How Does Surrender Work?
Surrender has always been a challenge for me.
For much of my life, I have been something of a control freak. Over the years that has grown much more subtle, largely because I’ve been working on being more present and aware in the here-and-now.
But I still prefer to be in control. I do the driving, I choose to take less-than-well-traveled paths, and I prefer to be in control of my own destiny.
Unsurprisingly, conscious reality creation is rife with paradox. How? Because while I’m making the choices and decisions about how I desire my life to be, I also have to let go of too many specifics.
This boils down to striking the right balance between taking your thought, empowering it with feeling and then taking intentional action – and just letting it happen. Surrender to the Universe, and let it be done.
Focus on what I desire to manifest, but then, at the same time, surrender to it happening. Have an idea of how I desire the goal to be, but surrender to it being close, but possibly better. Choose and decide to make choices and decisions, but once you have done that, let them go.
This is where I frequently trip myself up. I know what I am thinking about, I give it feeling and seek to take intentional actions…but then I question it, poke at it, keep trying to see it from different angles, rather than just let it be done.
The Secret envisions the process of conscious reality creation and manifestation with ask, believe, and receive. Ask for it, believe it to be, then let it happen. That simple, that to the point.
Every other book I have read or listened to says the same thing. And I have made it work for myself.
To surrender means to accept no other option
When I was recovering from my injuries, after I got hit by a car crossing a street nearly nineteen years ago, I knew only a single outcome. Total, complete healing. I would walk again, have full use of my nerve-damaged right arm, and fence again.
Yes, I pushed and did everything my therapists wanted and more, but I also surrendered to the universe that this was the only outcome there would be. No doubt, no poking at it or questioning it, it simply was how it would be.
Less than a year after the accident I was walking without a limp, my arm was nearly back to normal, and I was fencing again. In no way do I deny that I had absolutely fantastic doctors and therapists working on my recovery, but even they were surprised and delighted by the speed and totality of my healing.
So how come I keep forgetting how to surrender?
I think this boils down to simplicity. In The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, one of my very favorite books, the main character frequently lives for each individual day, even while questing for treasure. Along the way he learns amazing things, about both himself and the world.
In The Alchemist, the secret of alchemy is a few lines of text written on an emerald. And yet, tracts of texts and countless books have been written to explain those simple lines. Rather than read and surrender to what is there, others felt the need to poke at it, question it, and try to better define it.
And this is what it is that I do, rather than surrender. I feel a need to understand, to take it apart, to question the how and the why. And it trips me up.
More often than not, the primary stumbling block I encounter is the how. HOW is this going to work? Most of the time, the answer is going to be, “I do not know.” And that is what it should be. When you are taking steps in your life that you have never taken before, can you possible know the how? You may have a vague understanding or idea, but the specifics are still mysterious.
And this is where surrender comes in. I know the what, I am aware of how it feels, and intentional actions are identified and taken. Once that’s been done, the time has come to surrender to it, and let it happen.
Ask the universe for your thought. Believe and feel how the outcome will be, and take any intentional action that feels appropriate. Then, receive, let the Universe move the parts beyond your comprehension, and make it happen.
Surrender does not work alone
I know that this may seem to some like hooky-spooky mumbo-jumbo. And I acknowledge that you cannot just manifest things out of thin air. However, when there is thought, feeling, and intentional action taken, as I have done before, I can create the reality I most desire to experience.
For me, I need to remember that once I have taken the steps inherent in conscious reality creation, I need to surrender my incessant need to understand, and just KNOW, without doubt or second-guessing, that I have manifested that which I desire.
Meditate more. Be present in the here-and-now. Not easy, and a lot of reprogramming of old thought to be done, but I know I can do this. As always, thank you for crossing the bridges between my worlds with me!
This is the ninety-first entry of my personal journey, the Crossing the Bridges series. My collectively published writing can be found here.
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