Have you ever heard someone say, “Well, just surrender to it and trust the process,” and wonder what they meant? At Mindlight we have a beautiful definition of surrender that lands in an easy to understand emotional practice. Easy to understand, yes – to practice? Well, the best way to make it feel easy is to start practicing now. So let’s review what surrender is and how to do it.
In the video above, you’ll get to watch Class 2, of our Human Potential Level 1 course. This is a course for beginning practitioners, but it is lensed toward each individual experiencing the work for themselves. So you can watch it, even if you’re not a practitioner or aspiring practitioner, and get a lot from it.
Surrender is the practice of disengaging from an emotional state that’s not serving you. In the practice, you let go of feeling a certain way, so that you can gain freedom both in your body and in your mind. You gain freedom in your body because challenging emotions lock us up – we feel stuck, paralyzed, contracted, introverted. You gain freedom in your mind because challenging emotions have us hyperfocus and ruminate on a problem ad-nauseum like a broken record. What is at play here in both scenarios of mind and body is the underlying emotion holding those states in place.
So how do you disengage from a challenging emotion? Here are three ways:
Quit thinking about the problem. This doesn’t mean quit wanting what you want, it means let your mind get off the ride for a minute. Get off the energy that there is a problem. Think about anything else for a while. Take a shower, go to a park, call a friend, watch a video. This loosens your mind’s grip on the thoughts, and allows your body to relax. From here, insights can come in. Freedom can begin to show up. New ideas, new paths.
Trust in something bigger than yourself. In Christianity you hear people say, “Give it to God,” this is a great example of this. In essence the energetic idea is to hand your problem over to a larger life force that you believe in and trust. Everyone has their own personal words and personal mythology for what this is. It could be, trusting in the divine intelligence of the universe. It could be saying, “we are all love, and love wins.” It could be “Things always have a way of working out.” This strategy also works to provide relief to your system, and grant your mind and body new space.
Meditate. Brand new to meditation? Think you’re terrible at it? Don’t get it? All good. It can still work for you. You don’t have to be super practiced or great at it. This particular meditation technique works quickly, as long as you give it good intention and attention. We learned this particular method from Acharya Shunya, a renowned teacher of Ayurveda. It is the practice of “2 observers.” Find somewhere to sit undisturbed. Eyes closed, sitting straight up ideally, or could be laying down. Then, start by just softening. Observer level 1) Next, you can notice your thoughts. Say to yourself, “I am not my thoughts,” and observe them, almost like you are watching a movie. Say to yourself, “I am not my body” and observe your body. Observe any sensations in your body. Separate yourself from both the thoughts and body by observing them. 2) From here, pop out one more level, and observe your observer. Who is the you that is watching your thoughts and your sensations. This second level of consciousness will bring an additional layer of softness to your body. You may notice your breath allowing a deeper inhale. And to continue the practice, when a thought or sensation comes in, remind yourself, I am not my thoughts, I am not my sensations. Then pop out again and observe the you that is observing. What you are getting to here, eventually, is a pure meeting of your spirit, separate from the earthly experience of worry or body or anything mundane. A total separation. This practice has great capacity to unhook your mind and body from any unwanted emotional experiences.
For more ways to surrender, watch the full class video where we reveal two additional practices. Or consider joining Human Potential 1 class. The next class starts in August 2023. You can learn more about Human Potential Level 1 here. Email us at info@themindlight.com for more details!
