Surrender
In April, the Sita Wellness community conducts its Spring Cleanse—together online, and alone at home. Our community is spread across seven countries and four U.S. states. Coming together to discuss the barriers to completing the 21-day program successfully always sparks meaningful conversation. This year, we focused on the importance of surrendering to the process.
“Surrender” is a command we hear often in therapeutic and spiritual circles when striving toward higher levels of functionality or enlightenment: “Give it up to the cosmos,” or “Let your body tell you what it needs.” I’ve often wondered what blocks us from consistent—or even constant—surrender in a world filled with anxiety and disease. What’s stopping us from throwing in the towel and waiting to see where the chips fall?
(This happens to be a Vata person’s superpower, so I’ve been studying it from the perspective of Pitta and Kapha, particularly.) One Spring Cleanse participant shared that her resistance stemmed from a past experience—surrendering to another human and giving up the reins of personal agency.
In the context of the Spring Cleanse, though, we are most interested in why we don’t let Nature’s wisdom guide our actions. Why don’t we surrender to Nature?
I think it’s the sharks. I imagine the water is full of them, just waiting to digest me, starting with my toes. That’s why we stay in the boat and suffer the sea-sickness—from trying to remain in control, trying to still the storm, trying to stabilise port and aft and align them with our inner compass. Because I’M THE CAPTAIN OF MY OWN SHIP!
See how ego works? My canoe just became a ship, and I just became a nautical genius.
Long-term, resistance drains more from us than surrender. And the results might look like the American Dream (ask your grandma to define that term), but feel more like a burden that will eventually crush our spirit for living.
From his home in Big Sur, Henry Miller once wrote to Anaïs Nin:
“When you surrender, the problem ceases to exist. Try to solve it, or conquer it, and you only set up more resistance. I am very certain now that… if I truly become what I wish to be, the burden will fall away. The most difficult thing to admit, and to realise with one’s whole being, is that you alone control nothing. To be able to put yourself in tune or rhythm with the forces beyond, which are the truly operative ones, that is the task—and the solution…”
It’s only for the survival of our ego that we furiously paddle against the pull of the watery depths—when redemption actually comes from deciding to stop, and lie still.
If you weren’t in the boat but in the water, you would have been taught to lie on your back, breathe deeply into your diaphragm, and trust the natural buoyancy of the H₂O to keep you afloat until the solution arrives… whatever that may be.
Sounds like meditating to me—an awareness of self and environment, a delicate dance between engagement and acquiescence. From this balance in meditation, and later off the cushion, we are empowered to navigate challenges with grace and distinguishment (the result of tuned-up senses).
Take an artful approach to your day today: breathe deeply and float. Allow the buoyancy of Nature to bring the right solution to you.
