HomeYour R.A. Level Your R.A. Level Url Decription The following is a self-assessment checklist of the level of reality you currently accept. I encourage you to assess yourself before and after you examine the four categories of RealityAcceptance.com. If you plan to check all the check marks without considering whether you agree with them, you can give yourself a high reality denial score now. As with everything on this site, I strive to present the most accurate portrait of reality possible. If you have questions or suggestions to help me improve this checklist, please contact me on the contact page. Health I am physically fit. I respect medical experts and accept their advice. I do not express a hate for anyone or anything. I respect mental illness as a serious problem. I am healthy and happy most of the time. I do not express resentment toward others. I am mentally and physically healthy. I am not over or under weight. I do not have physical ailments. I am not an aggressive or stressful person. Science I respect science and scientific thinking. I do not believe in things without evidence for their existence. I believe in and respect evolution as factual. I understand that humans are not perfect. I show a general respect for other animals. I am in favor of genetic diversity in all species. I will ask questions to build on my knowledge. I will admit to my failures and learn from them. I refer to others if they know more about something. I have a basic understanding of science. Thinking I do not have unquestionable beliefs. I do not believe in the supernatural. I do not see life as simplistic extremes. I am not concerned with obtaining wealth. I do not only talk to people with which I agree. I am willing to change my mind based on new information. I do not judge others based on their background. I make logical decisions most of the time. I feel a sense of purpose in life. I express an interest in many different things. Other People Exist I notice and care about other people. I care about issues that only affect other people. I show a selfless concern for others. I treat other people as equals. I vote for candidates based on their value to the most people. I value what others find important. I express opinions only on subjects they know about. I rarely lie to others. I show concern for others. I show an awareness of the emotions of others. Summary If your score is low in any one category, I encourage you to think about changing your views of reality in that area. If your score is low in all the categories, I encourage you to just keep reading. Reality Acceptance Summary The following explains each of the Reality Acceptance Checklist statements of which you did not agree. These are my explanations for why I called them reality acceptance. If you still do not agree, I encourage you to contact me and explain why on the contact page of this website. Reality Acceptance Total Total Reality Acceptance Score: Health Total2 Health RA Score: Science Total2 Science RA Score: Thinking Total2 Thinking RA Score: Other People Exist Total2 Other People Exist RA Score: Health Explained I am physically fit. Good physical health is important physically and mentally. It will prolong your life and allow you to be a happier person. You will get less injuries and suffer less aches and pains in old age. Being sedentary will definitely be a detriment to your health. Getting too much or not enough exercise can lower your health. I respect medical experts and accept their advice. Medical experts have gone to school for many years and many have practiced medicine for more years. If your doctor tells you that something will improve your health, he or she is giving you that advice with a great deal of knowledge behind it. Some advice is hard to take because it can be a major change to your life. You can ignore the advice, but it will be to the detriment of your health. I do not express a hate for anyone or anything. Hate is an extreme version of anger. Being angry is natural, but prolonged anger toward people or things leads to hate. Hate is an emotion that is unhealthy and never based on the reality of what you hate. The word hate is used casually today. Many people hate Mondays. The extreme nature of the word expresses an exaggerated, negative, and unrealistic point of view. Removing hate from your life and language will improve your health and happiness. I respect mental illness as a serious problem. There are many types of mental illness and many causes. Trying to deal with the world when your brain is not functioning properly can be confusing and difficult. Labeling a person as crazy, lazy, or stupid is a denial of what is actually happening in someone’s brain. Dealing with the problems of mental illness is key to understanding other people. I am healthy and happy most of the time. Health and happiness are closely linked. You can not have one without the other. Happiness is an important aspect of your mental and physical health. People who live the longest are healthy and happy. If you ignore your health or happiness, the quality and longevity of your life will decrease. I do not express resentment toward others. Resentment is a negative emotion that only breads more negative emotions. Whether it is justified or not, the resentment will never lead to a healthy mental state. You can choose to continue harboring the resentment and let it affect your health or you can understand that other people are not dealing with issues of their own. Only by talking to other people can we understand their motives. I am mentally and physically healthy. Physical health is much easier to notice than mental health, but both are important to your overall health. If you only focus on one or the other, you are not observing your complete health. Maintaining good mental and physical health will improve your life and the lives of those around you. Good physical health will help your mental health and vise versa. I am not over or under weight. Healthy foods should be consumed most of the time. Healthy foods are fruits, vegetables, and other unprocessed, sugar-free, and salt-free foods. This is not a complete list of all healthy foods, but it definitely does not include fast-food, most restaurant food, or junk food that has little to no nutritional value. If you feel bad after eating, you are probably eating too much food that is not healthy for you. When you eat healthy food, you feel energized and satisfied. Unhealthy food should only be consumed periodically. I do not have physical ailments. Physical ailments do not happen without a cause. If you exercise, eat healthy foods, and do not over-exert yourself, you should have few physical ailments in your life. I am not an aggressive or stressful person. Continued anger or stress can lead to many physical and mental health problems. These