Please don’t confuse acceptance with submission. Acceptance liberates and empowers in a subtle way. Submission dis-empowers and drains.

I want to make the distinction very clear for you because when you get this you will find yourself being able to live a life that is freer and more powerful because of the boundaries you set for yourself and others, and you will find that you can enforce these in a way that is quietly and authentically non-negotiable. This will begin to build a foundation for you of growing stronger day by day, which will increase your self-respect and the way others perceive you to.

Acceptance is the opposite side of the coin to judgment. Learning to become accepting of the things over which you no longer have any control or influence is powerful and liberating – and you will need to make a judgment about the things that you choose to accept, and those that are not acceptable. Let me give you an example here from my own experience of the difference between being accepting and being submissive.

My ex, and I’m going to call him Bert although this is not his real name, was a serial drink driver and about a year after we had split up he began taking the children to the pub in the afternoons at the weekend when they visited – and he would drive them back home over the limit. There was a big issue around his drinking for me and I was still

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