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The Art and Power of Acceptance: Your Guide to Inner Peace
Imagine the relief of not being stuck in anger, resentment or regret. Imagine the emotional freedom of stopping the battle with yourself, other people, your circumstances and even your past. Imagine the peace of mind you would have if you stopped fighting the current of life and instead flowed with it, effortlessly.
Exploring the journey from resistance to alignment to possibility, Ashley Davis Bush (a psychotherapist with over 30 years' experience and author of eight self-help books) debunks the idea that acceptance is merely passive apathy or resignation. In The Art and Power of Acceptance she introduces you to the simple but radical practice of self-compassion as the key to disarming resistance, expanding positive emotions and allowing you to move easily with "what is". She invites you to see how acceptance paradoxically leads to powerful, lasting change.
Using personal and clinical stories, practical suggestions, and evidence-based research, Ashley illuminates a new way of being with life. Choose acceptance today and discover first hand how it leads to your emotional freedom.
228 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 5, 2019
About the author
Ashley Davis Bush
16 books55 followersI'm so glad to be part of the Goodreads forum!
I am a licensed psychotherapist in private practice now living in Antigua, Guatemala. I am also the author of 10 self-help books.
In my clinical work I focus on helping individuals cope with loss, heal from trauma, find inner peace, navigate life's transitions and on helping couples improve their relationship.
My background: I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Smith College and a Masters in Social Work degree from Columbia University. Early on, I worked in community mental health in New York City later wrote, lived and practiced in southern New Hampshire for 22 years.
I, with my husband Daniel, have 5 grown children who live around the globe.
I enjoy singing and perform with local choral groups and community theaters.
I am a licensed psychotherapist in private practice now living in Antigua, Guatemala. I am also the author of 10 self-help books.
In my clinical work I focus on helping individuals cope with loss, heal from trauma, find inner peace, navigate life's transitions and on helping couples improve their relationship.
My background: I hold a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Smith College and a Masters in Social Work degree from Columbia University. Early on, I worked in community mental health in New York City later wrote, lived and practiced in southern New Hampshire for 22 years.
I, with my husband Daniel, have 5 grown children who live around the globe.
I enjoy singing and perform with local choral groups and community theaters.
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
December 24, 2022
After various studies a common pain point has been found for me. A lack of acceptance. A lack of acceptance for myself, my weaknesses, and unavoidable circumstances. As is too often the case, my path forward appears to be the direction I simply don't want to go... towards acceptance. I went looking for a book on the subject and I found The Art and Power of Acceptance: Your Guide to Inner Peace by Ashley Davis Bush. I wasn't disappointed.
I certainly am among the people who misunderstand acceptance. I feel like I always viewed it as resignation rather than something worthwhile. I have been obsessed with doing the opposite, resistance. Resisting reality prolongs the pain and keeps me far from the possibilities necessary for change. The book has multiple strategies for handling acceptance, the primary one the author refers to as ACT. Acknowledge your struggle, Connect with our shared humanity, and Talk kindly to yourself. I had long been stuck in the acknowledge part which I had heard as understanding or accepting a problem. I had never previously known the other steps and I look forward to employing them in the future.
The Art and Power of Acceptance: Your Guide to Inner Peace is a good book with various techniques and perspectives about acceptance.
Acceptance is not weak resignation or apathy. Acceptance does not mean you like the current state of affairs. And acceptance does not condone bad behavior or assume change is impossible.
Acceptance is a bit like forgiveness in that way. Forgiving someone for unspeakable behavior does not mean that what they did was okay. Forgiveness doesn't mean that you honor their choices. It means you accept that what's done is done; you let go and move on.
I certainly am among the people who misunderstand acceptance. I feel like I always viewed it as resignation rather than something worthwhile. I have been obsessed with doing the opposite, resistance. Resisting reality prolongs the pain and keeps me far from the possibilities necessary for change. The book has multiple strategies for handling acceptance, the primary one the author refers to as ACT. Acknowledge your struggle, Connect with our shared humanity, and Talk kindly to yourself. I had long been stuck in the acknowledge part which I had heard as understanding or accepting a problem. I had never previously known the other steps and I look forward to employing them in the future.
The Art and Power of Acceptance: Your Guide to Inner Peace is a good book with various techniques and perspectives about acceptance.
November 26, 2019
A must read. Practical advice & easy to apply to your life. I liked how the book offers easy to read bite sized snippets of information and I felt like I was talking to a therapist right in front of me. The colorful pages and illustrations made the experience so much better. I would recommend this book to anyone who is any walk of life.
September 18, 2019
This was a phenomenal book for me. I accidentally came across it at Barnes and Noble. When I saw the title, I was instantly attracted to it. I knew I needed to work on acceptance. It has helped equip me in embracing acceptance towards myself, others, and life. I definitely recommend it!
