Surrender is one of the great spiritual principles and something I believe to be one of the foundational principles of spirituality. It’s not about giving up on everything you want in your life or relationships. It’s about accepting what you cannot change and looking at it from a different state of mind.
We all have many opportunities to learn about surrender. Things in life often don’t go how we’d like them to.
Once you realize you cannot change something in your life and have accepted this, you have at least two choices. You can continue to judge and complain about the situation, either internally or out loud. Or you can release the negative or victim thinking and begin to consider the possibility that what is happening has some purpose that may not be understood in this moment.
The same opportunity for the practice of Surrender appears in our meaningful relationships. Once you realize you cannot change something in a particular person and have accepted this, you have a choice. You can continue criticizing or trying to manipulate this person to be closer to what you want, or you can release your negative thinking and accept them for who they are. We call this the Practice of Surrender. We all get lots of practice accepting what is, and it often is not easy.
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There are simple surrenders like, ‘It’s a rainy day and my outdoor party that I was looking forward to isn’t happening.’ It still may not be easy to surrender to what is happening, but in an instance like this, it’s not complicated.
Then there are the more complex surrenders – these are the ones that have many moving parts and may involve significant loss and grief as part of the challenge.
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Surrender is often part of the work a person is called to do on their journey to meet their goals and to find Inner Peace. The practice of Surrender is like a muscle. The more we use it, the stronger our ability to Surrender becomes. The more we Surrender to what is actually happening, the more freedom and ease we have in our lives – and the more Inner Peace.
