People tend to denounce Surrender the first time they learn of it as a practice because they conflate it with giving up. But, although they may be synonyms in some cases, that’s not what Surrender means in the spiritual world. 

So, what does Surrender mean to me? That’s hard. Every time I try to define it for myself, it escapes me, but when I just try to embrace it and not think about it too hard, it comes easier. In other words, the harder I try to define it, the harder it seems to me to define. And, in that way, the Universe couldn’t be any more perfect in its irony. Because that’s exactly what I think Surrender is. It’s letting go of control, or rather the illusion of control, and letting go of effort and instead going with the flow of life. With ease. That’s why I think the Chinese finger trap is the perfect metaphor for the struggle between Surrender and ego.

You see, effort and control are always necessarily based in fear and ego. These energies are pregnant with distrust and a lack of faith that things are going to be okay, although perhaps not how we thought we wanted. Surrender is just the opposite. It’s admitting to ourselves and others that, try as we might, we are not almighty. We can’t do everything by ourselves and we can’t do everything exactly the way we want.

Because we’re co-creators. And the more you let the Universe lead you through the dance of life, the more enjoyment you’ll find. You’ll begin to realize that you don’t have to shoulder all the responsibility and burden of figuring your life out. You just have to figure out what you want to do (what feels right to you) and why (it has to be connected to a deeper, selfless purpose). The universe will take care of the when, where and how. 

Back in September, I took nearly a two month break from everything. Without realizing it, I was creating space for intuition to come into life. By taking that necessary break, I eventually felt inspired to actually start doing YouTube and I was indirectly given instructions of how to start: by talking about my break. But the thing I realized towards the end of my break and directly after it is that I shouldn’t wait until things get so bad that I have to take an extended break to re-align. Instead, I should work towards making the space, silence and time to reflect deeply an integral part of my life. 

But even though I had this realization, I didn’t implement it these past four months. Instead, like I said in my blog about fear, I was trying to force things. I was trying to make SEO work for me because that’s what convention has established leads to success, but I was ignoring the fact that it didn’t feel right to me. It isn’t aligned with my path, at least not right now. And in that way, I was indirectly saying that I trust convention and the external reality more than I trust my inner voice and reality. 

As part of that cycle of thought, I also started to become overly focused on the future. I stopped enjoying the things I was doing in the present because I started believing that they would never amount to anything in the future. I started thinking that I’d never be able to make enough money to live the life that I want to live, and was completely blind to the fact that my life is already the life I want. I’m already working on my own schedule on the things that interest me. I’m already my own boss. I’m already location independent. And I’m already working as an animator, digital artist and YouTuber. My ideal life already is. It isn’t in the future, it’s now. But I convinced myself that it was a destination I still had to reach and that SEO was the only path there.

And that’s the other thing. I started to focus too much on me. I forgot that the reason I even switched from having a traditional career as a scientist to trying to carve a path out for myself as an artist was that I felt this deep call within me to share my thoughts and views of the world and my time here on Earth: through art and through my words. And I wanted to help others feel like they could do the same. I wanted to find communion in self-expression. I wanted to show others that it’s enough to just be and help them realize that they can do the same. And, equally as important, I wanted to learn and be inspired from other people who are also bravely finding their own way and staving off the rules that have been written for us. But my focus slowly shifted to figuring out what steps I should take to bring me glory and success, and all those things I just listed took the back seat.

Until I began to work on clearing away some of my fears and limiting beliefs. Once I did that, the exact things I wanted came into my life as well as the energy and clarity to continue on my path, as challenging as it is. Because, even though people think Surrender is synonymous with inaction, it actually often leads to inspired action.

The first time I heard that phrase was from Amanda Frances, who teaches on money, manifestation and abundance. Through her I learned that there is a difference between action and inspired action. Similar to the way there’s a difference between being busy and being productive. Action is doing things because you think you have to. And it’s doing things the way other people have told you they should be done. It’s following the rules and hoping for the best. Inspired action, on the other hand, is taking steps towards a vision that feel intuitively right and aligned with your genuine desires and deeper purpose. It’s a pull to do things a certain way, even though it may not be the way things are conventionally done. It’s an inner nudge to speak to certain people or do certain things, even though on the surface they seem completely unrelated to your mission. But you do these things in this way because you trust that the Universe will fill in the missing pieces. And it will.

You’ll know you’re taking inspired action because it’ll come with a sense of ease. Things will just fall into place and align. That doesn’t mean there won’t be hurdles and challenges, there will. The difference is that these challenges will energize and invigorate your efforts rather than leaving you drained and in a heap of despair. And that’s the beauty of Surrender. That’s its magic.

Okay, so now that we’ve defined Surrender for ourselves and talked about some of its benefits, let’s talk about how you can start implementing it in your life. I’ve already kind of given it away as I was talking about my journey back to Surrender as a practice, but let me address it explicitly.