How to Embrace the Power of Surrender

How to Embrace the Power of Surrender
Ginny Grey

Flowing into peaceful surrender, allowing its softness to gently envelope us, is much like sinking into the warm water of a bath; body aches and pains are soothed and mental tensions are melted away as we slowly drift into sweet serenity.

Many of us know the power of surrender when we choose to let go of our fears by breathing them out and focusing on something uplifting, or when we release our problems by asking a guardian angel or higher power to take them from us and guide us to solutions. Ah, the relief. But most of us have not been guided to live our lives in surrender. We have been taught the opposite; try harder, plot more, manipulate where you can, force, push, resist, and if those don't work, run and hide. We know too well from experience that all these actions really accomplish is to dig us deeper into turmoil. We burn out, get frustrated, feel hopeless, alienate others, compromise our integrity, and give away our power.

Surrender allows us to own our power; the power of our higher self, spiritual self, creative source or whatever term one uses to describe their eternal essence. That same essence within each of us is within everyone and everything in the universe. This is why when we let go into it, our fears are taken away, our problems are taken care of, and whatever we need is brought to us. All it takes is letting go; letting go of trying to control all the details, letting go of holding onto fear, doubt or guilt, letting go of old identities that no longer serve us, letting go and letting something bigger than our small self be our guide. From here our mood lightens, our heart opens, and the walls we erected to protect our small self begins to crumble, allowing more light to enter.

Insights

* How do you view surrender? Do you see it as a giving up or giving in? Does it feel like things will collapse and get worse if you let go? Or are you able to trust in the divine order of things and feel that you are surrendering into something more powerful? How you view surrender will determine how you experience it so play with different perspectives.

* What is your experience of surrender? Have you experienced the relief of letting go of a fear or problem and trusting something bigger within you or within the universe to handle things? What motivated you to surrender during these times and what was the outcome? What would support you in surrendering more often?

* How do you feel right now? Are you in a surrendered state or are you in effort, trying, resisting or holding on? Is your body relaxed and peaceful or is it tense, feeling like you are grasping onto something? What about your mind; are your thoughts clear and calm or racing about or spacing out? What about spiritually; do you feel open, expansive, peaceful and uplifted, or shut down, numbed out and closed off? On average, do you spend most of your time in a more or less surrendered state?

Inspiration

* Whatever state you are in right now, allow yourself to move into a more surrendered space. Take a few deep breaths and on the exhalation release any tension in your body. Let your body completely relax into the chair you are sitting in. Close your eyes and bring all of your awareness into the center of your head, finding a still peaceful place within. Notice anywhere in your mind or body where you are holding on - to emotions, tensions, thoughts, worries or problems and let them go; allow them to drift out of your mind and body and float away, or see yourself putting them down on the ground behind you, or hand them over to a guardian angel or higher power. Breathe in softness and trust. Feel that you are being cared for and looked after by a loving presence.

* Practice being in a surrendered state daily by taking time to connect to your bigger self and your higher power. Take time in inner silence or meditation to feel your true authentic self and your connection to your eternal essence. Let this peaceful feeling flow throughout your whole mind and body, supporting you to let go into a place of ease, trust and flow.

* As you go through your day and days ahead, whenever you notice yourself ruminating over problems or concerns, or feeling a tight or holding on sensation in your body, choose to let go and release all of this to your bigger self or higher power. As you do this regularly you will move more and more into an expansive surrendered state.

"Surrender does not diminish our power, it enhances it."
-Sara Paddison-

The Art and Science of Life

The Art and Science of Life
Gwen Randall-Young.

     Despite exciting interdisciplinary encounters, in the western world a schism yet exists between science and spirituality. There is still some discordance between hard evidence about how human life operates, and soft evidence about the meaning, or deeper purpose of life. Interestingly, the schism exists only within the mind of the thinker, who must, of necessity, separate himself (or his perceptions) from the unified whole in order to even formulate his schema. There is a huge difference between Descartes, I think, therefore I am , and the rationalists I think, therefore it is.

