I had plans for spring. With renewed inspiration, motivation and energy after a break away, I was ready to hit the ground running – organising workshops and courses, moving forward with purpose. Instead, I got tonsillitis and spent my first week back in bed.
Initially I was frustrated. I don’t like being out of action at the best of times, but resting was the opposite of what I wanted. But resistance was futile. At some point I had to accept it. Accept that the week wasn’t going to look like I’d hoped, allow myself to be as I was, to feel how I felt and to rest.
This is surrender – acceptance.
There isn’t a great deal in life that we can truly control, beyond the choices we make. When things don’t go as we want or planned, we can choose to stay stuck in frustration, wishing things were different. Or we can choose to accept that they aren’t; that things simply are how they are, whether it’s what we want or not. We can choose to resist, push back, focus on wanting things to be different. Or we can choose to surrender to how they are, accept what is and allow it to unfold without fighting it.
Whichever we choose, won’t change the circumstances but it will change our experience. Resistance is exhausting, draining energy that could be used elsewhere. Think of a river. It doesn’t try to push the rock out of its way; it flows around it. We can try to push at the boulder, or we can find another way forward.
Surrender isn’t about giving up. Surrender is choosing to accept, freeing your energy and attention, to see new possibilities, to adapt and move forward.
This is the power of surrender.
Helping clients surrender and find their way forward is some of the most powerful work I do. If you’d like support, contact: jennawardcoaching@gmail.com, or for what’s coming up: https://linktr.ee/jennawardcoaching
