Being In Transition: Surrender

This session is an invitation to gently release the emotional experience of resisting a time of change or life transition by discovering what lies behind it. You will work with your awareness to discover what is true for you now and surrender to it for more lightness and ease during this time. You will also open up to life and learn about what this change means for you, holding sorrow or sadness with tenderness and recognizing aspects of your emotional experience you weren't aware of.

Transcript

Hi,

I'm Emily and welcome to this series on managing transitions with grace.

Times of change can be a really tough experience and most of us can remember a time when we stayed too long in a place or a job or a relationship just because we didn't want to have to go through the transition of moving on to something new.

And it's actually a part of human nature to find a comfort zone and to resist change.

But with the right tools,

You can learn to move through transitions with more grace and ease.

In this third session in the series,

I'm going to walk you through a practice of surrendering to what is.

When we fight our own experience,

There's struggle,

Resistance and unease.

But if we learn to surrender gently into whatever it is that a transition represents,

We will find more balance and calm and even great beauty during difficult times.

So let's start just by getting comfortable and setting an intention for this practice.

Make sure to make whatever arrangements you need to put your body into a comfortable position.

And once you've done that,

Close your eyes and bring your attention to how you are breathing.

As you settle in,

Let your breathing slow down.

Gently breathe in and gently breathe back out.

Make whatever adjustments you need to relax.

Drop your shoulders down.

Relax your face and your eyelids and your jaw.

Feel where your hands are resting and let any tension in your arms or hands just dissolve.

Now let's set an intention for the session.

You can pick something if it feels right to you or you can say to yourself,

My intention is to surrender into whatever is my true experience.

Now say to yourself,

May this process serve my highest good.

Rest for a moment and focus on your breath as you let this intention sink into all of the parts of you.

Remember that you can pause at any time you need during this session.

Meditation is a lot like yoga practice.

There's no rush to go deeper and there's no such thing as doing it better.

All we're going to do is become more aware and the pace of that process doesn't matter at all.

So when you're ready,

Bring your attention to the energy that's running through your body.

Pay attention to your breath as it moves in and out of your body.

Pay attention to your body as the breath moves through it.

Notice how breathing is completely autonomous,

How you can let yourself be breathed.

There's no need to do anything.

Just surrender into the energy that is moving the breath through your body.

The body responds to the breath all on its own.

All of the oxygen that comes into the body is carried by the blood to the cells where it's needed.

And this happens on its own without any effort from you at all.

Relax into your breath knowing that the life energy in your body is making everything happen and you can trust it to do so.

Now think of a transition that you're going through or something that you want to work on,

A difficult experience maybe or something that you feel resistance about.

There's no need to make any choices here.

Because of the attention you set,

Whatever arises will be that thing that serves your highest good.

Now bring your attention to the place where you're holding this issue or transition in your awareness.

It may take a few moments to find it,

But when we locate the place that something occupies in our consciousness or in our awareness,

When we put our attention there,

We say we're holding it in our awareness.

So just hold this transition in your awareness.

And notice if there's any thought that pops into the mind when you focus on the energy of the transition.

Pay any thoughts no attention.

They tend to come up with the energy,

But we're not going to work with them in this session.

We're going to go beneath the thoughts to the energy itself.

Notice how your body responds when you hold the transition or issue in your awareness.

And when we resist something and its energy,

There's usually a tension somewhere in the body or sometimes it's a pressure in the energy around the body.

These can be very subtle and they tend to be diffuse.

So just notice if this is the case for you and be aware of how holding the transition in mind is linked to a shift in the quality of your awareness.

The quality or feel of our awareness is going to reflect any resistance we feel to what is.

What is,

Is what we refer to as the truth of our own experience.

And this truth doesn't come from the mind.

It doesn't come from the stories,

But it comes from our awareness,

Which is much,

Much greater and more expansive than the mind.

Now pay close attention to your awareness and just ask yourself,

What's the meaning of this experience that I'm resisting?

Slowly gently put the question out there and just rest in total stillness,

Making no attempt to rush the answer in any way.

And if your attention wanders at all,

Just bring it back to your breath and then back to your awareness.

With the transition in your awareness,

Ask yourself again,

In truth,

Why am I resisting this experience?

Rest in your breath and notice whatever comes up.

When something does arise,

Whatever it is,

Just surrender into the truth of it.

To surrender means to give in,

To accept the energy of it and to let it have a place in your experience.

It could be thoughts,

An emotion,

A feeling or a belief.

Whatever's coming up for you,

Let it have space.

Make no effort to label it nor understand it.

Let go of any thoughts about it.

Let go of all resistance to it and let the energy of it wash over you very gently.

Let go of it and you will notice how it proceeds on its way.

Sometimes things come up in bits and pieces and if this happens for you,

Just continue the process of surrendering to what is.

Let every part arise and hold it in your awareness and become aware without any resistance at all.

Let it be what it is.

Give it the space that it needs and then let it go.

Slowly and gently observe what is going on in your consciousness,

In your awareness.

Let your breathing be gentle while you do this and very gently continue to surrender into the truth of your own experience.

Become aware of how different the energy of surrender is.

It's more soft and more nurturing than resistance and when you give in to the truth of the experience,

It tends to heal.

It soothes and it's of a higher energy.

What is,

Is shifting moment to moment.

There's nothing static in our experience.

Nothing unchanging.

Nothing set in stone.

Take another moment just to observe it and then let all of it melt away.

Now,

Begin to come back to my voice and let things lighten up a little bit.

You'll notice the presence of a different energy in your awareness.

It's usually lighter.

Maybe it's accompanied by lingering emotions or processing.

Be sure to take great care and comfort of yourself as you emerge from this process of surrendering.

Gently bring your attention back to the energy that runs through your body,

Back to your body itself.

Is it any different?

Your energy might have a different quality now.

Let any changes you've experienced,

Any recognition register in your body,

In your awareness.

Be aware of any sensations that arise in your body now.

Be aware of any sensations in your breath.

Whatever has come up for you,

It's completely okay.

Whenever you feel ready,

Take a minute just to let things be really,

Really light.

Take a deep breath into your lungs and gently exhale.

Bring all of your attention to a feeling of having deeply,

Deeply rested.

Put your focus for a moment on integrating whatever has come up for you over the past few minutes.

Gently let your attention become a little more alive,

A little quicker,

And more responsive.

Maybe stretch your body a little bit and take another deep breath in and gently exhale.

So as we wrap up this session,

Bring your attention fully back,

Back to the surface,

Back to my voice.

You may want to recall your intention.

Whatever experience you've had,

It has served the highest good,

And my hope is that it will also bring you a sense of ease and lightness to whatever it is that you're facing.

Thank you so much for sharing this practice with me today,

And I hope this session was helpful.

Remember that you can always come back to this meditation if you need to.

I've been so grateful for your comments on these meditations,

And I'd love to hear about how your experience has been.

If it feels right,

Please let me know what came up for you and how you feel now.

I hope to see you back here soon.

Reviews

This series has been helpful as I prepare to drop my son off to college for the first time and become an empty nester. I became aware of some thoughts and feelings I was having about the transition that I didn’t realize I was having.