In the past few months, I have been practicing mindfulness in a big way. I have been able to stay present in the moment because I have been enjoying building my business and all the other things I have been up to so very much. The absolute perfect side-effect of being mindful is surrendering to the goodness of the universe. It wasn’t something I expected to happen, as I was an absolute control freak in my past life. But meditation, mindfulness, and creative risks have all caused me to become more open to the universe, and its plan for me.
The Universe Loves Us All
Surrendering to the perfectness of the universe isn’t easy. But it starts off with a simple belief. ‘The Universe loves me, and wants to take care of me.’ This simple thought is hard for most people to comprehend. Most people walk around with the perception that this is a hard world to live in, that the world is out to get them, and if they want to survive, they need to fight this world. We go into life everyday thinking it is a battlefield, when in actuality it is a beautiful dance.
The mindset shift that is required is crucial in this case. You cannot think that the universe hates you and is out to get you, and still believe that the universe’s plan for you is going to work. I hope this makes sense to you. Let’s expand further.
Control Freaks Beware
The trend of controlling behaviour is quite alarming. OCD and its parallel behaviours are becoming quite common among people nowadays. This world increasingly feels out of control and scary. In order to deal with these feelings, we try to control ourselves and our environments as much as possible. We try to plan, analyze, attack, and accumulate to the max. Every little thing has to be controlled.
When we live such lives (and I lived such a life only a few years ago), we cannot go with the flow. If the universe ever sends us a signal on a path we are supposed to take, we cannot believe and we cannot give into the path. It is just too out of control for us. Too out there, unplanned, frivolous.
In our need to control every aspect of our lives, we forget that the universe’s plan for us might involve turns and outtakes that we cannot account for. And we definitely cannot plan for. But we are too afraid to give up control. In that way, we lose out on the benefits of the universe’s plan for us.
Silence Doesn’t Kill, Try it
The messages from the universe that I speak of come in silence and stillness. That is one of the major reasons most of us are unable to hear those messages. Most people do not have a single moment of silence or stillness in their entire lives. From the moment they wake up to the time they go to sleep, they have music blasting in their ears, TVs going full on, radios pumping, and so much more.
If you cannot be alone with yourself, if you are afraid to be quiet, and if you are unable to be still, the signals from the universe will get scrambled with all the other noise in your life. Either you will be unable to hear the message because your life is too loud, or you will hear it warbled up from the other static present.
My first admonishment to most clients is to try a five minute silence break every day, once a day. I say the same to you. Try a silent break. No music. No TV. Nothing. Just you and the universe speaking one-on-one.
You Are Worthy
In a horror movie, if you were silent and receiving messages from the universe, it would mean you were going insane. In real life, it means you are going sane. The universe is kind, loving, and really really wants to take care of all of us. But we are like those prickly girlfriends or boyfriends, who hate themselves, and are unable to let anyone love them. We doubt everyone’s intentions towards us, and drive anyone who wants to love us away.
The great thing about the universe is that it will love you no matter who you are, or what you’ve done, or where you’ve been, or how you behave. In short, it is the truest kind of unconditional love. The universe wants to give, and we just have to be open to receive.
The sad fact is that most of us are too afraid to receive. We feel unworthy and undeserving. We consider ourselves to be bad people because of our past or present, and we don’t believe we should receive any goodness in our life. So when goodness from the universe comes creeping in, we shoo it away. Go away! I’m not good enough for it. Shoo!
As You Are
We believe that we will become deserving of the goodness of the universe once we do something. Lose ten pounds, get a boyfriend, get clean, stop drinking, start a new job, get married, have a baby, or the hundreds of other random criteria that we have set upon ourselves.
Until we reach these random milestones, we are unworthy. Even when we reach these milestones, we keep on moving up the goalpost, so we are never deserving and worthy. Ever.
