Sweet Surrender

For the month of May, I'm dedicating my daily studies to the art--and for me at times, challenge--of surrender. I wince at times by the sound of some of the synonyms for surrender, so this is definitely an area for me to develop and stretch my vulnerability muscles. So here goes:


Day 31:
After a month of practicing letting go, I am more sure than ever that this needs to be a continual practice for me, one I work on everyday, one I won't "achieve" or "master," but that is why it is called a "practice." I look forward to the end of each month now when I can look back at each daily post and create a review of what I learned and shared for that particular month, so for this month, I'd like to create a word picture poem for you:

Sweeeet
Surrender
What could this mean?
Acceptance?
Not resisting?
Softening?
 
Could it be about releasing?
Letting go?
Singing?
Creating?
Passion?
 
I think surrendering is
Grace
Gratitude
Forgiveness
Embracing Life
Expressing My Creativity
Enjoying This Moment
Practicing
Remaining Open
Letting Go of the Need to Control
Trusting, and
Cultivating Faith
Everyday


Day 30:
Today I let go of well-made plans and instead enjoyed the beautiful sunshine and views of Lake Washington by going on a lovely walk.



Day 29:
A quote on letting go from a book I'm listening to this month:

"Meditation is about letting go. Yoga is letting go of what's not authentic for us."
-Cyndi Lee in May I Be Happy


Day 28:
Shortly before I heard the news of the great Maya Angelou's passing this morning, I had been thinking about how hard letting go of people is and how it's the hardest thing to accept and surrender to. 



Day 27:
Today I practiced letting go of papers--and lots of them! As I get ready for my last day at the position I've been in for almost 7 years, I am discovering many opportunities to let go.


Day 26:
Pain, as tense, uncomfortable and grumpy as it can make me, really does have a remarkable way to slowing me down and putting a stop to productivity, which is sometimes overrated. Like for instance, today I had a list of things to accomplish, but pain stopped by for its visit and although I have managed to work on several things from my list, I have spent the majority of the day on the couch with the kitties, relaxing with the heating pad, cable TV and social media. So the morale of the story? Sometimes I get to practice letting go of my plans and surrender into the moment. Because I know if I fight it, the pain will only get worse. So I might as well accept that today I'm not going to get a whole lot done.


Day 25:
If you surrender completely to the moments as they pass, you live more richly those moments. ~Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Day 23 and 24:
I think I can't let this whole month of practicing letting go without highlighting the lyrics to the hit Disney song from Frozen called Let It Go. :) Actually good food for thought!

It’s funny how some distance

Makes everything seem small
And the fears that once controlled me
Can’t get to me at all

It’s time to see what I can do

To test the limits and break through
No right, no wrong, no rules for me
I’m free

Let it go, let it go

I am one with the wind and sky
Let it go, let it go


Day 21 and 22:
I am realizing as I focus on surrender this month that everyday we have so many opportunities to practice in different ways. I tend to hold onto things for a long time--actual items that I think I might need or use later on, nostalgic things that bring back fun memories, heirlooms from family, emails that have important information in them or that have touched me in some way, papers--oh, papers, how I collect articles and quotes and inspiring ideas and beautiful images--these have actually become quite useful for my collaging gatherings thankfully, photos--it's so hard for me to even delete favorite pictures taken with my phone even after uploading them to my computer. And I have realized that this saving or holding of items extends to memories and past feelings too--both joyful and hard ones. So the practice of surrendering and letting go is so important to me personally. Those things and memories I hold onto weigh me down and I feel so free when I practice letting them go. But even after having let go of something I once cherished, I have had decluttering remorse at times and in those moments I now know to practice surrendering into the present moment and trusting that I have all I need right now--I have air to breathe, beauty of nature and humans to see, wonderful people to love, art to create, and lessons to share. That's what I call abundance!


Day 20:
Letting go of stress through writing and blogging while outside in nature after an energizing walk is one of my favorite ways to practice surrendering into the present moment.

http://ecua-gringa.blogspot.com/2014/05/what-your-passion-project.html


Day 19:
"The creative process is a process of surrender, not control."
~Julia Cameron


Day 18:
Today I had the opportunity to try mosaic art for the first time with my dear mom at Seattle Mosaic Arts, and we practiced letting go of perfection and remaining open to the art that we created through broken shards of pretty colored glass. It was such a fun challenge and we also get to practice patience as we await our final product for one to two weeks while it gets grouted. Looking forward to seeing our masterpieces! :)






Day 17:
A poem to practice surrendering:
I breathe in, I breathe out
I let go of stress
I accept uncertainty
I surrender to life's beauty
I lean into joy
I release tightness and tension
I breathe in, I breathe out


Day 16:



Day 15:
Tonight I had the pleasure of being surrounded by inspiring art with two wonderfully creative friends. As we walked to different art galleries and talked, more and more creative ideas flowed through me and my energy soared. Afterwards, I felt the urge to grasp at each of the ideas I had and write them down somewhere, afraid that I might lose one of them if I didn't. And then I remembered my monthly practice of surrender and I reminded myself that if the ideas came from within me, they would surely be around waiting for the perfect time to resurface and for me to remember them if I had forgotten temporarily. So I practiced letting go and resting in the moment. Enjoying it, not trying to control or manipulate it. It's comforting to remember that my creative ideas come from within and can't be taken away.


