{"id":958,"date":"2022-10-19T09:14:08","date_gmt":"2022-10-18T23:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/?p=958"},"modified":"2023-06-28T11:50:56","modified_gmt":"2023-06-28T01:50:56","slug":"the-art-of-surrender","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/the-art-of-surrender\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of surrender"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><em>&#8220;The shortcut is surrender.&#8221;&nbsp;\u2014 Pandit Baskaran<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There will always be moments in life when we need to let go \u2014 of a situation, an idea, a person, an object, a job, the list goes on. The act of letting go is easy to understand logically, but it can be very challenging to put into practice.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Holding on at times may seem like the easier option \u2014 as it might feel familiar, comfortable or safe \u2014 but often the path of holding on is actually at the root of our suffering.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Author, Buddhist practitioner and meditation teacher Jack Kornfield wisely suggests, \u201cTo let go does not mean to get rid of. To let go means to let be. When we let be with compassion, things come and go on their own.\u201d I see these words as an invitation to surrender. There is no suggestion to do anything. Instead, the offering is to simply let things be, just as they are. These words are the bridge between understanding an intellectual need to let go, and actually embodying the teaching.&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This morning, I opened up my copy of Tess Guinery\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Apricot Memoirs&nbsp;<\/em>and read these words: \u201cComfort with the unknown: the silver lining of faith.\u201d Perhaps finding ease in the spaces where we are plagued with mystery is an act of surrender. Because when we feel more comfortable with not knowing, we are much more willing to surrender, let go and trust the magical, mysteries of life.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what does the practice of surrender look like in the moment? It may mean choosing not to react to something that rattles you, deciding to take a moment to pause before you speak or simply placing your hands on your heart and accepting that you don\u2019t have any control over a situation right now. These moments of non-doing \u2014 otherwise known as being \u2014 are forms of letting be.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Our mindful publications, such as&nbsp;<em><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Our mindful publications, such as&nbsp;Being Mindfulness Workbook, Being Gratitude &amp; Hope Journal&nbsp;and&nbsp;Being Mindful Journal,&nbsp;offer tangible tools that encourage taking the shortcut of surrender in everyday life. The more ease we find in the unknown, the more trusting we become in life.&nbsp;&nbsp; (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/wellbeingshop.com.au\/products\/mindfulness-workbook?_pos=1&amp;_sid=8fb9f35ef&amp;_ss=r\" target=\"_blank\">Being Mindfulness Workbook<\/a>,<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Our mindful publications, such as&nbsp;Being Mindfulness Workbook, Being Gratitude &amp; Hope Journal&nbsp;and&nbsp;Being Mindful Journal,&nbsp;offer tangible tools that encourage taking the shortcut of surrender in everyday life. The more ease we find in the unknown, the more trusting we become in life.&nbsp;&nbsp; (opens in a new tab)\" href=\"https:\/\/wellbeingshop.com.au\/collections\/books\/products\/100-days-of-gratitude-hope-your-journal-to-find-meaning-contentment-in-life\" target=\"_blank\"> Being Gratitude &amp; Hope Journal&nbsp;<\/a><\/em>and&nbsp;<em><a href=\"https:\/\/wellbeingshop.com.au\/collections\/books\/products\/wellbeing-mindful-journal \" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"Our mindful publications, such as&nbsp;Being Mindfulness Workbook, Being Gratitude &amp; Hope Journal&nbsp;and&nbsp;Being Mindful Journal,&nbsp;offer tangible tools that encourage taking the shortcut of surrender in everyday life. The more ease we find in the unknown, the more trusting we become in life.&nbsp;&nbsp; (opens in a new tab)\">Being Mindful Journal<\/a>,<\/em>&nbsp;offer tangible tools that encourage taking the shortcut of surrender in everyday life. The more ease we find in the unknown, the more trusting we become in life.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The shortcut is surrender.&#8221;&nbsp;\u2014 Pandit Baskaran There will always be moments in life when we need to let go \u2014 of a situation, an idea, a person, an object, a job, the list goes on. The act of letting go [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":959,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=958"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1063,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/958\/revisions\/1063"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=958"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=958"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wellbeing.com.au\/being\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=958"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}