Surrender and Power

When we accept the present moment exactly as it is, we surrender. If we are not attached to the history of how we arrived at this moment or to any perceived outcomes, we become free. And all actions that we choose from this point forward originate within our acceptance of what is. Therein lies true power.

I'm taking an intensive yoga training class. This includes anatomy lessons with a vocabulary that is a foreign language to me. The first day I kept thinking "I will never retain any of this; everyone else already knows this!!!" I judged the past and predicted the future, and made myself a victim of both. No power there. Then I let go; I listened to the enthusiasm of my instructor and marveled at the intricacies of the human body. I surrendered. No...I did not give up but rather opened myself to what was offered to me in the moment, a deeper respect for and relationship with the body and its capacity for fluidity and grace.

Is there room for surrender in your day?

More on Surrender

My son put a question on his Facebook page today: "What is the best piece of advice you have ever been given?" I wanted to write back "Don't expect your children to make you happy." But I didn't write; I was afraid he would think that I was being flip and that was not my intention. But there is a bigger truth here. And the truth is that no one, not our kids, our partners nor our friends can make us happy. And when we surrender to that truth we are left with only one place to find happiness. You got it!

Surrender - it starts with our breath

I discovered recently that I didn't exhale completely; I held some air in. It seems I didn't really, ever, totally want to let go. With this discovery, I decided I better "work on it." So in yoga, as I sat in meditation posture, I pushed that air out and sucked it back in. I had moved from one form of control to another. No surrender there!

Well, today, after a session of body work to ease tight muscles, a little miracle happened. I "watched" as I let go of my breath completely, effortlessly. I was empty for a moment and felt so calm and peaceful. Then the inhale just happened, no effort. It just rose up, expanded and filled me up. I felt revived and renewed.

In exhaling, I surrendered, letting go of the tension in my body and all the stories I carried around. Exhaling actually required me to die to life as I knew it, and to accept being born into a new life with each new breath I took in.

The deeper our exhale and letting go, the deeper our inhale, our expansion and our capacity to live fully. Pretty neat!

So why not surrender? Enjoy the adventure!

How many teachers?

I have come to the conclusion that we are surrounded by teachers all day long. On Monday the Southwest gate agent taught me about being calm in the face of a storm; a fellow passenger taught me about courage and cancer. Today the wind is teaching me patience and every day my husband reminds me to take in the sights and sounds of nature, right outside my window.

There are annoying little moths flying around my office right now. My inclination is to swat them and be done with it but, really, they are my teachers too. Hmmm...what is it they have come to teach me? Maybe if I say "welcome teachers," I can shift perspective. In actuality, they haven't come to take my peace of mind; they have come to give me exactly what I need in this moment.

Life's Teachers

Two very important teachers of mine have recently moved on. One of them was in my life for several years and the other for only a few months but both helped me to understand and experience my life with much deeper awareness. When they were gone it was a challenge to let go. I was sure there was so much more I could learn from them. Then it dawned on me...maybe it wasn't so. Could it be that they were in my life for exactly the right amount of time? Could it be that they provided me with the perfect preparation I needed in order to recognize and receive my new teachers? ...Now I'm sure of it.