What is surrender?

Surrender is the art of letting go and flowing with the current of your divine nature. Surrender is an intentional process to release emotional blockages that are not serving you and connect with inner guidance to make your life easier.   Surrender comes in handy when you feel like you have been over-controlling yourself and your life; forcing and using effort to get what you want mentally and emotionally.  You are ready for the power of surrender when you notice a mix of feelings like you are pushing too hard, struggling with decisions, experiencing mental exhaustion or you find yourself sabotaging your choices and relationships by being over-bearing.  In these situations conscious surrender can initiate a shift of perspective that helps you remember who you truly are and how to live in grace.

Working with surrender

Often after trying to solve a problem for quite a while there is a point when there is nowhere left to turn. Desperation sets in causing an emotional response called “I give up.”   While this can lead to surrender depending if one truly turns over the turmoil to the divine nature within, more often than not “giving up” signals a feeling of defeat.

To consciously trust and allow inner guidance to emerge from the process of surrender is a much different experience.  In the scenario of “giving up” one feels drained and lost; perhaps even un-loved.  With the power of surrender you feel re-energized, positive and open to moving forward.  Surrender is really an act of transformation.  It involves consciously letting go of the fear, doubt, worry and conflict that is fueled by struggling with problems and weighing you down in self-judgement.  Midstream you accept that things are ok as they are, thereby removing the obstacles of ego perspective, and turn toward your divine nature.  Surrender rides a current of grace and trust that comes from understanding within that you hold the potential of all satisfaction and fulfillment. As you release the momentum of pain and open to the divine in the moment you experience a shift. Surrendering layers of expectations gives rise to an intention to feel good about yourself.  Caring about how you feel and dropping your attachment to self-judgement, past circumstances and drama changes the current and transforms your perspective.

Beginning to practice surrender – an exercise

Read through the instructions before starting the exercise.

• Sit comfortably.  Relax and take a deep breath in, counting slowly to 7.
• Release your breath slowly to the count of 7.
• Close your eyes and continue focusing on your breathing, in to the count of 7 and out to the count of 7.
• Relaxing your body as you breathe, emptying the residue of your day from your mind.
• Do this for a couple of minutes until you feel a sense of calm and ease, along with a subtle connection to your inner self.

Using your imagination allow an image of one of your desires for change to begin to rise up.  Notice how you feel about this particular desire. Do you feel tension?  If so, take a moment to intentionally let the image inspire a fresh belief about this desire by allowing positive feelings of fulfillment and satisfaction to begin to unfold around it as you gently visualize it.  Now focus on the good feelings, asking yourself and going over why they feel good, allowing them to grow stronger and expand into even more feelings of satisfaction.  Ask yourself, “What am I feeling as this desire comes more and more into focus in my life?” See yourself receiving your desire fully in this moment and feel yourself experiencing it now.   You created this desire and it is real. Surrender to the inner feelings of your desire coming effortlessly into fruition energetically. Release all struggle; simply let it drop away. Spend a few minutes in surrender to feeling good about yourself, those who may be involved, and generally feeling excited about your desire. You have consciously received your desire on the inner plane – free of anxiety –  and you can rest assured it is coming forward into your outer life. Now, turn your desire over to the care of the universe. You have relinquished control in peace.  Take a deep breath and slowly open your eyes.  You will feel refreshed, confident and eager to follow the path forward in concert with your inner self.

The positive influence of surrender

As I said earlier, many of us have only experienced surrender as a last resort, when we have hit the wall of our seeming abilities or will. But many spiritual traditions have incorporated surrender as an essential practice for releasing ego attachment to suffering and uniting with our true self.  While surrender is most definitely a personal experience, anybody can practice it and there is no emotional state that is beyond the positive influence of surrender.

Practicing surrender can sometimes feel like jumping trains going in the opposite directions. However, if again and again you deliberately reach for feeling good about yourself when faced with a challenge or difficult situation rather than dwelling in struggle, jumping to the positive train becomes easier and easier.  Get into the practice of preparing yourself to receive your dreams and desires by surrendering to the good feeling potential of joyful life moving through you in the moment.  You will begin to discover delight in unexpected moments.

Surrender allows you to accept that you are ok right where you are in this moment.  In essence, you place yourself in the hands of a higher power that is inside you. It’s ok to relinquish control, and stop pushing, plotting and planning. Your are freeing your mind and your emotions to open to new ways of seeing your life and circumstances.  Trust that by connecting with and appreciating what makes you, you, and accepting others for who they are, everything will come into balance, doors will open in both the inner and outer worlds, and with perfect timing reality is transformed.  It all starts with surrender.

 Are you ready to surrender? Schedule Your Discovery call today.