THE 'ESS' WORD

THE ‘ESS’ WORD.

An abstract concept which gave me a lot of grief in the early days of my journey was, ‘SURRENDER’. It seemed that books, teachers and even (well-meaning but interfering) friends were always commanding me to Surrender.

It seemed logical of course; in any conflict, the surrender of one party creates the possibility for peace. Now in a siege or a war, a white flag might do, but what if the siege, the conflict, is inside you?

Surrender for me was just another one of those things that everyone knew was essential to inner peace (… and inner peace is really just an extremely soothed state…) but nobody knew how to do it.

These days people don’t seem to use the word ‘surrender’ much, instead they talk about ‘giving up resistance’. I think they’re the same thing; when your enemy tells you ‘resistance is futile…’ they’re actually telling you to surrender. However, I’ve found few practical techniques for ‘giving up resistance’.

Why might we want to do this internally? Those of us in the so called Developed World have grown up in a culture which worships conquest and dominance; we have built our wealth on the broken backs of Mother Nature and the (so called) Undeveloped World. Why would we ever entertain any kind of surrender in ourselves?

Very simply, if we’re suffering even slightly from stress, giving up resistance and surrendering will soothe us and bring us to a place of internal peace. The practice is simple and easy to learn, gives results quickly and grows more powerful with use. It’s a great resource to have and valuable for staying centred in a world that grows potentially more stressful by the day.

Here is how you do it:

Step One: Identify whatever it is to which you need to surrender/ stop resisting.

Step Two: Say the following words to yourself, ‘I welcome this… (Sadness, anger, resentment…whatever it is.)

Step Three: Pause, pay attention to your breathing and notice the extent to which you feel soothed.

Step Four: Keep repeating steps two and three until you feel completely soothed. At that point you will be free of resistance, and experienced Surrender. Sometimes you may feel tired, other times quite energised, either way, you will notice that you feel lighter.

That’s it.

Sometimes we find ourselves grappling with a story in our heads, sometimes the dominant experience is one of an uncomfortable emotion and other times an uncomfortable physical sensation that we recognise as emotion in our bodies. However it doesn’t matter at which level you’re working with your stress, the mental, emotional or physical. Simply keep doing the steps until you feel soothed.

Have a play and feel free to give me any feedback! Thanks for looking in.

Rex.