Day 14:
Embracing my spiritual gifts and inner strengths is an act of surrendering into my true self, owning who I really am, and enjoying the surge of energy that comes with accepting myself and loving myself.

Here is my weekly wellness blog on this topic:
http://ecua-gringa.blogspot.com/2014/05/feeding-my-soul-with-creative-energy.html


Day 13:
I remembered seeing a post a few months ago with the most amazing art formations created, but not on paper or a canvas--instead on a vast beach, nature's incredible canvas! And so I thought of this as a wonderful way to release our need for control and surrender into the present moment. Check out this inspiring artist's work: http://www.pinterest.com/ahapintrest/andres-amador-arts/ .


Day 12:
I just read a thoughtful article on surrender and I wanted to share the link and a quote from it:

Surrender allows us to step into our lives ready to receive, completely able to manifest, and willing to embrace everything—the good, the bad, and the ugly—with an open heart. It’s from this place that real magic happens. ~Claire Obeid, http://tinybuddha.com/blog/letting-go-trusting-allowing-happy-free/


Day 11:
Another great quote on letting go and forgiveness from Tiny Buddha:
“Forgiveness does not change the past but it does enlarge the future.” ~Paul Boese


Day 10:
I took a hiatus over the weekend but still thought about the topic of letting go and surrender a lot, so here is another quote for inspiration from a wonderful website, Tiny Buddha:
“Genuine forgiveness does not deny anger but faces it head-on.”  ~Alice Duer Miller


Day 9:
The practice of letting go is sometimes a roller coaster ride as you break free from the old habits of trying to control everything, but it is totally worth the ride!


Day 8:
I'm realizing more and more this month how important grace is when practicing letting go. I found this quote that describes this beautifully:

"In the end, only three things matter: how much you loved, how gently you lived, and how gracefully you let go of things not meant for you." 
~Buddhist saying


Day 7:
This morning serendipity visited as I turned on the radio on my way to work to hear an interview with Dr. Judith Orloff talking about the art of surrender and reminding us to savor the simple joys in life and breathe. :) Here is one quote from her new book, The Ecstasy of Surrender, that I have found true:

Trying to force things only disturbs your goals. Forcing will not help. Everything happens in its right time.” 
~Dr. Judith Orloff in The Ecstasy of Surrender


Day 6:
My wellness blog this week is focused on letting go through creative action, specifically through creating collage art:

http://ecua-gringa.blogspot.com/2014/05/practicing-letting-go-through-collaging.html


Dia Cinco:
Today I am working on releasing the need to control everything. As the song goes:

I release,
And I let go!

Now I need to work on releasing my furrowed brow too. Softening the face is something very helpful that I heard in a yoga or meditation class once.


Day 4:
I find a lot of inspiration and understanding when I create art, so today I made a few new collages, one with the theme of letting go and relaxing in the moment:



Day 3:
For over two years, I have experienced intense pain, thankfully a lot less in the past year, but it has taught me a lot and also given me the opportunity to practice the path of least resistance, softening to the pain, and surrendering. This quote that I found on TinyBuddha.com explains it well:

"Suffering is not caused by pain but by resisting pain."  ~Unknown 


Day 2:
Surrendering and leaning in are recurring themes I've heard at meditation retreats and read about in articles on mindfulness, so I decided to reread what the great Pema Chödrön has written about surrender.
If we begin to surrender to ourselves — begin to drop the story line and experience what all this messy stuff behind the story line feels like — we begin to find bodhichitta, the tenderness that’s underneath all the harshness. ~Pema Chödrön, Start Where You Are 


Day 1:
As a small girl, I sometimes had trouble trusting and accepting help from others. I would even start to cringe when a close family friend offered to hold my bicycle up for me while I was learning to ride. In high school, I remember attending leadership camps where we would literally build trust and fall back into each other's arms. This was definitely not natural for me but a good experience. I have since then practiced trusting more and more, and it doesn't make me cringe anymore thankfully. But surrendering to the unknown, releasing one's need to control everything and everyone, trusting life, and finding peace admist the chaos is truly an art that I would like to practice more often. 

I found this talk very helpful from Oprah's Super Soul Sunday with Mark Nepo on surrendering:

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