Learning to Accept: Building Tolerance for Hard Emotions

There is a well-known quote attributed to Carl Jung: “What you resist persists.” 

What Jung wanted people to know was that the more you try to push away, deny, or fight a problem, feeling, or thought, the more it intensifies. 

When it comes to emotions, this is certainly true.  When we experience difficult or uncomfortable emotions like fear, dread, regret, and even grief, it’s tempting to resist feeling these emotions by pushing them away, ignoring them, or drowning them in something else, like work or alcohol.

This resistance to discomfort and pain is a natural response. Afterall, who likes to experience discomfort and pain?  

While resisting these difficulties might seem like a good idea in the moment, the route of resistance comes with a price.