Of the many lessons on my path of spirituality, the one that took me the longest to learn was surrender. In theory, I knew that in order to flow with life, I had to relinquish my control of the outcome and truly trust that the Universe had my best interests at heart. But in practice, the experience of surrender felt like diving off a cliff. I had to trust that the water far below would be warm and welcoming rather than cold and rocky. It was scary, yet exhilarating.
For years, I'd toyed with the idea of surrender. It felt like it was the right thing to do, but each time I tried to let go, my mind would immediately step in with an array of "What if..." scenarios. What if it doesn't work out? What if I should wait a little longer? What if I fail? I finally realized that these "What if..." scenarios were not protecting me; they were instilling fear in me, and hence, closing me off to surrender.
Finally, my heart won -- meaning the intelligence of the Universe won. We have this preconception about our hearts: that they're mushy and weak. When our hearts try to speak up, we shut them down with "logic." We do not give our hearts enough credit. But the truth is, the heart has so much more to offer us in life than the mind ever could. The reason for this is that the heart functions on love, whereas the mind functions on fear. The energy of love expands; the energy of fear contracts. Yet, by some weird illusion, we listen to our minds more than our hearts because we like to play it safe. We do not realize this mentality actually contracts life's possibilities: It's like going through life constantly ready to say "No" instead of "Yes."
I also came to realize that, by surrendering and living my life with the state of love as my guide, I opened myself to receiving blessings from the Universe. According to A Course in Miracles, a miracle occurs during a shift in perception, from fear to love, and can occur at any given moment. And by making this shift, we are able to flow, into courage, into true surrender. The mind thinks that to surrender is to quit. The heart knows that to surrender is to receive.
Needless to say, I made the plunge and followed my heart. I do the best I can each day by proactively moving towards my goals. And the end result, I release to the Universe. The process has been more beautiful and humbling than I could ever have fathomed. The Universe has truly shown me that it has my best interests at heart. More wonderful things have happened to me than I could have imagined. But these occurrences do not surprise me anymore. They have become part of my newfound logic, because I've realized that the heart is more miraculous than the mind could ever be.
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