this a little bit, irritating, as it comes across as saying “well, if you just let go, everything will work out in the end” where life often doesn’t really work that way.
I also found myself irritated in the “accepting our loved ones“ chapter, as the example there described a man frustrated with his partners, lack of ability to communicate clearly on what she wanted, leaving him frustrated. The book describes him as having issues stemming from fear of abandonment in childhood, but doesn’t it seem reasonable to want your partner to communicate clearly? And if they don’t, to just deal with it?? Seems like an unstable relationship overall, but I guess that’s where that person would have to possibly make the boundary that if she does not communicate clearly, he would leave to find a better suitable partner?
Another example from this chapter: a man and woman argue over one being organized, and the other being cluttered. The book quotes “Unbeknownst to Alan, Rhonda didn’t like clutter either and constantly struggled with what to do about it” so, she also was not able to communicate? Then later the book says she responds to his harping by saying “I don’t have time to organize and sift through everything. You try taking care of the kids, doing the shopping and cooking, the laundry…” so her issue is not primarily the clutter, it’s that he (in her eyes) is not being a good partner in terms of domestic labor? He considered what adjustments could be made to accommodate both their needs by suggesting maintaining certain clutter free areas around the house so that he could retreat to them when he desired?? How about helping with the domestic labor, sounds like that would solve the problem!
That chapter ends with the recurring theme, “interestingly, on more than a few occasions, I have found that when I minded my own business and didn’t pressure my loved ones to change their ways, they ended up, changing them on their own.” So again, just give up and people will change? Yeah, right.
Not a fan of the “Accepting our Parents” chapter. Man who has issues with his father states “my dad did the best he could as a father, who is still coming of age. He simply didn’t have the tools to show me the love and affection I needed.“ I’d like to know why Millennials are the ones to break the trauma cycle from past generations. We don’t have the tools either but we’re collectively trying to not traumatize our own children! Why should we be compassionate towards these failed parents who probably shouldn’t have had children in the first place? “We did the best we could” Congratulations on sucking in the past, how about apologizing and getting therapy in the present so you can improve the situation and your negative role? “It is best to lower our expectations of our parents and ask ourselves whether they can realistically meet. The perceived needs that underlie those expectations. I believe they can’t in most cases. Ultimately fulfilling those needs, whether they be the need to be supported, nurtured, or validated, is our responsibility to ourselves.” Are you serious? What a useless parent if you can’t support, nurture, and validate your child!
Then in the next section, a man treats his children terribly, being mean and cruel. When asked if the father had redeeming qualities, the daughter shared that he was “kind and generous to friends, and was a dapper dresser, tipping his hat to women, and quite charming” How in the world do these “positive attributes” remotely make up for the injustice his own children suffered at his hand!?
The other chapters have similar nonsense examples. The redeeming factor is essentially asking the reader, what are you going to do about it? The shortest version is coming to the conclusion “it is what it is”. I don’t know that there really is a HOW to accept any of these issues presented, other than stating that once they ARE accepted, your lot will magically get better. I appreciated the reflective questions throughout, and the last chapter was a bit more helpful than most.
A few quotes I liked:
“For after all, the best thing one can do when it is raining, is to let it rain.“ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
“Not everything that is faced can be changed; but nothing can be changed until it is faced.“ James Baldwin
“God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.” The serenity prayer, attributed to Reinhold Niebuhr
June 8, 2018
One of the most enlightening references In Daniel A. Miller's The Gifts of Acceptance: Embracing People and Things as They Are is his citing of Reinhold Niebuhr The Serenity Prayer:
"God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference."
This just about sums up the principle premise of this excellent tome that explores the benefits of accepting “what is” about people, places, and things as opposed to what you would like them to be. As Miller points out throughout the book, acceptance does not mean that one has to like, condone, agree with them or give up your own beliefs, but only to accept its underlying reality.
