Hey, it’s already Friday again… and it’s already July! Life on earth seems to be happening at a faster pace than ever. I don’t know about you – sometimes I feel excited that things are progressing quickly, but most of the time I’m thinking “where the f!@$ is the time going!?”. I’ve nailed down that when I feel this sense of panic is a good indicator that I’m out of sync and out of flow with life.
Life is going to happen whether we want it to, or not. The choice is whether we live in constant resistance, or a state of surrender – so that’s what we’re going to dive into today: the act of surrender and all the fun and freak-outs that come with consciously riding the waves of the Universe.
Let’s ride!
experimenting with surrender
Two of my favourite books are by the same author, Michael Singer. You may have heard of The Untethered Soul, his New York Times Bestseller. I feel it should be required reading as it’s an incredible introspection into the being behind our thoughts and feelings. What a trip.
His lesser known, but even more amazing book, The Surrender Experiment, is an absolutely mind-blowing personal account of Michael completely surrendering to the Divine and trusting the path that is laid out before him. It’s an epic and gripping story that I highly recommend if you want to get inspired to really trust the Universe.
When I was living in San Diego, I was in a constant state of duality – I was really happy in many ways, but I was also very lost and depressed in even more ways. I had always wanted to live in California, but there was an annoying juxtaposition with everything being warm and sunny outside, but not feeling that way inside. It took literally years to make friends there, I couldn’t work in the US, I missed my family and, after what felt like a million years having different jobs and dabbling in different passions, I was still in my never-ending search for a sense of purpose.
Once we decided to move back to Canada, there was a sense of lightness, but also a sense of “what the hell am I going to do now”? If my California dream had come true and now I was leaving… what was next?
One night I was having a not-so-relaxing bath while my mind swirled into a stalemate with no clue what my next move was. I knew I didn’t want to go back to the hustle of auditioning 6 times a week for fast-food commercials and one-liners on TV shows and I didn’t want to build websites anymore.
I took a page out of Michael Singer’s book. I vividly remember laying back, putting my hands up and saying out loud to the Universe, “Okay, I’m done. I surrender. Whatever I’m supposed to do, just show me the way. Make it clear and I’ll do it.”
The weeks and months that followed changed the course of my life forever.
the sweet
Surrender isn’t an act of giving up, it’s falling faith-first with a heart full of trust. It’s paying attention to the feedback from the field of energy we live in about which direction to take at each moment on the path – and it’s knowing the Universe has your back no matter which way you go. The beauty of surrender is, you can’t f!#@ it up!
When you fully trust that you’re always exactly where you’re supposed to be at all times, it can take away the feeling that you’re “losing” at life.
Following my “surrender bath”, life happened at warp speed. Our house was on the market, we got our precious little puppy Toby, we enjoyed our remaining time in California, and then a global pandemic hit – perhaps you heard about that.
We scrambled to sell our place, our super sick dog almost died a few times, and we raced against the clock to drive from San Diego to Collingwood before the world ended. While two years of on-and-off lockdowns and chaos was absolutely awful and traumatizing in many ways, in surrender I noticed we were being provided the space and time to create the next part of our lives.
Steve and I would take long walks and talk about starting an out-of-this-world wellness studio – the way it would look, the technology we’d feature, all the fun little attention to detail – it all started to flow so clearly and easily. We found a space and started to sketch up concepts for the layout and quickly realized our dream wouldn’t fit. We needed at least 2800 square feet to fit everything in.
The landlord who showed us the original space said “let me show you a new building we’re working on”. We walked up the stars to an unfinished space that boasted an insane amount of windows and ridiculous views of the treetops and escarpment. We both knew “this is it!” in that moment. I asked the landlord how big it was… “2800 square feet”.
Through the course of researching, developing and building Vortex we were faced with many obstacles and set-backs, but the train just kept moving. When things didn’t work out, it was for a reason. When delays occurred, it was for a reason.
We didn’t want to open until all the mandates had been lifted; I just couldn’t picture our introduction to our community being masked – I had to greet people with my killer smile, of course! But the longer we waited we realized we had to open, regardless.
One day at the end of February, 2022, we set an opening date of March 2nd. The next day it was announced the mandates would be dropped on March 1st. Well played, Universe.
the sour
There’s so much magic and synchronicity and free-flowing fabulosity that comes with surrendering. Naturally, it also comes with a ton of uncertainty. A lot of us humans are control freaks, understandably so. In a world of uncertainty we want to feel like we’re the ones calling the shots. When you surrender, you’re still in control, you just ease up on the gas to pay attention to the signs and scenery instead of going full throttle towards your perceived destination.
The trustfall into the arms of the Universe is free, but it can cost you your mental health if you don’t keep it in check.
There are days when you’ll wonder what the hell you’re doing with your life. You may wonder how you went from singing in musicals to running a wellness studio. You’ll constantly question whether or not you’re on the right path or if you “missed the signs” along the way and ended up in an alternate reality where your life looks nothing like you thought it would.
In a hilarious turn of events, you may even become fixated on a specific timeline on how long surrendering takes – that’s not surrender, that’s expectation, and expectation leads to attachment and attachment will screw you every time.
In my opinion, there’s far more good than bad when you shift from resistance to surrender. You just need some simple guidelines in order to keep your $#!% together.
the solution
Your life is your life. You can absolutely create it however you want and you can fight the whole way if you choose. That said, after many years and attempts at figuring out my purpose, I’ve learned the path of least resistance and most excitement is the way to go.
The true beauty of surrendering is the idea that the Universe/God/Your Higher Self has a life waiting for you beyond what you could have ever imagined. Opening up to infinite possibilities served up by an all-knowing source is a lot more fun than deciding your stubborn way is the only way or the right way.
Let me be clear: surrender is not passive. It’s active participation in the Divine plan, you just have to pay attention.
Take inspired action whenever it occurs. If a spark of inspiration arrives at the doorstep of your mind, let it in and go for it!
Hone your intuition and take note of times when synchronicity, serendipity and “coincidences” occur. Acknowledgement of this style of Divine timing makes it happen more often!
Follow your highest excitement at all times. Whatever is lighting you up right now is the path forward. Read that again.
Lastly, stop trying to control the world and start controlling your nervous system. When we’re tuned in and turned on, we are able to tap into our natural ability to act as a receiver for all the possibilities that are presented to us.
The experiment of surrender has led me to a life I didn’t see coming that I’m immensely grateful for – a life of service to others, in helping them to realize their full potential. I know I’m meant to use all the ups and downs of my personal experiences to guide others to their true selves, and it’s all because I got the hell out of the way to see the potential for something bigger than myself.
It’s beautiful, it’s exhausting, it’s never-ending… it’s surrender, baby!