     Descartes philosophized that it is in thinking that we become aware of our being. It is true that thinking must occur in order for one to realize his or her independent existence. The newborn does not realize existence independent of the Mother. It is also true that as we grow, what we think about ourselves can limit or enhance our being. If I believe all things are possible, then like Edison, Einstein, Gandhi, Jesus or Mother Theresa, I may stay focused on my path no matter what. If I believe I am not musical and could never learn to play the piano, I would not even try. My belief becomes my truth - even if it is wrong.

     The rational scientist chooses a small, manageable playing field. He makes up the rules. If it is not measurable, observable, recordable, i.e. real in his mind, it is not true. The tools used, however, will determine what is found. An x-ray reveals something different than what is seen with a CAT scan, while an MRI reveals information beyond what the others could detect. So, if we use a scientific, rational mind as a tool for understanding reality, as wonderful a tool as it is, much will remain undetected.

     Science will never isolate God, love, or spirit, because they are non-material. That much is true. However, the leap to the conclusion that these are unscientific and thus not real, reduces science itself to a purely utilitarian exercise. It might be possible to do an in depth profile of every movement, every muscle contraction within the body of the ballerina as she dances Swan Lake. That would do nothing to explain how the audience is touched by her grace and passion. One could do a highly technical analysis of the voice, the sound waves, and the acoustics in the concert hall, and still know nothing of why the opera singer brought tears to the eyes of her audience.

     The science of life is profoundly fascinating. The exploration of the human body is as vast and wondrous an undertaking as the exploration of the Universe. However, human life itself, is art. Art is defined as any human activity that is the product of, and appeals primarily to the imagination. Imagination is the power of forming pictures in the mind of things not present to the senses; a creation of the mind. Quantum physics suggests that everything may be a creation of the mind. This is a dilemma for the scientist, who has limited his scope of exploration to things he believes to exist independently of any individual mind, including his own! This effectively eliminates God, spirituality, eternity, intuition, divinity, soul anything beyond the biology and psychology of body and mind.

     The scientist will allow that much exists in the physical Universe that is beyond our ability to detect as yet, but would not suggest that unless we scientifically validate it, it is not there. Humans have senses and the ability to tune into other levels of reality for which, currently, there are no scientific measurements. Animals have the ability to sense a coming earthquake, and have likely done so long before humans inhabited the earth. Dogs can hear sounds which are beyond the range of human hearing. If animals have the ability to perceive things that are not perceivable in an expected sense, it stands to reason that humans would also have this capability. Those grounded in reality may roll their eyes when someone feels the presence of God in their lives, senses the energy in a room, or just knows that some synchronistic event is profoundly significant.

     Life is art. Human evolution has played itself out on the canvas of the Earth. We are not separate, distinct, from all who have come before. We are part of a flow of life DNA which combines and recombines in different forms. We carry with us some part of our ancestors, as some part of our being continues on in our descendants. Imagination, myth and metaphor allow us to tap into the train of consciousness that is the evolving human mind. Like the tail of a comet, human consciousness is a path behind a moving life force a primeval force set in motion eons ago, pulsing along as an unfolding future. Myth and metaphor awaken something in consciousness that cannot be named, only felt. It carries us all the way back to the time when there were no words, no language, no science, only life itself unselfconscious, unanalyzed. Yet long before the dawning of rationality, there was passion, love, intuitive knowing - without which humans would not have survived.

     Perhaps it is science that is not real. It is a stepping apart from life, an applying tools and rules to try to understand. When we look at a painting, we can know the specifics of the colors and techniques used, how the painting was created, and how it will endure from a physical standpoint. No matter how sophisticated our analysis, we will still know nothing of the artists intent, or consciousness at the time it was created. We will know nothing about how the work impacts viewers, or changes their consciousness. But these are precisely the aspects which are most meaningful, most real, most alive.

     So it is with life.
     The parts that are most meaningful, real and alive, are the most elusive.

     They are aspects, the dimensions of which are unbounded, at times indefinable, and often cannot be named. These are the aspect we must embrace if we are to experience the fullness of being human. All that can be measured is that which is temporary. When our time runs out, when the pulse winds down, when we are taking our last breath, all of the rules, definitions, proofs and certainties will mean nothing. Death is only the end of the aspects of life that can be measured. All that is timeless, eternal, and true, will be there as it always was, and if we have prepared ourselves, we will embrace it more fully than ever before.