2nd Middle Age is a great time to adopt Radical Acceptance, an element of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). There are many online resources where you can learn more about Radical Acceptance. For the uninitiated I will reprise briefly what I wrote here nearly 4 years back:
Radical Thinking is a way to accept without judgment your personal reality. If we can view our situation without judgment, we can accept our immediate circumstances and mitigate suffering.
With so much conflict and upheaval in the world today, we need Radical Acceptance now more than ever. I live in a country at war on multiple fronts, varying depending on the day and the week. I accept that I am powerless to change this reality, even while I try to contribute where I can. Accepting these circumstances without judgment is critical to my daily functioning.
The last few years also brought me to the realization of how deeply Radical Acceptance is embedded into traditional practices. As I wrote last week I draw support from both Jewish observance and my longtime Yoga practice. Religious faith at its core requires suspension of disbelief, and willingness to accept our circumstances without judgment.
This also applies to yoga. I do struggle with self-judgment in my yoga practice. My yoga teacher Shai Tam emphasizes the importance of accepting what we can do now without self-criticism. Writing these words, I realize that I also discussed this in a recent interview:
July 2025
Just this morning, Shai said something that resonated with me in terms of with Radical Acceptance. It had such a startling clarity that I had to ask if I could quote him, and he agreed:
“Yoga is acceptance of everything that is happening at every given moment.”
Radical Acceptance helped me to gain perspective in a very dark period and supports now me through these challenging times. Of course past injuries run deep and leave scars. Still we can build better relationships with love, faith, trust and open communication.
We can each find our way to Radical Acceptance in manifold ways. I would love to hear how you see parallels in your own faith practices. How does it help you navigate in troubled waters?
Your Second-Middle Age: 
Hi Susan. I haven’t yet thought about radical authenticity as it pertains to Judaism, but living in Israel, I have found it to be much easier to be my authentic self, because most people here just tell it like it is, without the sugar coating. I also just took an intense week-long course at The Option Institute focused entirely on personal authenticity and it was amazing. We cannot move through important happenings in our lives if we are spending so much energy trying to avoid and hide them. Once we accept, then we can move through – be it a physical moving or an emotional moving – either way, acceptance leads to growth. ❤️
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I agree totally.
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