Surrender

Defeated by Love

The sky was lit
by the splendor of the moon

So powerful
I fell to the ground

Your love
has made me sure

I am ready to forsake
this worldly life
and surrender
to the magnificence
of your Being

— Rumi

This week I have been thinking about what it means to surrender, “to cease resistance to the enemy”. In yoga the “enemy” is the internal voice that doesn’t recognize our connection to all things. Child’s pose is a posture of surrender, it says, Here I Am. I lay my head down, let my hips hang heavy, turn my gaze inward and just let myself be. No distractions, no outside influences, just being. I surrender to the truth of who I am by bring present to the moment.

Many of us can get on board to the idea of surrender. Yes! I’d like to let go of the things that keep me from being who I am or who I am called to be. . . But we expect surrender to happen in an instant or we expect that it is something we can just turn on in a moment. The truth is that there are no quick fixes, no short cuts, no easy outs. Surrender is a process. As Rumi remarks, there has to be a readiness to surrender. What warms us up to surrender? What opens our hearts to be in tune with the desire to let go?

With an asana practice we have an opportunity to move mindfully, slowly, intentionally and ease into surrender. The combination of movements that warm us up to deep holds allows us to imagine surrender, to play with it, to practice it. What would it look like to do that off the mat as well?

For the month of May we’ll be investigating the various ways of surrendering. Join me for Sunday Morning Yoga Club as we use our bodies and our breath to open our mind the grace of surrendering.