Picking up a thread from the previous week, Julie takes on powerlessness directly: the opposite of powerless is empowered, and empowerment means taking action. Sometimes that action changes the circumstances. When it cannot, the available action is acceptance, which she is careful to separate from approval, from liking it, and from giving up. Members write about a situation that is draining them, then two share what surfaced, one on aging and mortality after a year of loss, and one on a strained relationship with a teenage son.

Covered in this session:

• Why staying angry is a substitute for power, and what it costs the body to stay there

• Acceptance as accepting reality, not approving of it, and why you can accept someone will not change while still telling them it is not okay

• The grief underneath acceptance: facing the death of what you hoped for

• The writing exercise: what can you change, where does your power end, what is the loss, and what comes up when you accept it

• Accepting mortality and aging without giving up on living with intention

• Why acceptance in a hard parenting relationship is not the same as abandoning the effort

• Grieving in the moment rather than trying to accept a whole ongoing situation at once