The Empowerment of Surrender

I visited the cemetery today where my grandparents and great-grandparents are buried.  Walking among the grave stones, I took notice of the two dates engraved on each one - birth and death.  What a beautiful reminder of the temporality of life; of our short time in this world as we understand it.  Laying to rest a loved one, and being at peace with this action, is an extraordinary act of surrender.

Letting go is not easy, and in our modern world, not always encouraged.  While surrender is a word often uttered within the walls of a yoga studio, outside of that space, surrender is associated with becoming powerless, failing, or giving up.  In a yoga practice, however, surrender is an empowering act.  One that enables us to give ourselves over to something greater. To let go of "I", or our ego, and become truly whole.  In the Yoga Sutra, Patanjali refers to this practice as Ishvara Pranidhana - the shift in thinking from our ego to our divine self, where we reside in grace, peace, and freedom.  Ishvara Pranidhana is our sacred connection to our divine self.

I nearly always begin my yoga practice in Child's pose, kneeling, prayer-like into the earth. We begin life close to the earth, with a innate connection to our Source.  It is here where we bring ourselves back to Ishvara Pranidhana.  Where we surrender to our voice within, letting go of our yesterdays, our tomorrows, and entering into this sacred space. This moment of Now.  As we move through our practice, we move up from the earth, finding greater heights, experiencing challenges and perhaps even flying.  We come back to the earth at times, sometimes to rest or reconnect, or because we have fallen.  Yet when we fall, the earth is always there to catch us.  To fall from a pose is a truly an act of letting go. You may never build the strength and flexibility to fly in Bird of Paradise without first falling.  Our falls make us stronger.  We learn something knew each time we let go and allow ourselves to be free, to be playful, to challenge ourselves.

Yoga is a delicate balance between control and letting go.  A back and forth of honoring your limits and of knowing when to push yourself a bit further.  We learn to work with a pose, and not against it.  We find the strength to take that lesson with us when we leave our mat and work with, not against, the events and situations we encounter in our lives. Ishvara Pranidhana, awakens our connection to our Source and gives us the freedom to surrender to and accept with love and gratitude, all that which Is.    

At the end of our yoga practice, the most important pose awaits.  Savasana, corpse pose. The time when we surrender completely into the arms of the earth.  In Savasana we honor our burdens, and for a few minutes, at least, lay them to rest. Our burdens may still exist when we leave our mat, but we know that we will leave feeling lighter, more free, and willing to let go of that weight when the time comes to do so.

Yoga shows us the temporality of everything. We learn to accept that nothing is permanent, that each practice will be different. We learn to let go, to welcome every possibility, and to act with grace, honor, and love.

"To live in this world

you must be able

to do three things:

to love what is mortal;

to hold it 

against your bones knowing

your own life depends on it;

and when the time comes to let it go,

to let it go."