problems will shorten your life, decrease the value of your life, and push most of the people in your life away from you. Aggression and stress are both external manifestations of your inner thoughts. A person who is mentally healthy will deal with the same situation without aggression or stress. Your internal anguish and anxiety must be dealt with before they will go away. Science Explained I respect science and scientific thinking. Even with science, we can never truly know reality with 100% certainty. Science can get us 99.99% certain on many questions we have about the world. Science helps us understand time, space, and our everyday lives. Unlike opinions from people who have many different biases, science only accepts verifiable facts. You can not buy scientific facts, though many try. Understanding science is key to understanding reality. I do not believe in things without evidence for their existence. Just as a detective can not solve a mystery without evidence, you can not prove the existence of something with little to no evidence. You can continue examining a mystery to see if more evidence comes to light, but you should not base a belief on flimsy evidence. If you choose to believe in these things knowing there is little evidence for their existence, your beliefs are not based on reality. I believe in and respect evolution as factual. Earth is approximately 4.5 billion years old. Life has been on earth for approximately 3.5 billion years. Homo sapiens evolved 300,000 years ago. These huge numbers must be understood when examining evolution. Just in the time that humans have been mapping the earth, the earth has evolved and land masses have changed shape. Every living thing on earth is an example of evolution’s constantly changing forms. If you do not believe in evolution, you do not believe in reality. I understand that humans are not perfect. Our bodies are efficient and can do many amazing things. They are definitely flawed in many ways, though. Other animals can run faster, withstand more damage, get less illnesses, see better, hear better, and have better olfactory senses. The word “perfect” as a concept alone makes it insufficient in describing the complexity of the human body. It is a mythical concept that can never be achieved. The human body’s imperfections make humans unique among all animals. Humans are not superior to other animals. I show a general respect for other animals. Humans are animals who think themselves as special because we can do things that other animals can not. Many animals can, in turn, do things that humans can not. Just as no human is superior to another human, humans are not superior to other animals. Humans certainly have the power to wipe out other species, but, if we did, we would be hurting ourselves just as much as other animals. I am in favor of genetic diversity in all species. One of the great lessons that we have learned from evolution is that genetic diversity is important for a species to thrive. The diversity in species allows those species to adapt to more diverse environments. In humans, we know that breading with someone who is too closely related to you can lead to genetic disorders and defects. Genetic diversity helps all species become more adaptable to the world around them. I will ask questions to build on my knowledge. Science is completely built on asking questions about what we do and do not know. If we did not ask questions about the human body, we would not have advanced medical care to the point that it is today. If kids did not ask questions, they would only know what others wanted to tell them. If their questions go unanswered, their curiosity will eventually die and they will stop being interested in life. I will admit to my failures and learn from them. Failure is an important concept in science. If you are only testing things that you know will succeed, you are not practicing science. Most of the testing in science has a negative result. When you fail at something, you learn from that failure. Each failure builds upon your knowledge and gives you a better chance at success in the future. Understanding the failures eliminates those same failures in the future. Eventually, success becomes a more likely outcome. I refer to others if they know more about something. Being an expert in science does not mean you are an expert in all disciplines of science. An expert in Physics will probably need to defer to an expert in Psychology if they are trying to figure out someone else’s behavior. From the time we are born, we must defer to the expertise of others to understand the world. The longer you spend on a discipline, the more you will master it. An expert can become so focused on one discipline that they ignore other experts in his or her own discipline or other disciplines. For this reason, a consensus of experts must be consulted to weed out too narrowly focused results. I have a basic understanding of science. The scientific method is a series of procedures used to test a hypothesis in order to derive a re-testable result. When people complain about how long medications take to come to market, they most likely do not understand the scientific method. The exacting methods employed by scientists are repetitive, require patience, and demand adherence to precise procedures. All these things take time, but they ensure that most variables have been considered to find verifiable results that can be used for further scientific study. Thinking Explained I do not have unquestionable beliefs. If your beliefs can not be questioned, your beliefs are questionable. Changing your beliefs throughout life is necessary to grow as a person. Still believing in the monsters under your bed would not serve you well as an adult. Beliefs should be built upon with knowledge and information over time. Thinking about all sides of something makes your belief stronger, but should never continue beyond overwhelming evidence against your belief. I do not believe in the supernatural. Believing in supernatural things and happenings does not make the supernatural exist. There is no confirmed evidence for the existence of the supernatural. Most forms of evidence appear in the form of eyewitness accounts with narrowly chosen explanations that do not consider simpler explanations. The reality of nature is far more extraordinary than any supernatural being that has ever been invented. I do not see life as simplistic extremes. There is no point in life at which we win or lose at life. If you are happy and healthy most of your life you will live longer and have a more valued life. If you think money or power will make you a winner, I would encourage you to look beyond the wealth and power to see if you feel like a winner in your relationships, happiness, and health. I am not concerned with obtaining wealth. Wealth