The Difference Between Surrender and Resignation.

This week I learned a valuable lesson about the difference between surrender and resignation. I learned that resignation is negative and implies hopelessness. Being resigned to a thought, a situation, or a behavior implies that change is not possible and that "That's just the way it is."

On the other hand, there is often a very positive feeling in the body, mind, and spirit that accompanies surrender. Surrender has the ability to become expansive and it can actually open up our thoughts, our daily situations and our unwanted behaviors to the possibility of change. It is full of possibilities and most importantly --hope.

In life it is difficult to seperate surrender from resignation. The movies offer the image of sending up the white flag, which means, "I give up." It's seems to be always negative and after a long fought battle. That is what surrender is. It is saying to the universe, "I give up" but with the cavet, "I put it in your hands."

After a long hard battle of us trying to manupulate and control; person and situations we get battle fatigue. All we need to do is to say, "I give up, here, God - you do this." Real surrender means we have to relinquish the illusion of control.

For the 12 step community, surrender is the first step toward recovery. It is a spiritual principle that is truly universal, because we are all addicted to something, whether it be work, food, attention, or perhaps shopping. Whatever our "it" might be, we use it to fill the void and self-medicate.

Surrendering is a powerful statement of saying and being "Yes!"

In life, just like on our yoga mats, we don't need to force our bodies into a posture. Instead we can simply say "yes" to the possibility of our bodies taking us where we have never explored before.

Gentle loving, sweet surrender!