Don't Give Up - Surrender Instead To Move Forward

I broke down into tears this week as I was in Savasana after my yoga dance class. Deep waves of gratitude filled me as I remembered that 4 years ago the doctors agreed I WOULD be in a wheelchair and I was advised that I should not be taking yoga dance. I had given up hope of dancing regularly ever again. Instead, I have not only healed myself of all the dis-eases but 4 years later I am almost 3 years healed and I am healthier than I remember EVER being. I joined a belly dance troupe recently (at 40 years of age) and enjoy yoga dance class every week. I had all but given up on myself but it was in surrendering that the resources to heal came into my life. There is a HUGE different between giving up and surrendering and I would like to explain that to you and give you some tools to do just that.

Definitions:

“Giving Up” – to cease making an effort; resign oneself to failure

“Surrender” – To abandon oneself entirely (to a powerful emotion or influence); give into

Giving Up

Giving up is the ultimate disbelief in yourself and what you are truly capable of. It is telling yourself that no way, no how will anything change to make your situation better. When you dwell in this emotion — what do you think this brings into your life?

I was ill for over six years and believed I had done “everything I could”. I had been to doctors and more doctors and tests and more tests and they all pointed to the same thing…. I had several chronic diseases and would in fact be getting WORSE not better. I joined several “support” groups but quickly found out most of them were only supporting me when I was talking about how awful my life was or what medications I was on. Few were actually telling me to look on the bright side and NONE mentioned the HOPE of healing. I read books and more books on living with chronic illness and disease. Several of those books even suggested me having a small funeral for my “old” self since I would never be the same and moving on from there. I had tried no meds, lots of meds, no exercise , gentle exercise , took all the doctors advice on what and what not to eat and a vitamin regimen…. NOTHING made me feel better and EVERYTHING I felt was sealing my fate.

I had given up on ME but what I was not realizing was there are two me’s. There is the physical me – the human side – the bones, tissues and organs that work without our conscious thought. There is also my soul — the REAL true me – the part connected to everyone and everything in this marvelous Universe of ours. In giving up on the “me” as a whole I was telling my body and soul I was sick and there was no way out. I was repeating my diagnoses and while I was not in any way clinically “depressed” and still had the joy of my family and friends – I had destined myself to a life of pain.

Giving up meant I thought I had tried “everything” that I knew of. I HAD to know all my options, right? I did all the things doctors suggested, I have a BA in psychology and was pulling tricks from my studies out of the bag, I was reaching out to others with similar illnesses for support and options….. I tried ALL the “HOWS” I knew of and was NOT getting any better.

Surrender

One of my closest friends, Alissa Christine had mentioned the movie “ The Secret ” no less than 10 times prior to me watching it. She lives in Florida so we keep in touch via phone. When we talked I would say, “nope, haven’t watched it yet” and she would repeat, “I think you really need to see this movie Jen”. My husband, Ray got it for us as a Christmas present in 2006 and I watched it twice in two days. Suddenly I KNEW I HAD to surrender the thought that I had “done all I could do”. I had to surrender to the fact that I WAS more than the human body that encased me. I had to surrender to trusting there was some part inside me that DID have the capability to heal. No, 100% of The Secret did NOT resonate…. but there were a few lines in the movie that caused me to really stop and look at how I had been dealing with my diseases and pain over the last 6 years. MAYBE I had concentrated too much on my logical mind and the HOW to cope. MAYBE I needed to leave it up to that part of me that was bigger than my physical being. MAYBE I was the one putting limits on my body by the messages the doctors and I were sending it.

Most of us live by our ego and all the programmed messages in a sort of “auto pilot” mode the MAJORITY of the time. Truth is, this is not acting as who WE truly are but basically out of who we are USED to being. When you start to pay attention to your emotions and self talk, begin asking yourself WHY you are feeling, acting, or saying the things you are – you quickly realize you are much more than you imagined. We are all connected and we are all MUCH more powerful than we ever were told. We are all the same and in fact we are all ONE. We ALL have access to the same resources and information even though at times we can convince ourselves that we are all alone. There are many ways to “surrender” and just plain say “I do NOT know it all, I am RELEASING all attachments to the HOW and I am leaving it up to God/The Universe to supply me with WHAT I need to move forward”. The POWER in that is astounding. WE personally do NOT need to KNOW consciously the HOWS. In accessing JUST the information that has been given to us up until now (and that we have retained) we are limiting ourselves tremendously. In meditation you can receive thoughts and answers you had never even fathomed before because you are QUIETING your conscious mind and allowing the inner you to surface. I found a wonderful post online about WAYS to surrender:

The Top Ten Ways To Surrender to The Flow:

by Thomas J. Leonard

1. Get that there IS a flow and that it’s bigger than you are.

2. When facing a problem, seek to solve it immediately, taking the path of least resistance.

3. Get that you don’t know what you don’t know, but that the flow does. Trust.

4. Get that the physical universe never lies. If something is “off,” so are you.

5. Seek to understand your environment and it’s affects on you, even more than seeking to understand yourself.

6. Get that your body often knows more than you mind or heart does. Listen to your body if you’re not sure what to do.

7. Get that there is an ebb and flow; sometimes it’s wise to do nothing.

8. Get that the flow changes and you’ll need to adapt with it.

9. Get that you affect the flow around you, even though the flow around you is bigger than you.

10. Get that you want to BECOME the flow, not just be carried along BY the flow.

Differences

What do you think? Do you SEE the difference between “giving up” and surrender? Have you been going in circles over a certain decision and/or path in your life telling yourself “you MUST KNOW the answer”? Have you “given up” because you have “tried everything?”. If so, it is time to Surrender this issue to your Higher Self and Trust the way will be shown. I often say it is like breadcrumbs when you ask for help and you certainly need to be awake and paying attention to even notice there are breadcrumbs there. This is another reason I love Reconnective Healing so much. It does “reconnect” you in a more extreme way to your inner self and those breadcrumbs become bigger (sometimes the whole loaf is dropped on your head instead). ;-) I am very aware that we are all connected and in the unlimited-ness of being practicing Reconnective Healing. Yet, I too get stuck in some habits and feeling “I must consciously be able to figure this out”. ;-) Ahh old habits die hard and whenever I am AWARE enough to remove my ego OUT of the equation and surrender to the fact that I DO need help, I won’t “Give Up” but I MUST “Surrender” – answers come quickly. I feel the difference in the definitions are: Giving Up – giving up on yourself versus Surrendering — giving up on the attachments and forgetting about the HOWS.