can only be achieved by focusing most of your energy on money. When you singularly focus on one aspect of life, the rest of your life will suffer. Having enough money to be comfortable is not the same thing as being wealthy. Being wealthy is having more money than 99% of people. To obtain this amount of wealth, your relationships, happiness, and health will be neglected. I do not only talk to people with which I agree. Getting along with other people consists of people you agree with and people with which you disagree. Being able to talk to someone else who has a different opinion than you is essential to accepting reality. If your beliefs can not be questioned, you are not confident in your beliefs. Reality acceptance is about examining all information and being willing to change your mind if the information warrants it. Accepting new beliefs is as important as accepting other people. I am willing to change my mind based on new information. If you think you know everything about life, you know very little about life. As you discover more aspects of life, you realize how much you can never know. Evolving your opinions about what you discover is important for growing as a person. Changing your mind is essential to this growth. Without it, your life is stagnant. I do not judge others based on their background. People have many different backgrounds and histories. These histories can be made up of good and bad behaviors. These behaviors are based on your level of reality acceptance. If you are denying reality, you will make bad decisions. These bad decisions, however, do not define the person. It is never too late to accept the reality of your past bad behavior and grow as a person. I make logical decisions most of the time. Logical thinking is an essential skill in life. If you can not discern real information from misinformation, you will not be able to think logically. Your eyes can see something that you know is probably not real. If you do not have logical skills, you may not be able to come up with more than one explanation for what you saw. You may, in the end, never find out the reality of what you saw, but with logic you can make an informed logical guess. Logic is a skill that must be developed. I feel a sense of purpose in life. Searching for a purpose in life seems to be a pursuit of all living humans. Finding an answer can be a life long search. Everyone’s purpose will be unique to them. If you do not see a purpose in your life, you will never be happy. No one can tell you what will be your purpose. Your interests will lead to skills that will inform your purpose. I express an interest in many different things. If you find yourself thinking only about a few subjects and not much else interests you, you are ignoring much of life. There should not be a subject that bores you to the point that you can not enjoy thinking about. Even drying paint can be scientifically and artistically interesting. Not everything has to interest you, but the world is made up of enough subjects that more than just a few things should interest you. Other People Exist Explained I notice and care about other people. Other people exist and we can ignore them, but we still have an affect on them. If you do not notice the people around you, you are not aware of your affect on them. You should be aware of other people just as they should be aware of you. Caring about other people leads to those people caring about you. I care about issues that only affect other people. Some issues only affect other people and do not affect you. Just because you are not personally affected by certain issues, you should care about issues that affect others. Someday, you will be affected by issues that do not affect others and you will be grateful for their care for you. I show a selfless concern for others. Having a selfless concern for others may not always be possible, but it should be a general goal in your life. It is good for those you help and helps you feel good about yourself. The more altruistic behavior that you do, the happier you will be. Having a concern for others will lead to others having a concern for you. I treat other people as equals. You can have more power or money than another person, but that does not make you a better person. You can have a better job title than someone else, but that does not mean you can treat them as a lesser human being. Reality is the same for everyone. I vote for candidates based on their value to the most people. If your candidate is only concerned about issues that only affect you and others who are like you, they are not a candidate for all the people that they preside over. You are not just voting for yourself, you are voting as a community for the good of everyone in the community. An issue that only affects part of the community is not an issue that should take priority. I value what others find important. Not caring about something that you are not interested in is fine. Telling others that they should not care about it because you do not care about it is not. Not caring about women’s rights because you are not a woman does not make women’s rights unimportant. You caring about something that others do not care about does not make it unimportant to you. I express opinions only on subjects I know about. To have an opinion about something without knowing about that thing is an uninformed opinion. Opinions based on misinformation are misinformed opinions. An informed opinion is the only opinion worth expressing. I rarely lie to others. Lying is a habit that has more to do with you than the people to which you are lying. When you lie, you are hiding a truth that you either do not like or are ashamed of. You are most of the time merely delaying the exposure of the truth. The truth that you are afraid of is usually known by the people you are lying to and the consequences of the lie are never as bad as the revealed truth. I show concern for others. You will have to deal with other people many times in your life. You can choose to care about them or see them as unworthy of your care. If you see them as unworthy of your care, they will know you do not care about them and will, in turn, not care about you. In a world where no one cares about other people, hate and anger will permeate. You should care about the people you meet so that they care about you. I show an awareness of the emotions of others. Recognizing emotions in others is only slightly different than recognizing your own emotions. Other people show their emotions in different ways. The major emotions (sadness, anger, fear, and happiness) are usually readily apparent. Most of the time, we are ignoring the emotions of others because we do not want to deal them. Recognizing emotions of others indicates you care about them. Share this:FacebookTwitterLike this:Like Loading...