Buddhism teaches us that when we surrender, we admit defeat – meaning we believe in something other than our egos. This could be faith, God, the universe, or simply life. No matter what we surrender to, the key is that we no longer take ourselves to be supreme and in control.
For me, in order to surrender we need to observe our lives from a higher state of awareness. It is about becoming aligned completely, in a conscious state of awareness, to our higher self. When we are able to achieve this, we open ourselves up to joy, a sense of contentment and gratitude. We suddenly become aware of aspects of ourselves that we either no longer resonate with, or we recognize that our normal default to certain interactions with others, doesn’t bring us the desired outcome.
When we are in alignment with our higher selves and by that I mean, when we live our lives totally in tune with who we actually are – that perfect soul that is an extension of the Great I Am, we find ourselves liking ourselves so much more. We find ourselves becoming so much less judgemental and so much more accepting of others, understanding that each of us has a path that we have to walk. Each of us has a path that we are contracted to. And it is through our interactions with others, that we learn the lessons that we have contacted to come and learn in this lifetime. By the same token, it is through our interactions with others, that we give the opportunity to others to learn the lessons they have been contracted to learn.
Surrendering and letting go come hand in hand. It’s not possible to surrender if you are not able to let go. It’s a lot around letting go of that need to be right, letting go of swimming upstream in the misguided belief that we can only be authentic when we don’t go with the flow, when we have that need to be seen as radical, different, rebellious and non-conformist. I’m certainly not saying here that you have to in any way, shape or form, be like everyone else because that’s the only way that you will be accepted. What I am saying is that we need to make it a habit that we consistently assess ourselves, our behaviours, our interactions with others. And do these behaviours and interactions with others, bring us what we want.
Understand that every single person in this world wants to feel accepted. Everyone wants to feel loved. Everyone wants to feel heard. Everyone wants to feel like they matter. Everyone wants to feel like the have a purpose and that they are fulfilling their purpose. In order to bring about all of these very humanly-shared desires, we have to be consciously aware of how we interact with everyone – there is no getting away from it, there is no other way to achieve it.
What it comes down to is asking yourself, how much are you living a happy and fulfilled life. And if the answer isn’t 100%, then you know that there are some things that you need to let go of and that through surrender, you can make your life happy and fulfilled.
I’m not saying relinquish absolute control of your life, please don’t get me wrong. You are without doubt, the captain of your own ship. You need to be in control, but you need to be in control for the right reasons. And that’s where the surrendering of the ego comes into play. Whilst it is our ego that prevents us from being happy and from having beautiful interactions with others, our egos are in fact our personality. And so essentially it’s not the ego in itself, as a separate aspect of ourselves, that we need to control. It’s about waking up every aspect and characteristic of ourselves, through living in perfect alignment with our higher self, drawing the higher self into the conscious awareness of the human physical person that is you!
I have started this year, to offer Spiritual Life Coaching, the object being to help you to create the life that you want. If you’d like to find out more, please send me a whatsapp on +27 82 570 6473 or email glynis@spiritconnection.co.za
Glynis