October 22, 2019
One of the best book I've read this year. I love the technique called ACT (Acknowledge-Connect-Talk kindly). I think that it can help. Acceptance is also very powerful and can make you much happier.
February 20, 2020
Quick, simple, inspiring, timely written in a user friendly format. Good stuff to know. Excellent intro to the unanswered need for how to talk kindly to your self and move from self loathing to self acceptance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 7, 2023
Manuprāt ļoti labi par MSC teoriju un praksi, saprotami arī iesācējam.
September 24, 2019
Excellent read !!came across it and it just captured my attention by the description in the back. I read it in less than 3 days. Beautiful book!!! It came at the perfect time in my life because I was going thorough a rough time and it gave me the tools I needed to
Manage my feelings when those were not very good ones towards my life and towards people surrounding me.
Manage my feelings when those were not very good ones towards my life and towards people surrounding me.
February 25, 2020
This book was wonderful! It offered practical advice, stories, pearls of wisdom, easy exercises to incorporate into daily life, all in an easy-to-read, light format. Each page is a calm blue/green hue with simple, airy illustrations, making this something I can easily and gladly reference over and over again.
March 9, 2020
This book was extremely insightful and beneficial for me. I truly feel my soul needed this information and I'm super grateful for it. I recommend this 100%.
Want to Read
November 13, 2021Arding C. Tapé
ENG 301: 08, Fall 2021
Book review
context
The Art and Power of Acceptance, Ashley Davis Bus, is an amazing self help book for anyone who is attempting to heal from trauma but can't seem to find the right medicine to do the job. As we all know, life can be very difficult, but can be incredibly overbearing and exhausting, when you’re dealing with trauma. The Book focuses on how accepting the circumstances of our lives could often be better than trying to change it. By the power of acceptance, what the author considered “the most unexpected life skill for peace and wellbeing”, we find emotional liberation , as well as inner peace. As far-fetched as that may sound, the idea isn’t far off for people who suffer and are healing with depression and anxiety caused by trauma. In my own opinion, depression doesn’t make you sad. Depression tricks your mind into thinking that there’s nothing to be happy about, everything is wrong, and there is great need to panic. In turn we react with sadness, disparue and hopelessness. To me, depression is and will always be, a distortion of reality.
The book teaches that with the power of acceptance, we build a habit of embracing reality and things we can’t change with courage, giving the depression less and less power to distort what we are confident is true, and are satisfied with.
The book's value
One core and most important value that drives the book is self love and appreciation. It is known that those who have a hard time coping and accepting reality, are highly unsatisfied with themselves and the cards life has dealt them. For those who suffer from depression by abuse, mainly emotional and physical, it is often that one would find themselves parralized in the would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve in their lives. The would’ve, could’ve and should’ve of life or sequence of thoughts that dictates your reality, For example “if this wouldn’t have happened I would’ve been this, and could’ve done that, but unfortunately I am this.” The author makes it clear that learning to be kind to ourselves in the process is the only way to accept our reality with joy.
strengths
The strangest thing the book has is empathy. When reading, you tell the author truly what you are going through by experience. You can tell she's not just finding random facts from her old college books to throw at you and tell you saying, “this is why you're sad, just do this and you’ll be fine”. She covers what naysayers might think, she covers what your doubts may say, and she does all this by still leading you to believe in her message. As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, someone who struggles to maintain peace and order in his mind, I found that this book has helped me fill that gap so that I may move forward.
“Acceptance gets a bad rap, actually, since it is so often confused with resignation, defeat or, worse, completely giving up. But acceptance doesn’t mean tolerating abuse, condoning injustice or staying mired in pathology. Nor does acceptance mean that you approve of what’s going on or even remotely like it. Acceptance is a calming orientation toward your reality, a shift in perspective in which struggle dissolves, opposition relaxes and clarity dawns.”
Excerpt From
The Art and Power of Acceptance
Ashley Davis Bush
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-a...
This material may be protected by copyright.
ENG 301: 08, Fall 2021
Book review
context
The Art and Power of Acceptance, Ashley Davis Bus, is an amazing self help book for anyone who is attempting to heal from trauma but can't seem to find the right medicine to do the job. As we all know, life can be very difficult, but can be incredibly overbearing and exhausting, when you’re dealing with trauma. The Book focuses on how accepting the circumstances of our lives could often be better than trying to change it. By the power of acceptance, what the author considered “the most unexpected life skill for peace and wellbeing”, we find emotional liberation , as well as inner peace. As far-fetched as that may sound, the idea isn’t far off for people who suffer and are healing with depression and anxiety caused by trauma. In my own opinion, depression doesn’t make you sad. Depression tricks your mind into thinking that there’s nothing to be happy about, everything is wrong, and there is great need to panic. In turn we react with sadness, disparue and hopelessness. To me, depression is and will always be, a distortion of reality.
