WritingFromLife

I have found I cannot harbor change(healing) and resistance at the same time. This is why surrender is important to me. I do not believe it means giving up or giving in. I do not believe it is passive. I believe it is me getting out of my own way. It is me aligning the flow of life.

This should be so obvious to me. It's not. Simple, but not easy.

So today, I surrender.

24hrsAday

drinking had to literally beat me to a pulp before i finally surrendered.. not everyone has to go through that. i'm glad to hear you are ready!

Threshold

To me surrender means ceasing to struggle, to fight.

Struggling or fighting with a thing keeps me engaged with it. When I cease to struggle I open myself to the opportunity of not being engaged any more with that thing, idea, person, etc. I lay down my "arms" and walk away.

susanlauren

WritingFromLife: I believe it is me getting out of my own way.

Is it possible for me to get out of my own way? Can self defeat self? Or is this too a gift and a grace from our Higher Power?
Susan

lushly

My surrender has to be absoult. In order for me to take the first step. It is an important ingredient in my recovery as levening to bread.

Anna

I think I see it as keeping an open mind, too. I used to have rigid ideas about myself and life, and recovery has showed me that keeping an open mind throughout the day means that my soul is open.

WakeUp

That is absolutely the best definition of surrender I have ever seen, anywhere.
Bravo!

bcboy

Thanks for your post WFL, very well thought out.

Surrender, letting go is paramount in every aspect of our lives.

And yes, knowing this is very different from the actual.

Letting go takes strength and courage because instinctively we want to resist and be in control of our lives. In doing so we cause ourselves pain and inside this pain we will lose our true self.

Knowing that anger, resistance or hate only hurts us is a very big step in learning who we are.

Letting go grants tremendous power

WritingFromLife

Thanks to all of you...each and everyone. I Love This Site. What a gift.

WritingFromLife

Susan--too add to your well taken point-- another way to put aligning with the flow of life can also be aligning with my higher power's plan....

Terminally Unique

I had to surrender my drinking license.

instant

WFL
I am amazed at how simply you were able to illustrate something so profound.

I am not going to AA but I do read the big book and think. Surrender seems to fit well, gratitude (thank you member (ive forgotten) who emphasised the value of this). These seem to relate to steps 3 and 11 respectively?

Boleo

For me, surrender is a 4 phase process;

1. Resignation (cease fighting)
2. Appeal (to a Higher Power)
3. Trust (in that Higher Power)
4. Detachment (from the outcome)

Zencat

I had to abandon (surrender) my old ways of trying to control my liquor and drug addiction, And start a new course of action by leaving addiction buy the wayside.

Giving up a fight that I could not win is not losing face, its saving my butt. I could no do both of them at the same Time. Its letting go to gain.

EmeraldRose

Not just aligning but allowing. I think most of us get so caught up in ourselves and how we feel and what's going to happen and is everything going to be ok that we forget to remember that there is a plan for us. It is a well thought out written in stone kind of plan that only we don't know. By opening our minds and souls we allow ourselves to welcome the opportunity that is already presented before us. All we have to do is realize it, have faith in it -accept it and take action on it.

NYCDoglvr

Surrender for me means finally accepting I'm an alcoholic. I gave up the notion that I could drink like other people, that today I'll only have one drink.

BackToSquareOne

Learning to be open minded was one of the hardest things for me. It meant admitting that I may have been wrong about a lot of things. The humility involved with that doesn't mix well with very rigid thinking. When you open your mind to new ideas your ego gets shattered to one degree or another.

An open mind allows you to see that there are 2 sides to every story. You become open to the idea that there are many different ways to achieve the same result. Nothing is written in stone, you start to see that there doesn't always have to be a right and wrong way of doing things, it's OK to follow a different path if it leads to the same destination.