Surrender…it’s a beautiful thing
Learning to let go and surrender is by far one of the hardest things we can do in our self-care journey AND one of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves.
Often, we are raised, whether intentionally or unintentionally, to pick a path for our life and stay on that path for the rest of our lives, trying to control every little detail for fear of falling off the path. It is so easy to get tunnel vision going down one path, no longer being able to see all the other paths out there, or even the turns on the path you’re on. If we put all our focus on this one path, to achieve this one goal or to live this one way we thought we wanted, we put blinders on and lose the ability to see that we can make a change at any time. Pull back all the layers and what we are really trying to do is control circumstances outside of us. We fear surrendering because that means we need to stop trying to control things we never really had control of in the first place and put trust in the unknown. This can be so scary!
Now deep inhale and full exhale…life doesn’t have to be this way (nor do I think it is meant to be this way).
To be absolutely clear, and read this twice if you need to, surrendering DOES NOT mean giving up, not having boundaries, or not staying on a path that inspires you. Surrendering DOES mean accepting (and appreciating) exactly where you are right now, not trying to control external factors, and trusting the journey. This includes accepting your current circumstances, thoughts, feelings, mindset…everything. Accepting means having awareness of our current situation and once we have awareness, we can begin to make changes.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, it is not easy to accept where we are and surrender especially if this isn’t where we want to be. But, by surrendering we open our heart and allow ourselves to be present in the moment. This, my friend, creates a space to make a change. We can take the energy we put into trying to control everything outside of us and put that energy into loving ourselves. Doesn’t that sound refreshing?!?! Take time and be really honest with yourself and see where you may be trying to control something and instead could practice surrendering. It’s a practice of self-love!
