Bend and Surrender

How do you feel when reading the words bend and surrender?

I imagine it might conjure up feelings and images of anything but strength, much less joy.

And yet this IS the way of immense inner strength and living in joy.

I’m going to unpack this a bit, as best I can, because it is a way of living that when understood helps us live from the truth of our soul and when we do, we feel joy.

SURRENDER TO WHAT?

First of all, the question arises, who or what are we surrendering to?

• Surrender to your inner guru, your soul
• Surrender to the truth within you

What we are ultimately surrendering to is LOVE. A universal love that is the substance of all of creation, shakti. It constantly moves through us and all around us.

It’s not about surrendering to anybody else, nor any outer authority or other’s ideas of truth. 

We are not in submission.  Surrender is not being weak. It’s not a failing or losing something. This is all ego concepts.

Surrender requires incredible strength. Even when it comes with heaviness as we bend and surrender, even in tears. It's a strength, not a weakness.

An example: 

Think of a time when you felt upset. Maybe towards someone who cannot see you for who you are. You want to say words, to stand up for yourself. It may create a battle, an argument between you. It probably escalates. Will this person ever see you, understand you, or accept you? This could be a long time scenario with a family member or relationship. It goes on and on.

Imagine that instead of arguing your points, which you think of as you standing up for yourself, you instead become silent. Listening. No words. Just being silent. In this silence you bend to  tune into your soul.

This is bending. 

This is the surrender to your soul. 

It is not weakness or submission to the ‘other’.

It takes incredible strength to bend like this and tune into the truth of your soul rather than engage with the tantalizing opportunities to speak your mind, prove your point, win the case.

But it’s not about winning or making your case. This is ego. There is suffering in the way of ego, even when you think you’ve won, or stood up for yourself.

When there is no surrender in you, there is suffering. 

That’s how it is.

I know this so well. I was always ready for battle. Proving my point of view. Trying to change what doesn’t need to change in the other. Only in me does anything change, but I liked to engage in the ‘battle’. This was happening unconsciously as I was hooked in and identified with the ego because it gave me a sense of being powerful, being right. But it also ate me up inside. I wasn’t relaxed, or present. There was tension in my body. I was suffering.

Then the light bulb went off. I retired from the battlefield and the suffering that accompanied living from ego. 

Simple decision. No more. Done. I surrender to my soul. Show me another way. I bend to you, my soul, my inner guru, Shakti Ma. I bend to you in surrender.  Show me. Guide me. 

Surrender is a path to live more joyfully and not suffer. 

I can attest to this. 

Surrender is sweet. So sweet. 

I’m more relaxed. Present. Connected to spirit. There’s a quiet strength and deepening of trust in myself.

There is joy. Life is joyful living in surrender.

Make the switch

This inner truth that guides us can only be known in quietness. It doesn’t speak loudly like the mind, the ego. The soul speaks energetically.

This inner guru is always there, sending us impulses and guiding us to yes or no in all situations, when we listen. Shall I do this? The impulse, the energy, is there or it is not. You follow that. It’s a quiet and clear knowing. 

It seems so foreign in our modern world to live in the natural way of listening and following the soul because we have all been conditioned to listen to the mind. The ego.

The ego is a loud noise in the head that tells you this and that, go here, what’s wrong with you, do this, do that, you should. It’s loud and noisy and when given attention, it drowns out the quiet impulses of the soul.

The soul is quiet. It sends energy, impulses when you bend down and listen. 

Notice the difference:

• what’s coming from your ego (loud and telling you through words what to do)  
• what's coming from your soul (quiet, energy, impulses, direct knowing)

BENDING 

In third grade we planted sunflower seeds. We got to take home our sunflower when it sprouted in its paper cup. I chose a spot in my backyard to plant it, which was near the house. Little did I know that the cellar door’s hinges were broken so everytime the door swung open it hit and bent my little sunflower seedling. Over and over again.

The sunflower survived though.

And it had the strongest thickest stalk and biggest flower I’d ever seen.

It had to bend. And bend. And bend. Every time that door swung open.

Whenever I remember this, it helps me bend and bend and bend in surrender to my soul. To listen to my inner truth. To follow this.

Think of what happens to something that is rigid and stiff in strong winds. It breaks.

Be supple through surrender. Bend without breaking.

I hope this little sunflower story also gives you strength, to bend and surrender over and over again to the truth of your soul and not your ego.

Enjoy living in the sweetness of surrender.