I won't give up but I will surrender
2:52 PM
The hardest thing I have ever had to learn is to fully surrender.
The past year has faced me with some challenges; the sort you don't expect and the sort that take a lot of learning to overcome. It's the emotions and thoughts that drag you down and sometimes no matter how hard you try, you feel them. And I've had to learn to do exactly that. Feel them. I've had to learn to not fight them, to surrender to them.
The concept of surrender for me has always had slightly
negative connotations attached, like giving up, being defeated. I remember listening to Dido's song 'White Flag' as a kid. She says "I won't put my hands up and surrender," as if resisting surrender is something strong people do. But what I have
discovered is that it is almost entirely the opposite. Surrender is in fact
saying yes. Surrender is accepting every moment in its entirety. Surrender
needs to happen often, everyday, every moment. Surrender is a lot harder than I
thought… Surrender is something strong people do.
It's easy to accept the moments that bring us joy; the thoughts, sensations, emotions and experiences. The moments that don't feel so good are much harder to accept and surrender to. The mind automatically tries to fight it, deny it, fix it, as if these moments are unacceptable. As if accepting something that doesn't bring joy will only bring you unhappiness. But something magical happens when you surrender, when you unconditionally accept everything as it is, in the present moment.
It changes where you place your focus and perspective. I'm not going to deny that bad things exist, but I truly believe that where you place your energy, it grows. By focusing on problems, I'm only contributing to them. So by accepting them and surrendering to them, I change my focus to acceptance. I contribute to the positive, the solutions, the higher good.
And the outcome of this is almost indescribable. When you say yes to everything, you grow in clarity and control, you say yes to yourself. What truly matters comes to the surface. So today, I challenge you to surrender. Accept that moment, good or bad, let go, forgive. What's the worst that could happen?
"Whenever anything negative happens to you, there is a deep lesson concealed within it. It shows you what's real and unreal, what ultimately matters and what doesn't. Seen from a higher perspective conditions are always positive. When you live in complete acceptance of what is - which is the only sane way to live - there is no 'good' or 'bad' in your life anymore. There is only a higher good, which includes the 'bad'. If you forgive every moment, allow it to be as it is, then there will be no accumulation of resentment that needs to be forgiven at a later time."
- Eckhart Tolle
xx Courtney
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