During those times of deep and powerful inner change, it can be hard to want to stay in that intensity. The ego self will want to fix it, change it, and generally avoid it. To all of that, I can only say, “Surrender.”
And surrender some more.
And keep surrendering.
It is through surrendering to inner transformation that the transformation can unfold. When we are busy trying to change things, we are usually depleting our energy. For those of you who already have some level of chronic fatigue, that additional action will simply debilitate you. And so you may find yourself surrendering by virtue of having no energy left at all. Sometimes, I think that kind of fatigue is the wisdom of the divine at work. God knows that sometimes the only way to get a person to surrender is to knock ’em out.
Chronic Fatigue and Spiritual Awakening
To be clear, surrender isn’t about an inability to take action. It’s the understanding that some actions are already being taken, and most of what we might do would be counter-productive or a duplication of the intelligence that’s already hard at work. In essence, surrender is the smartest non-action we can take. 🙂
So let me offer a few brief thoughts on surrender, especially for those of you going through big spiritual shifts.
Surrender Is Not Laziness
I want to clear up any confusion that surrender is laziness. I also want to clear up any notions that surrender means everything in life will just be given to you.
For the first point, surrender is like ceasing to paddle your boat in the river to start to pay attention to how the river is actually flowing. Once you know how it is flowing, then you can paddle wisely. Until we do that, many human beings are paddling blindly onto rocks, upstream, in circles, and onto the shore. In this way, we see that surrender brings clarity, and from that clarity, we can take responsible action as and when it is necessary.
That second part is key because life requires us to take action. That’s part of living. We take action to get food, find shelter, take care of our children, and so forth. Amidst awakening, surrender may also help you to realize when you need more energetic support in your transformation, a different or more regular spiritual practice, and other things. Surrender really is a powerful ally in decision-making and being consciously engaged with your life.
However, what you don’t do is think that surrender will just shower you with money and everything you would ever want because you’re going to “attract” it or something. This kind of thinking gets people into all kinds of unnecessary trouble, and there are already enough inner troubles to be healed without making additional stress on yourself through laziness and false beliefs.
Keep Surrendering to Your Spiritual Transformation
At each big shift in your life, surrender can help you to consciously engage with whatever new experience has arisen much the same way it helps in your transformation. Sometimes, it will be helping you do both.
Overreacting to Your Spiritual Awakening Transformation
In this way, surrender becomes not just a tool during a specific time of your life but a tool that allows you to engage with any life change. Surrender is simply a way to stop and pay attention. It’s a way to evaluate how the river is flowing and consider which way makes the most sense to paddle. It truly is one of the wisest spiritual practices we can maintain.
And there’s not much to surrendering either. It goes like this:
Stop doing things.
Pay attention to what you are feeling.
Pay attention to how life is moving within you and around you.
Breathe, and breathe some more to relax into the present moment.
Go from there.
8 Comments
Perfect, just what I need to read. I'm breathing and relaxing right now, into the now, into the big inner pain I feel inside, and into the flow of life dynamically happening outside.
I'm feeling grateful for the prompts in this post.
You're welcome, Sair.
Hello Jim , thank you . I am awake more today reading your spiritual awakening expirience. I am in spiritual awakining process for 5 years, i experienced everything that i Reed in your blog, inconditionnel love at the bigining, i dont know how it hapened but i sow a men and i felt like never bifore, not phisic atraction an energy in my heart that i can't explane, like an explosion of love in my chest. Then a sensation that i feel feelings and emotions of this person, and a deep conection with this soul, it was the most divine feeling that i experienced in my life, after a few weeks my heart started to feel feelings of unhappynes. everytime i had an feeling that i feel someone else feelings . It was difficult to understend what happen with me, divene feeling of love desapeared, shifted with pain feeling in my chest. I started to think this person is unhappy, i tried to say kalm yourselth, and is working, i asked my selph how, and what going on ? After i experienced différents stage of feelings , sometime happyness sometime sadness, and other feelings. In one moment i started to have sensation of energy on my body. After sensation of energy on my head, front, like bzzz, then is started all that you discribed, illusions , imagination. I did not knew at that moment what is realy hapening with my . I started to look un internet, foud spiritual awakining, i started to meditate , in 6 month i felt calmness and happyness, after 6 month ,was in 2016 , i felt nervious in medotation, i stop et meditate, i did not knew what is happening, started dark side of awakening, i avoided every thing , and it became an a big iner conflict, i was not prepared for this big changes, from 2014 – 2019 no awarness that what going on with my life, who i am, why is hapining all with me. I try to accept everything but is repeating the same cycle, i can't meditate, i Feel nervious , crazy, difficult to be aware, i don't Feel my feelings, voices in my head dont stop. Now i am aware that no body else is here, just me, everything was ilusions of my mind. Today i can't go deeper inside because of ego résistance, from this moment i can't see the way To continue.
Thanks for sharing, Irina. It's important to learn to do inner work to look at your ego beliefs. In dissolving those beliefs, you can find peace again. Please search on my blog on the topic of inner work for more tips on doing inner work and dissolving your ego.
Thank you so much Jim, I started my process about 3,5 months ago with crippling fear and anxiety. I found your blog only yesterday, but everything I have read so far has been so in tune with what I have been feeling through and figuring out for myself. I have worked through many surface layers already and am now opening doors that are much deeper and harder to figure out. I find that I've been feeling constant low levels of sadness and depression. When I surrender, I cry and then I feel exhausted, but I get no insight in where this sadness is coming from. I know however it will pass, and I am learning to accept myself in every single way, happy or sad. It feels as if I can only release through crying, what are your views on this? How can I support myself when I feel so tired after crying? Do we still process if we sleep?
Hi Diede. Send me a message through my contact form, and I can offer some more thoughts that are specific to you.
Thank you Jim – exactly what I needed to hear… conveys to my intellectual mind what my heart knows & has been prompting. Gradually the intellect is learning to increasingly trust & flow/work with the heart's intuition – the heart seems to know first, then the intellect catches up.
The more you surrender, the deeper you go in understanding–an understanding that is beyond what the mind and heart want as well as the body.