My commitment to a year of trust and surrender




Trust and Surrender. Ah … those two words!

I’ve come to realize that those two words are truly the key to a happy life. To a life of freedom, of contentment, of peace. In fact, I am sure of it. These past couple of years, I have had the blessing of meeting a few people who truly model an attitude of complete trust and surrender towards life. It is how they live, breathe and sleep; it is the lens through which they view the world. Those are the happiest people I have ever met. I am in awe of them and now realize that I have been on a lifelong journey to attain that kind of freedom.

Now, I won’t lie, I have also come to realize how freaking hard it is to change deeply-ingrained emotional and cognitive patterns!

You see, like most people, I have grown-up learning to deeply distrust life. I learned that life is full of dangers and negative surprises. That one always has be weary. That nothing comes easy. That in order for things to work out, you need to control, control, control. That is all I knew and all my brain/body knows still to this day. This is often the case for most of us as this is how we have been conditioned to think in our society. But when you add to that conditioning some extra sprinkle of conditioning from childhood trauma and generational trauma, then you have a beautifully rigid structure of thinking and of being that is riddled with negativity, anxiety, sadness, and fear.

And so, I am on a mission this year to truly embrace and cultivate an attitude of trust and surrender towards life. And I am doing it for me and also for those out there who feel like me – who may feel like they are too far gone, that their minds are broken, that they carry too much sadness, fear, and self-hatred in their hearts to ever get there. I am doing it for them. Because I want to show them that they can do it. Because If I am to help them, I also need to figure it out for myself.

Now going back to those few incredible people that I have met, because there is much to say about what I have observed! These people, through their more trusting/ loving/ free attitude, seem to more easily attract positive things in their lives – positive relationships, opportunities, projects, etc. I used to think it was the other way around – I used to say ‘‘well of course they’re happy, look at what they have’’. But now I’m not so sure. I think that their way of interacting with life, of not pushing or controlling, of letting things arise and embracing what does, somehow leads to some miraculous rewards. It’s as if the universe is matching their frequency, which is what books on manifesting are all about. And, on the other hand, I can totally see how my tendency to contract from life – due to the emotional pain that I am often feeling – seems to prevent me from somehow accessing what life is trying to offer me. I create this barrier, this wall, and life can’t get through. And since life doesn’t have the opportunity to show me it’s good & worthwhile, I wrongly perceive that as evidence that it is not worth trusting, which keeps strengthening that wall.

And so, like so many others, I have decided to try a new experiment this year. I am more motivated than ever to not let my emotional pain and my negative thoughts get in the way of my openness to life. I have experienced too much unnecessary pain from my mind that I am now done; I don’t want to keep unconsciously inflicting pain on myself. I also want to honor the blessing of having had some amazing people come into my life who are showing me a new way of being.

Here is my commitment: I have decided to surrender, with complete love and trust, to whatever arises in my life this coming year…and when I feel like pushing back…I commit to taking a deep breath and surrendering some more. I want to see how my life can change by doing this. If anything, I want to see if I can be more at peace and content, even if nothing on the outside does end up changing. Because living from trust and surrender ultimately means that nothing needs to change. It doesn’t need to change because I am trusting that life is completely full and perfect the way it is now, the way the universe/God/Love has intended it to be for me.

In other words, this year I am fully, completely, and utterly trusting that ‘’the universe has my back’’ – as Gabrielle Bernstein says. And I will do this radically, no matter what challenges or difficult circumstances arise. I will do this, even though my mind will probably fight me about it day in and day out, even though there will surely be crying, there will surely be fear, and there will surely be pain. I will not let that intention go. I WANT to be free…totally and utterly free. That has always been my heart’s craving. To be free and to help others become free. Specifically, others like me who feel like they have too much baggage…

I can see how even writing this is triggering thoughts in my head such as ‘’I can’t believe you’re writing this, you are so far from being free, you will fail at this’’. But I am ready for all these thoughts, they are part of a very strong habituated narrative that is in my past. I am ready to let that person go. To find out who else I can be…and to accept, with intense compassion, the normal & painful arising and transformation of all these rigid structures that have been there for so long.

And so, here is my mantra for this year. A mantra that I will tell myself every morning while I am meditating, and throughout the day, however many times I need to:

May I find the courage and compassion to surrender to whatever is happening in this moment.
May I trust that I am held and loved.
May I trust that the Universe is providing for what is best for me & for the greater good of all beings.

Finally, I will leave you with the chorus lyrics of Lauren Daigle’s song ‘’You Say’’. She writes this song to God. Now if the term God irks you, feel free to change it to whatever you’d like: life, love, the universe, etc. I have been listening to this song a lot as it seems to be all about trust and surrender.

You say I am loved, when I can’t feel a thing
You say I am strong when I think I am weak
You say I am held when I am falling short
When I don’t belong, You say I am yours
And I believe, I believe
What you say of me
I believe

Have a great day everyone! Thanks so much for reading this 😊

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