To surrender is simply to allow. To allow is simply to let go. My friends, you must know today, the act of surrender indicates no defeat on your part. I tell you, with all my heart and understanding, letting go, and allowing something else to enter, brings no sense of loss. What has been before has served its purpose, and what presents itself now is better. To open our hearts and be shown what is possible is an act of true courage and power. It is strength we will indeed experience if we simply ask. It may feel initially as though we are giving up, but the reality is, we are simply finding “the way of life” to be “what it is”. The way of life is a way to let all unfold as it should. With our simple willingness, we can see life as an open doorway into all that can ever be. Life is the journey, and we travel a pathway through it and with it in order to discover who we really are. The difficult part is that we can never know beforehand what will come next, but with each step, we will see and experience the new and the better. We take a deep breath, we step forward, and then we know.
To hold expectations of how things will be, or should be, indicates our real and only problem. You see, if we believe that our expectations are the reality we hope to create, we can never truly see what is before us. My friends, I will tell you again, what is, whether we like it or not, is what is important and valuable. If we continue to see only what we want to see, we cannot know what it is that we need. You see, humility is indeed a hard thing to consistently establish in our lives, but if we do not pursue it, we cannot know of the necessary healing that is required to bring forward the love that is always there. When we expect, we are not open. The truth, therefore, cannot be revealed. Perhaps we believe that change needs to happen quickly. Oh, my dear friend, this will always lead to continued disappointment. We fail before we even begin. You might be saying, “Well, Todd, I try all the time, but things remain the same, I’m going nowhere fast.” Again, the answer is so simple as to escape you. Although you are indeed trying very hard in all that you do, I guarantee you are trying in the same way that you always have. I understand how frustrating it is to know that the “tried and true” no longer works! You see, we believe that we are open, and we’ll do whatever it takes, but we also firmly believe that the old way is the only way. My friend, I ask you, “What change can possibly accompany sameness?” What we must do is let go of the old first. Then, we allow ourselves a necessary space of acceptance and willingness. The new way, the new self, all that we seek, will surely follow. This is total surrender, indeed, a powerful place to be. It creates a true openness that allows us to see in every moment of our experience everything we need. Appreciation is born. Love is now seen. Healing has done its work. Walking the path of life is not a physical moving forward, it is a full awareness of the expansion of our very self in each present moment. This is what we must learn how to trust. Everything is possible now.
The following are five affirmations, or mantras, to help you get started. With each, I will give you a little hint, something that has worked for me. But, my friends, if you do not allow and accept them, they will not work! Remember, practice and patience will open you up to the new and better. One step forward, and then the next. All is well!
Say to yourself, “I do not know”
If you already knew, it would be working. Surrender!
Say to yourself, “I accept myself and my life as they are today”
If you truly accepted yourself, you would see how far you have already come. How could the next step forward be any different? Surrender!
Say to yourself, “All that I believe myself to be today will transform into the next better thing tomorrow”
If you know that change must happen, then let it happen. Surrender!
Say to yourself, “I am the higher part of me, I am the soul”
If you seek a better self, then you must know, beyond any doubt, this better self, the one who knows, has already arrived. Surrender!
Say to yourself, “I surrender when I allow, I surrender when I let go”
If the past is over, if the future is yet to be, then now is all there is. Surrender!
*Fellow spiritual students, when I write these words, when I share what I have with you, it is almost never what I think it’s going to be. Surrendering is a great feeling, it creates everything we hope for, if we simply let it be so. Please, my friends, never allow yourself to feel defeated. Every moment that unfolds, I understand more of what love really is. Surrender, and allow yourself the same opportunity today, for it is always there. I am with you.
Peace and love, always