Acceptance and the Serenity Prayer

"Acceptance is the answer to all my problems" is a personal affirmation ritual that I have repeated to myself over and over in times of stress and distress for years. One of the most powerful concepts of the Serenity prayer is that it takes the focus off you, and on to your Higher Power. Maturity comes from knowing we are not the center of the universe, and by acknowledging a Higher Power at the beginning of the Serenity prayer it puts us in an immediate state of humility. Humility allows us to be receptive to what we need to accept. The Serenity prayer also puts us in a position to accept what we cannot control (which is most people, places, things, accidents, etc.) and allows us to focus on the 1 person we can control: ourselves. By only focusing on ourselves and our reaction, reminding ourselves that our reaction is acceptance to the things we can't control, we can then react in courage with the behavior and thoughts we can control: our own.