A Joyous Perspective on Surrendering - So You Can Be Free.

It's Friday, and time for another Friday Night Thought Tale Hour with the Hendersons. So hey there. We are going into our fourth week of the new year. How are your resolves going? Are you still making those great choices you were determined to stick with this year? I'm not asking so I can shame you, I'm only asking so I can encourage you. You see, over the past few years, and particularly over the past few weeks, I've begun to absorb a concept that I've always known was key to lasting transformation in any area, but not one that I trusted myself enough to really live. 

Yeah, that's right. I needed to trust myself more.

And not only trust me more but genuinely care about me more. Care enough not to continue to punish me for being less than in some areas of my life. To understand what showing myself I care about me really means, and how that demonstration wasn't all about self-indulgence either. I had to be a good caregiver for me, just like I would something or someone that I deeply valued - yes loved. I realized quickly that this was going to be more difficult than I ever imagined. And then, I heard my Yogi, Adriene Mishler, say something resonated right within my core (my figurative core):

"The transformation comes from your surrender to the commitment you make to yourself, not the other way around. Can we work hard and be disciplined to create a strong, healthy body, in a way that we are not attached to the results?"

What? I thought all the stuff I did was to assure that I was free? That I achieved results...

Maybe I wasn't really free. Maybe I was just in bondage to fear, and I had surrendered to the notion that I would always need to be a little bit of pain because I was so broken and burdened. Afterall, isn't that where a resolution or commitment to change something comes from? There's been damage, and it needs to fixed. Usually, damage done by ourselves. Let's face it, if you really did love yourself, you would not surrender as often as you do to the excesses that'll cause you so much harm. Those excesses that you now believe you must wield great effort in order to give them up. And yes there is power in turning away from their control over you…

But the real power comes from surrendering to the love you have for yourself.

When you are able to say, 'I really care about me' you want to take care of you. You desire to build a life that supports that sentiment. In the last few weeks, I have been practicing surrender and the process of truly getting to know what I need to be healthy and happy. You know what? It's not as regimented and disciplinarian as I was raised to believe and as I've always practiced. And giving myself permission to just chill sometimes and breathe is not indulging myself to the point of giving up all the good changes I've made in me.

I've learned there's lot’s of personal power in the act of surrender.

So tonight,  if you're off your wagon of the determination already, or if you're teetering on edge, consider dropping your attachment to the outcome. Instead of seeing all those good new habits as being about the end game, see them as a way you show yourself how much you care about yourself. Do these things as an expression of love. 

We're going to be toasting to our own surrenders here at the Clover Leaf Cottage drinking an elegant bottle of wine called, "Tall Dark Stranger." Afterall, you might just realize that you're sort of a mysterious stranger to yourself, and it's time to get to know you so you can love you. Cheers, Friends.