We don’t have to like what is happening, or feel at peace with it. But we do have to begin exactly where we are, because there we find the only material available for change. Growth occurs through contact with reality, not through avoidance.

What is true is already so.

Owning up to it doesn’t make it worse.

Not being open about it doesn’t make it go away.

And because it’s true, it is what is there to be interacted with. Anything untrue isn’t there to be lived. People can stand what is true, for they are already enduring it.

Eugene Gendlin, Focusing