The turning point in Miller's life was when he realized that the best way to satisfy his needs and achieve what he wanted in life was to discontinue on the path he was accustomed to by controlling everything and everyone. He constantly directed, pressed and persisted in trying to change others and believed that his way was the right way and the only way. As he informs us, deep down he was constantly enmeshed in worries, anxieties, and deep fears, which is a sure prescription for unhappiness. The catalyst for his realization of the profound benefits of acceptance was his suffering through a rapid series of traumatic events that occurred thirty-five years ago that shook him to the core. It was only then that he came to terms with accepting the folly of his control-driven life. Miller points out that regardless if you are dealing with loved ones, children, parents, siblings and family, friends, co-workers, foes, limitations, infirmities, losses of aging, setbacks and failures, confronting life's up and downs becomes much easier if you practice acceptance.
Every chapter of the book is aligned with specific situations and obstacles a person may face. Strategies and tools are provided to help readers overcome these different challenges. For example, the chapter dealing with accepting our loved ones where we may not agree with some of their choices be it political or social is extremely helpful in to-days toxic political climate.
We all are well aware how this can spiral down into damaging arguments or even parting ways. As mentioned, what we must remember is that our loved ones are individuals with their own feelings and leanings. Although, we may not agree with them, we must try to accept and love them for who they are and not who we want them to be. When we do not accept their right to have their own views and preferences, even if we loathe these, we communicate that they are not wise or informed enough that their values are suspect. As Miller states: “are we not sending signals to them in our actions, gestures, and words that are meant to reconfigure them into another person?” Moreover, as Miller emphasizes: “acceptance does not mean that we condone or agree with your love one's views and choices. Rather, it means you accept their right to have them without judgment or resentment.”
Prefacing each chapter is an epigraph that is attributed to a mixed bag of writers, thinkers and others which sets the tone for the theme of the chapter. For example, the chapter dealing with our children begins with: “Parents. If you reach us only to be like you, then how do you expect us to live in the future?” Incidentally, this was a quote taken from a 6th grade student's graduation speech. In the chapter dealing with accepting our siblings and family, Miller quotes the American humorist Sam Levenson when he stated: “Siblings: Children of the same parents, each of whom is perfectly normal, until they get together.”
Inspirational stories are shared throughout the book concerning regular folks whom Miller met through life transformation forums, personal recovery workshops, speaking engagements, and his own personal blog where he shared some of his findings he learned pertaining to the acceptance dynamic and how to effectively practice it. Apparently, reader response to his blog has been strong and immediate and it became clear to him that the acceptance paradigm resonated strongly with people from all walks of life.
In his closing remarks, Miller encourages his readers to envision, reflect, meditate, and write about what acceptance may be and how it might make us feel. Then start doing them, but do them without expectations. As he asserts: “Be open-minded, address any negative feelings or discomfort that arises, and let go of the need to control the outcome.” It is never too late to change your life and you are not stuck permanently in the life you have now. The challenge is to take the first step and adopt some or all of the tools Miller provides in his book.
FOLLOW HERE https://waa.ai/a3Vt TO READ NORM'S INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL A. MILLER
"God grant me the serenity to accept
the things I cannot change,
Courage to change the things I can
And the wisdom to know the difference."
This just about sums up the principle premise of this excellent tome that explores the benefits of accepting “what is” about people, places, and things as opposed to what you would like them to be. As Miller points out throughout the book, acceptance does not mean that one has to like, condone, agree with them or give up your own beliefs, but only to accept its underlying reality.
The turning point in Miller's life was when he realized that the best way to satisfy his needs and achieve what he wanted in life was to discontinue on the path he was accustomed to by controlling everything and everyone. He constantly directed, pressed and persisted in trying to change others and believed that his way was the right way and the only way. As he informs us, deep down he was constantly enmeshed in worries, anxieties, and deep fears, which is a sure prescription for unhappiness. The catalyst for his realization of the profound benefits of acceptance was his suffering through a rapid series of traumatic events that occurred thirty-five years ago that shook him to the core. It was only then that he came to terms with accepting the folly of his control-driven life. Miller points out that regardless if you are dealing with loved ones, children, parents, siblings and family, friends, co-workers, foes, limitations, infirmities, losses of aging, setbacks and failures, confronting life's up and downs becomes much easier if you practice acceptance.
Every chapter of the book is aligned with specific situations and obstacles a person may face. Strategies and tools are provided to help readers overcome these different challenges. For example, the chapter dealing with accepting our loved ones where we may not agree with some of their choices be it political or social is extremely helpful in to-days toxic political climate.
