Want More Control Over Your Life? Surrender

Over the weekend, I had a splitting headache. Along with that, I spent about 11 hours preparing my taxes that were super complicated this year due to some major life changes. To say I felt stressed would be a major understatement. However, I learned a good lesson about surrender in the process.

Surender for More Peace

Even as I felt the pain in my head and exhaustion from hours of pouring over numbers and then the shocking result (I owe a lot this year), I felt a glimmer of gratitude. Because as my friend likes to point out, you wouldn’t have to pay a lot in taxes if you didn’t make a good living. He is correct. I can find gratitude in the fact that I can support myself, and I do make a good living, and the cost of the freedom of working for myself is higher than normal taxes. It’s worth the trade-off.

On Saturday, as I was spiraling out of control emotionally, it finally dawned on me, I could keep worrying about paying the big tax bill, or I could surrender and let it go. I had no control over it anyway, so why waste time in a fit of panic. The minute I decided to surrender and let God/The Universe figure it all out, I felt at peace. The situation hadn’t changed, but I had and my feelings about it. I stopped resisting and fighting and just accepted.

A New Day, New Opportunities to Surrender

My week started with even more stress when something that I expected to happen in a few weeks was moved up, and suddenly I was chasing my tail trying to get things worked out. I started feeling that familiar out-of-control feeling again, so I stopped, did my healing meditation with David Ji, and immediately I felt calmer and more in control of my emotions and my life.

There is such sweetness in surrender. As you learn to regularly let go and let God, it takes all the pressure off you. We are limited in how much we can control our circumstances. You can’t just snap your fingers and fix things. It’s so much nicer to choose to let it go. This way, you are exercising control over how you want to react to it, and that feels pretty darned good.

My friend even commented on how quickly I rebounded from all of this stress, and it was all due to mindfulness (being aware of my mind racing and needing to let go and meditate) and surrender.

The Silver Lining

Today, I was speaking with a potential new client, and we laughed over the phrase, “sometimes the worst things can include a hidden gift.” I was referring to the worst year of my life when I had surgery and lost so much in a short amount of time. The silver lining here was all my suffering led me to the most beautiful growth, and healing. I would have never gotten there without complete surrender.

This past weekend and even today taught me over and over again, the answer is always surrender and acceptance. Surrendering gives me back control of my life and how I want to feel about things. Even though it may sound counterintuitive, it’s actually freeing to surrender to a higher power than I.

The next time you feel like life is spinning out of control, try surrendering and letting it go. You might just be surprised at how good it feels!