Surrender, step by step.

Surrender to the path before you, as it reveals itself to you. Allow life to express and work through you ~ This is a practice I’ve been working to allow for the past year. For much of my life, I carved the path I thought was best for me. The path I thought would give me everything I wanted in life - security, fulfillment, happiness.

But the path I carved for myself did not provide those things. Perhaps I had material stability- but the ground beneath me never felt stable, there were fleeting moments of fulfillment, but they were largely driven by the validation of others.

Only through surrender, by allowing life to guide me and walking the path as it appears before me, step by step, have I come to understand that the joys available to us in life are so much more potent and abundant when we step back and stop leading with our rational mind. When we stop talking ourselves into staying in boxes far too small, simply for the “security” or for the “optics” and approval of others.

Although the path before me is far more uncertain than the traditional path laid out with milestones and directions, I feel more certainty, more peace, more happiness than ever before.

A big leap into the unknown can seem daunting, but give yourself permission to start slow. Each day, try to talk yourself out of one less thing. Try to rationalize yourself away from one less thing. Try out the hobby you think you have no business trying. Take a different route home, even if it will take 5 minutes longer.

By listening to the tiny whisper inside of us and not “thinking” our way around it, we slowly build trust in ourselves and begin to see that we have so much more to offer the world than what we’ve been told.

We can experience true joy and happiness in this life, if we only practice surrender.