We all are well aware how this can spiral down into damaging arguments or even parting ways. As mentioned, what we must remember is that our loved ones are individuals with their own feelings and leanings. Although, we may not agree with them, we must try to accept and love them for who they are and not who we want them to be. When we do not accept their right to have their own views and preferences, even if we loathe these, we communicate that they are not wise or informed enough that their values are suspect. As Miller states: “are we not sending signals to them in our actions, gestures, and words that are meant to reconfigure them into another person?” Moreover, as Miller emphasizes: “acceptance does not mean that we condone or agree with your love one's views and choices. Rather, it means you accept their right to have them without judgment or resentment.”
Prefacing each chapter is an epigraph that is attributed to a mixed bag of writers, thinkers and others which sets the tone for the theme of the chapter. For example, the chapter dealing with our children begins with: “Parents. If you reach us only to be like you, then how do you expect us to live in the future?” Incidentally, this was a quote taken from a 6th grade student's graduation speech. In the chapter dealing with accepting our siblings and family, Miller quotes the American humorist Sam Levenson when he stated: “Siblings: Children of the same parents, each of whom is perfectly normal, until they get together.”
Inspirational stories are shared throughout the book concerning regular folks whom Miller met through life transformation forums, personal recovery workshops, speaking engagements, and his own personal blog where he shared some of his findings he learned pertaining to the acceptance dynamic and how to effectively practice it. Apparently, reader response to his blog has been strong and immediate and it became clear to him that the acceptance paradigm resonated strongly with people from all walks of life.
In his closing remarks, Miller encourages his readers to envision, reflect, meditate, and write about what acceptance may be and how it might make us feel. Then start doing them, but do them without expectations. As he asserts: “Be open-minded, address any negative feelings or discomfort that arises, and let go of the need to control the outcome.” It is never too late to change your life and you are not stuck permanently in the life you have now. The challenge is to take the first step and adopt some or all of the tools Miller provides in his book.
FOLLOW HERE https://waa.ai/a3Vt TO READ NORM'S INTERVIEW WITH DANIEL A. MILLER
April 29, 2021
I wish I had read this book years ago! My younger self would have benefited but as the author points out, you have to reach a point where you need to find another path in life. This book is a tremendous gift to the reader. It is thought provoking, inspiring and challenging on many levels. It brought great peace to me as I realized I am not alone. It gave me hope that I could change the lens through which I view life. The author uses his own life as an example and principles he's drawn from many relationships and situations. He outlines practical strategies to truly live a joyful and meaningful life devoid of drama and stress. Highly recommend to anyone!
July 26, 2020
Overall good book. I didn’t care for the sports anecdotes. Especially related to your enemy or your own limitations. But I was able to apply the lessons from those into other areas. I found it to be validating in that you can’t change people - but you can absolutely change your mind by developing empathy and seeing where they come from. As well as you can change your role by distancing yourself from them and setting reasonable boundaries. This really helps me consider how I want to navigate relationships with my family (very different from me).
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January 5, 2021I worked through a sample portion of this book. I feel like I've read it before and it didn't really hold my attention. It is definitely a topic I could benefit from.
I do recommend others try reading a sample. You can get that right here below the book description. It could be the book you need right now.
I do recommend others try reading a sample. You can get that right here below the book description. It could be the book you need right now.
January 22, 2022
Totally enlightening
Daniel writes from his heart, with much experience, wisdom, and clarity. I've learned more about myself by reading this one book than I have in reading many others. Life changing, thank you!
Daniel writes from his heart, with much experience, wisdom, and clarity. I've learned more about myself by reading this one book than I have in reading many others. Life changing, thank you!
September 25, 2018
Very good book to help with Accepting life as it is. 100% recommend this gem! Will help you to find peace in your life!
January 30, 2019
Helpful
I found this book helpful in my own personal quest to accept the things I cannot change. I highly recommend it.
I found this book helpful in my own personal quest to accept the things I cannot change. I highly recommend it.
May 31, 2020
An enlightening message and providing be ways to look at situations and relationships. It was an enjoyable read.
December 10, 2021
Just didn’t add anything new for me. For someone new to looking at awareness of self might be more helpful & educational.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews