“I’m noticing the difference between surrender and resignation. One is a true letting go, the other is believing I am powerless.”–Andrea Scher
Balancing Act ⚖️
Like numerous other professions, my job in education brings with it unique challenges each year. It is not just the day-to-day, week-to-week dilemmas, but it’s the balancing act between the demands of work and the demands of life. Additionally, like many jobs, the demands of work cannot be met within the confines of the scheduled work day. While the work day may officially end at 3:30, there is no way to complete all the work within those hours.
Thus, there is that predicament daily, and on weekends, of how to accommodate it all. Work and personal life demands are a jigsaw puzzle in which the pieces don’t always fit together. If I put a piece into the frame of work, then it seems to take away from the frame of personal life. Inside my head there is an image of how it should all blend seamlessly into one harmonious picture, but the reality is often an abstract palette of discordant images.
Solving the Puzzle of Time 🧩
How often do we feel the weight of: how to put the pieces together today? One of the keys, I’ve discovered, to balancing work and life is to take it one day at a time. To be sure, that sounds cliché. However, by focusing solely on one day, as part of the whole of the equation, it can often allow me to discern what must be done vs what needs to eventually be done. Then it is a matter of focusing on one unfolding moment at a time. If we can choose to surrender to the fact that we are facing challenges that cannot all be completed in one day, we can begin to let go of the attachment to “how it should be” and the picture-perfect image of “what it should look like.”
Attaching to that ideal image of “this is when and how it will be” is often the source of suffering and stress. It is only human nature–especially in the current social media world in which we live–to visualize how “perfect” it will look/feel when we complete X, Y, and Z. However, most of the time, at least in my experience, life tosses in some sort of unpredicted bollix, and suddenly that flawless finish is unattainable–as if it was ever possible to begin with!
The Strength of Surrender 💪
I have found that the notion of “surrender”is often associated with giving up, giving in, or acquiescing to a lower standard, but that is just our ego talking. Furthermore, surrender is not a resignation either, which can sometimes lead to feelings of bitterness, anger, and resentment because you can’t “have it all” as popular culture and social media would have us believe. Instead, surrendering to the fact that you “can’t do it all” actually takes strength.
Nonetheless, choosing to ignore the mind’s ego can feel vulnerable and scary. It takes a real act of courage to surrender, and let go of our attachments. But, once we decide to release the ego’s messaging, we begin to allow ourselves to be led inwardly by a higher power, our True Source.
Ease into the challenges one by one 😌
Surrendering lightens our load and allows our day to flow with more ease and much less tension. That is not to say our day will suddenly become easy, there will still be challenges, but we can feel free from the binds of stress that come with ego-driven motivation. When we let go of the ego’s attachments, we are recognizing our true personal worth–we so much more than what we do.
Ignoring our ego is an act of love and faith, not only in our abilities, but it is also a willingness to recognize that all those perfect images are just that–images, not the reality that social media often leads us to believe. Letting go of that attachment is an act of faith and a willingness to believe that we will be inwardly led by our intuition in harmony with our higher power.
Surrendering gives us permission to let go of all those perfect images our ego attaches to. We can begin to recognize that we are safe, despite the ego’s messaging that can falsely have us believing that, if we don’t achieve said-thing by said-time, we are failing. Instead, surrendering says, we are trusting the way will be provided; and therefore, we can and will choose wisely. Surrendering allows us the freedom to walk the path of life’s pavestone moments, step-by-step, stone-by-stone, knowing that when the time is right, all will come together as it should.
The ARt of Detaching 🍂
It’s about letting go of control. (We never had it to begin with anyway.) It’s as simple as breathing. Inhale. Exhale. One moment at a time. One step at a time. One priority at a time. Trusting that just as each breath provides us with life, our path will ultimately be paved in its due time
The power of surrender is not weak as our ego leads us to believe. Instead, it liberates us to stand in our strength by expelling all the tension, fear, anxiety, stress, and suffering attached to the ego’s. “This is how and when it should be.” It is the difference between closed fists trying to muscle their way through a situation, versus relaxed hands, flexibly handing each moment as it comes.
The energy of surrendering is only a breath away. Inhale energy for life’s next moment. Exhale, and release the tension attached to how it should be. Surrendering to the moment can really be that easy. It is our ego that makes it so hard. Inhale. Exhale. Surrender to your inner-knowing. The Breath of Life will provide.
Steph Simply 