The Soul-Shaking Practice of Surrender
Surrender
This word keeps appearing in my life. The word surrender started whispering in my ear in yoga, then spoke a little louder at church and now sings out loud in books I’m reading and through conversations with friends. It is my inherent nature to resist as opposed to surrender.
When you think about surrender, you might think of it as letting go, or giving up. Surrender does means to relinquish control or yield to power, and as scary as that may sound, it’s exactly what has to happen before going all in. Before effective action or long-lasting change comes soul-shaking surrender.
Surrender is …
- committing to something so fully it becomes part of your constitution
- loving someone so deeply that their happiness comes before yours
- leading by example by being as true to the world as you are to yourself
- saying things like “I need help” and “please forgive me”
- accepting people for who they are and for exactly where they are
- fully embracing the present moment just as it is without judgement
It seems we are often in a state of flux, wishing for permanence and consistency. As soon as we reach that place, things change and shift again. Perhaps we need to surrender to transformation and transition. In a moment of surrender, your story can begin to unfold.
I invite you to surrender too
- Surrender to being lost or found
- Surrender to love or loss
- Surrender to brokenness or wholeness
- Surrender to grief or joy
- Surrender to work or play
- Surrender to chaos and loneliness
Without surrender there is no engagement, lesson, embrace or deep awareness for what you are experiencing. That’s a great tool to avoid pain and disappointment, but at the same time, you are discarding, joy, grace, love and immense gratitude. You need that moment of surrender before you can fully engage and go all in.
When you find it in your heart to surrender, you stop looking for a quick fix and can make more thoughtful, intentional, purposeful decisions and actions.
With surrender, you finally understand that the things you worry about so much rarely happen, and you have little control over the things that do. In surrender you can stop thinking and plotting and planning. You can stop changing people or believing you can. Surrender allows you to trust that things in this moment are the way they should be. You are OK right where you are.