The universe doesn’t care. To us, we are all its babies. Think about a mother and her child. No matter what a child does, the mother will love it unconditionally. The universe is even better than that. The universe isn’t biased. It is the most forgiving of parents. No matter what you do, the universe loves you unconditionally. It isn’t judging you.
We are deserving of goodness as we are. Believe, we don’t need to achieve something in order to get there and we are good as we are. Believe it. Assimilate it.
Surrender Involves Letting Go
When we surrender, we are letting the universe know, I trust you, and I believe you have my highest good in your mind. Which is absolutely true.
This faith comes from the fact that every time you have listened to the universe and gone along with its divine plan, everything has worked out perfectly and effortlessly for you. Just go back through your life, and document this. You will see it to be true. Don’t take my word for it. Go through your own life and check it out. Those times where you trusted the universe’s plan, and went along with it, with utter faith, always turned out perfectly.
Those times where you fought tooth and nail for everything, not only didn’t work out, but was also physically and mentally exhausting.
Everything Is Perfect
Everything that is happening is supposed to happen as it is happening in its exactness. Nothing is a fluke. There are no coincidences. Randomness doesn’t happen. Everything is perfection. Every person that crosses your path, every step that you take, every breath that you take – all of it is perfect.
In this perfection, you are alive and well. That is gratitude, and joy. Believe it, and live it. Tell yourself over and over again – everything is perfect and I’m grateful to be alive. This gratitude and faith will transform your life.
Why Do We Make Our Life Hard?
We could either go through this world as if nothing were a miracle, or as if everything were a miracle. Why do we deliberately choose to believe this world and life is hard. Why do we make things harder for ourselves than they need to be? What is this insane desire we have to torture ourselves? I don’t get it, but for the longest time, I did it to myself. Struggling against the universe, I fought tooth and nail.
I didn’t believe that the universe knew what it was talking about (how naive and foolish of me), and whenever I received messages from the universe on the path, I was supposed to take, I fought it. Going another way, thinking I knew better, sabotaging myself.
We Are Minuscule
In our entire lifetime, we might live a 100 years. If we have several lifetimes under our belt, we would still live a fraction of eternity. Whereas the universe and its energy has been around forever and ever. It made us and everything around us. How can we believe that we know better than the universe? How is that even possible?
It’s like we are teenagers rebelling against our parents, believing we know more than them. Eventually, though we become adults, and we realize, wow, our parents knew a lot, and we were just foolish in our ignorance.
Let The Universe Help You
Nowadays, when I take on a new project, I ask the universe for help right away. My modus operandi is to tell the universe, I want to play the ukulele, and then wait for the universe to send me help and other resources. I trust that the universe has my back, and is looking out for me. The help will come. Maybe not right away (although usually it’s within a day), but it will eventually come my way. I just have to trust.
In the past though, I hated asking for help. I felt like I was being weak. I could do it all on my own. The truth is we cannot and should not do it on our own. It’s like we have this Genie with unlimited wishes with us, and we refuse to use him. It’s a complete waste of the resources that are behind us.
Why do we do this to ourselves? Believe that the universe is there to help you and use it profusely. As much as you can. Even for the little things.
The Bounty Will Not Run Out
We believe that we get too many good things coming at us, eventually the well will run dry and we will have to deal with the bad. So we conserve the good, and we hold off on receiving the good. Not too much, we admonish the universe. I want the good to stay with me throughout my life, we worry.
The bounty of the universe never runs out. The universe doesn’t have a quota that it has to fulfill in terms of goodness for every person, after which only bad stuff will happen to you. Stop thinking that way. This thinking is causing you to stop the flow of good stuff into your life.
There is always more good where that came from. More. And much more.
It will never stop. So don’t worry and keep on accepting.
The Saga Will Continue
These are some of my initial thoughts on surrendering. This is a topic that is coming up more and more often in my conversations with clients, friends, and strangers. Thus, I want to write more about it in the days to come. Let me know what you think of all of this. Your thoughts as always are welcome.
