There comes a moment on every journey where striving gives way to stillness, where doing softens into being. Where the ego loosens its bony grip, and a deeper understanding of the interconnected web that surrounds us, begins to emerge. This is the essence of surrender, and surrender is a gateway to expanding into a world aligned with our highest intent.
In a world that rewards constant control, surrender can feel like the custom fit of failure. This has more to do with finding ourselves at surrender’s door when all of our other options have been exhausted, rather than surrender itself. Still, it is often in our darkest hour that we come to being open to the light of surrender’s love.
Spiritually speaking, surrender is not a giving up, with an implicit sense of loss, but rather, a giving over, with trust in a higher intent. Again, the word faith comes to mind. Surrender is the conscious act of aligning with a force greater than the limit of our own minds.
There is no ostrich with its head in the sand here, but courage and the most active form of trust. It is the fool stepping off the cliff, the child who has felt the sting of a bee, yet loves to visit the forest. It is believing in the best version of ourselves on this plane, even if we can’t yet see what we look like.
Here, we learn the arduous lesson of trusting life, of trusting the unfolding, and ultimately of trusting our own energetic impact on our existence.
And one step further?
We begin to glean that maybe, just maybe, there might be a higher intelligence within and around us helping us find our way.
Alignment
Contrary to popular belief, aligned intention is not a rigid plan carved in stone. It is a fluid exchange, specific to us each, flowing on a current of truth and love. It does not impose, but invites; it does not demand, but whispers. As we become more intimate with our own quieting practices, we begin to hear this whisper more clearly. This happening is available to all of us, not just some of us as it is not so much religious or even spiritual (if that doesn’t resonate), but rather the ability to be quiet and open oneself to see – mostly, our own selves.
Aligned intention often presents as a quiet inner knowing. It tugs us inextricably toward something that feels profound or somehow more authentic on our inside. This, we begin to recognize, is the universe nudging us toward something more in line with what we are, more true to what we’re continuously discovering within our own soul. Thus the expansion of alignment feels sentient and subtle and subject to change as we deepen the connection to ourselves. This is why flow is so important. When we heed newfound inner knowings, our lives begin to shape with a sense of purpose that is both profound and peaceful.
With surrender, we don’t cower beneath a fist of unknowing, but rather, expand into it’s opening grasp. We become more of who we are meant to be by letting go of what we never truly were. Our intuition sharpens, our compassion deepens, the sense of separation between us and everything around us begins to dissolve as we bear witness. Here begins our understanding that the fibers of our being don’t just connect us to ourselves, but connect us to the web that is the essence of everything. Here we expand beyond our own peace, and see how the quiet within each of us spears shoots of peace into the world.
Don’t be fooled, this merging does not erase us, instead it reveals us. We each become a clearing channel for our highest aligned expressions. Our choices begin to harmonize with a higher mind and in this harmony, we find a freedom of the soul.
Living aligned isn’t without challenges, but in alignment, we find our challenges have meaning. We feel guided, supported and can recognize higher purpose in our trial. We can see that each moment offers choice – do we control or trust; do we resist or allow. And even recognizing that choice takes us out of the patterns of our own behaviors and into a new awareness. The more our choice becomes surrender, the more life moves through us rather than battering against us. When surrender becomes the practice in our relationships, at work, in our healing and creativity we find ourselves stopping chasing and starting to receive. We stop grasping and give ourselves permission to slide into flow. It’s here, within that flow, that we discover a true peace that external circumstances can’t shake; and, here too, where we begin to accept that if peace is a byproduct of surrender then unhappiness is a byproduct of a dis-aligned life.
So friends, we align.
This new dawn, we’ll walk the direction we’re called and be open to what we might notice along the way. We’ll release the illusion of our control and allow the river of grace to be our guide. We’ll become active participants in the larger story moving through all things, and co-create with the wisdom flowing within. We’ll remember what we have always known: that surrender is never the end, but the beginning of a deeper, richer more radiant existence. An existence where we are never lost, but within ourselves, profoundly found.