The book teaches that with the power of acceptance, we build a habit of embracing reality and things we can’t change with courage, giving the depression less and less power to distort what we are confident is true, and are satisfied with.
The book's value
One core and most important value that drives the book is self love and appreciation. It is known that those who have a hard time coping and accepting reality, are highly unsatisfied with themselves and the cards life has dealt them. For those who suffer from depression by abuse, mainly emotional and physical, it is often that one would find themselves parralized in the would’ve, could’ve, and should’ve in their lives. The would’ve, could’ve and should’ve of life or sequence of thoughts that dictates your reality, For example “if this wouldn’t have happened I would’ve been this, and could’ve done that, but unfortunately I am this.” The author makes it clear that learning to be kind to ourselves in the process is the only way to accept our reality with joy.
strengths
The strangest thing the book has is empathy. When reading, you tell the author truly what you are going through by experience. You can tell she's not just finding random facts from her old college books to throw at you and tell you saying, “this is why you're sad, just do this and you’ll be fine”. She covers what naysayers might think, she covers what your doubts may say, and she does all this by still leading you to believe in her message. As someone who suffers from depression and anxiety, someone who struggles to maintain peace and order in his mind, I found that this book has helped me fill that gap so that I may move forward.
“Acceptance gets a bad rap, actually, since it is so often confused with resignation, defeat or, worse, completely giving up. But acceptance doesn’t mean tolerating abuse, condoning injustice or staying mired in pathology. Nor does acceptance mean that you approve of what’s going on or even remotely like it. Acceptance is a calming orientation toward your reality, a shift in perspective in which struggle dissolves, opposition relaxes and clarity dawns.”
Excerpt From
The Art and Power of Acceptance
Ashley Davis Bush
https://books.apple.com/us/book/the-a...
This material may be protected by copyright.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 14, 2020
Love that the author is a therapist- reading this was THERAPY in a BOOK! My favorite part was the acceptance of mortality “letting mortality inspire vitality” - especially because it referenced my favorite habit (#2) from 7 Habits of Highly Effective people. HOWEVER, there were TOO many references to other self help books. I don’t like how she quotes her own text in the book- found it repetitive and a waste of a space on the page.
Ultimately, it was a short but AESTHETICALLY PLEASING read that I would recommend to those interested in the spiritual/healing genre as it provides great resources and other self help books 😅
Some of my favorite excerpts:
“What a relief to honor and be with her experience without resisting, judging, defying.”
“Accepting others doesn’t mean you approve their behavior. It means you allow their humanity.”
“At times she needed to align with her sadness and at other times she needed to give herself permission to move on.“
“Wind resistance causes the tree to grow stronger”
Ultimately, it was a short but AESTHETICALLY PLEASING read that I would recommend to those interested in the spiritual/healing genre as it provides great resources and other self help books 😅
Some of my favorite excerpts:
“What a relief to honor and be with her experience without resisting, judging, defying.”
“Accepting others doesn’t mean you approve their behavior. It means you allow their humanity.”
“At times she needed to align with her sadness and at other times she needed to give herself permission to move on.“
“Wind resistance causes the tree to grow stronger”
November 6, 2020
Enlightened, beautiful, yet brisk read. Will be revisiting this often. Like a pocket-manual for life. I'd recommend this book to anyone and everyone who could use a little support in making peace with what is.
July 6, 2020
This book helped me immensely. The colors and illustrations were calming. The examples were perfect length. It made this topic seem achievable. Absolutely would recommend to a friend!
September 3, 2020
This book just changed my life.
September 29, 2020
Eh
Not as good as her other books. For as simplistic of a method, it didn't need to drag on and be so repetitive.
Not as good as her other books. For as simplistic of a method, it didn't need to drag on and be so repetitive.
May 6, 2021
Good book, I enjoyed it, it's a good take on mindfullness and would be helpful to someone who's just getting started.
July 28, 2021
Good read for dealing with any type of trauma- so basically, life. Relatable stories and self help tools.
January 10, 2022
Eén van de beste boeken die ik recent las. Praktisch, inspirerend, onderbouwd. Heel goed opgebouwd en duidelijk. Een boek dat ik zeker nog zal hernemen op momenten dat ik er nood aan heb.
February 28, 2022
Reading this book feels like the start to my journey of inner peace. Great recommendation.
December 29, 2022
Shit book. Don’t waste your time.
February 15, 2025
learning to accept a situation and seeing how you can do better through acceptance, compassion and talking kindly to yourself can really make life easier to handle.
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews