Surrender:An Act of Love

Defining Surrender

The Free on-line dictionary defines surrender as follows:

v. sur·ren·dered, sur·ren·der·ing, sur·ren·ders

v.tr.

1. To relinquish possession or control of to another because of demand or compulsion.

2. To give up in favor of another.

3. To give up or give back (something that has been granted): surrender a contractual right.

4. To give up or abandon: surrender all hope.

5. To give over or resign (oneself) to something, as to an emotion: surrendered himself to grief.

6. Law To restore (an estate, for example), especially to give up (a lease) before expiration of the term.

I want to look at surrender from the perspective of a process that takes place within ourselves. At any given point in time, I see myself as functioning out of a state of Love and wholeness or fear and lack. I consider the first to be my higher authentic(spiritual) nature and the second to be the base (carnal/natural) ego nature.

My authentic nature is lorded over by Love and this is an easy leading-not tyrannical. It's based on my own desire to live freely and truthfully, in peace and in joy. Conversely, the ego centre is driven by Fear, always concerned with preserving the sensory self, led by the desire for security and manipulated by physical conditions.

All of our human life will be plagued by this conflict unless a commitment is made to, and an understanding attained of how to operate from, this higher place of Love.

So when I speak of Surrender, I refer to the soul surrendering to Love instead of fear.

Bringing Life to Bear

I personally have given birth five times. I loved it and actually wouldn't mind doing it some more. I think I embraced the process of birth because I believed, and still do, that I was purposely designed to give birth and that some part of me knew instinctively what to do even if no conscious part did.

I was so convinced of this, that it belayed fears and settled any issues of concern without my having to understand anything logically. I had wonderful birth experiences-very swift, no stitches, no epidurals, and I had clarity to enjoy my baby afterward.

I came to see that this process as a clever metaphor for creating ALL kinds of life, whether internally in my being or externally in my world. Now, I don't think I even see it as a metaphor because I surrender to a deeper part of me, trusting that it knows how to bring forth that which is needed just as my body knew how to bring forth a healthy baby.

In recent months, I've even gone as far as not needing to understand all the reasons why I've felt afraid or unsure or confused...I replaced all other "workings out" with this simple act of "surrender and breathe, believing..." in that intuitive part of myself that is Love.

Perfect Love

The bible says "perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment" ( I John 4:18) and today, I think I've understood this truth in a way I've never seen before and in a way I honestly NEVER conceived or expected to see. It was such a sweet surprise! And yet so typical of the paradox of life in the spirit.

In believing in the righteousness the bible says God gives ( aligning myself to God-Rom 1:16), I started to trust that whatever I was facing about myself or reflected in my body or circumstances as being what was required in order for me to allow Love to grow out, unhindered from my core. I've done this for years and made some wonderful progress by interpreting these things as indicators of what I needed to shift in my thinking/energy/being. I've seen ALL kinds of delightful results BUT...in the last few months, I found my deepest inner workings becoming far too intricate and complex to "get my head around", so to speak.

And I just didn't seem to be able to help myself past a point of SELF judgement that was keeping the best of my personal dreams at bay. That is, until I surrendered completely to humbly accepting the gift of righteousness offered to "whosoever will" believe, and in so doing, understand the great love God has for me even more. I know this may not make sense to those who are unfamiliar with the biblical teaching of righteousness but what this results in is a total release of ALL judgement. Where there is no judgement, there is no fear of punishment or sense of unworthiness either.

Things just got better and better. The more I chose to "surrender" over any other approach the more deeply a shift began to take place. I simply trusted that tried and proven process and applied it to everything. My mind, body, circumstance...I started viewing any hint of worry/fear as part of the process of Love, not fear-and governed by intuitive Wisdom, not personal sabotage. This grew inside me more and more.

Today, after a progression of insights and expanding understanding I realised this has led to the knowledge of how fear is dismissed. It is converted to another format-if you like. In shifting viewpoints, it becomes the servant of a greater good and is no longer a form of resistance, but of relinquishing. No longer a barrier to overcome or strive against but an ally toward success. And it isn't just a nice, pious idea to try and accept, but an actual STATE. Fear is no more when one lives in this place of utter SURRENDER. It is dissolved when trust is pure.

These words don't do the condition justice but with all my heart, I hope any reader will ask to experience this knowing.

"One thing I've come to accept now, is that there are no short-cuts through one's process. The shortest, quickest, fastest way between you and your dreams, is that which is being presented to you. I've stopped viewing the 'space between' as some chasm to traverse or some test to pass or some obstacle to overcome. It is what I've asked for: the process of manifesting my dream" Lisa Shah

DIY Designer Vision with Creative Thinking Technology

I took this photo on the left a couple of weeks ago. Up till today all the photos I've taken have been at 'sand level'. If you're familiar with my Facebook page, you'll know I've taken hundreds in the space of the 3 &1/2 weeks that I've been doing this daily walk!

As the title implies, I want to get you thinking about the way you see things.

In fact, I'd even go as far as saying that the purpose of my life is to help people learn HOW to see again...by conscious choice.

The functions of generating ideas and creating alternatives, or even the punch line for a joke-are right brain, creative thinking processes. Logic and reason...are the legalistic left brain lawyers that forever try to 'anchor' that wayward dreamer we call Imagination.

Yet the skills developed along this line are what set apart the outstanding from the ordinary, and are most highly sought after in every field. Innovation. Improvisation. Whether a home duties full-time mum, or a corporate CEO...creativity will make you SHINE.

Life isn't the way you see it-that's just the way you see it.

Creativity isn't being artistic, it is 'seeing' differently.

I don't want to get technical here and discuss the brain and its functions. This blog just doesn't go into those details. I just want to look out how we can effectively make it work for us, without even having to KNOW. And I have known and seen far too many people who know the theory but never have mastered having the experience.

I want aid with the experience!

We each have so many different ways of looking at things. Even within one individual, the capacity to conceive multiple perspectives on any and every matter, is endless. How can it be then, that anyone would ever conclude anything impossible?

We choose HOW we see our lives. Our beliefs, emotions and experiences cause us to decide what and how we'll see. Are your filters by your design, or by default? If you wonder what filters the perspective you have on your life, then simply 'consider and give thought to your ways'. Your life is a perfect mirror.

Process #1- back to Picasso

If you've read my stuff before , you'll have heard of what I call the Picasso Principle. Practice developing alternate view points by looking at images from the side, or upside down, or back to front. Play "Mr Squiggle" with random lines drawn by another for you, and do it from every way up. See how turning the squiggles changes what you can 'see' to draw. Life is the same.

Look at photos from magazines or books and make up characters and stories about them. Write who/what/where/when/why and how...and do three different versions. if you do this, when you need to create alternatives in your life, you will be practised.

Process #2-Break the Pattern

If you're really serious about seeing a situation differently. You will need to DO something different. Decide that no matter what, you are not going to do what you always have done before. This is a very literal thing. I wanted to demonstrate it by taking a photo of the beach from another point.

To do that I had to change where I parked my car, and the way that I usually do my routine walk. I had to embrace all the inconvenience and discomfort of change-and as simplistic as this example might be, it's surprising how swiftly we 'take' to a pattern, and don't want to change it.

I was excited about my plan, but I was still very aware of having to do something another way.

I met unfamiliar faces, many more were running , not walking. I had to wear shoes, and go up a STEEP hill. MY enthusiasm wasn't daunted at all, coz I knew what I wanted and why-but was all the same, keenly aware of the newness.

But getting to my new vantage point was well worth it. I got a BIGGER picture. I had a much broader perspective. I could see BEYOND my usual setting, north and south. I could see the distance that I walk each day, where I enter onto the beach usually.

And I could see my new friend-Harriet, just coming up to the bottom of the headland, at the halfway point of her walk! :-)

The first image is taken from in front of the tall apartments (top right)

so...MOVE yourself by doing something DIFFERENTLY. If you normally have breakfast and then a shower. Do it the other way around. Go out for breakfast. Take fruit salad and eat in a park. Eat it in a different part of the house-in the garden, on the balcony, preferably somewhere where you can see some nature.

Change SOMETHING and just watch what happens. Your eyes will begin to open-and so will your heart.

{this is another view from just south of the surf club looking up to the look out where I was just standing, in the above shot}

Process#3- Prepare for a Different Path

If you decide that you are going to do something differently, you may have to do ready yourself somehow.

I knew I would want shoes to walk to the top but I don't usually take any. So,I put the shoes out where I literally tripped over them!

Give yourself tangible, visual prompts.

I turned left instead of right at the Esplanade, so I could park right at the northern end. I made all these mental adjustments before I even set foot on the new 'way of seeing', because I thought about doing things differently so I could share another vision of Burleigh.

The same process is at work whenever we wish to take an alternate position in relation to something. Break the pattern and give yourself prompts to help you on the alternate route.

Process#3-Plan to Empower

This is really part of the mental preparation and motivation, but it comes into play when you take the first step. There is a reason for scaling a hill to get a better view. You can see where you are, where you wish to be and maybe even an obvious path to get there.

It takes effort to climb a mountain. More effort than to walk the sandy shore. But your desire to want to see the extensive view it promises will give you energy and strength to deal with any resistance that comes through discomfort-whether internal or external.

Focus on what you will gain-fresh insights into your life and how to make it more like the Vision you have of it in your dreams.

When we first begin to make changes, it can feel VERY uphill...contrary to the flow we'd established. Eventually though, you will learn to implement ideas for change that spring from your core, like me doing the beach walk, and these will be easy, once you decide, and reap manifold ongoing and lasting rewards.

For now, just experiment with changing little things...and see how this opens your imagination to more.

Process#4 Put on New Glasses

What's really funny about my trek to the top of North Burleigh Rock is that in my descent, I lost one of the lens from my sunnies! I literally had an altered view! :-)

And that brings me to this point: which glasses are you wearing? Some people talk about 'rose coloured' glasses as if they are unrealistic "La Vie en rose" (French for "Life through rose-coloured glasses," literally "Life in pink"), but since is literally whatever we determine to see, it seems to me that looking through rose coloured glasses is a smart thing to do.

You choose the tint of your shades. You determine what will be highlighted and what will be minimalized. You do this by what you are open to believe.

An anorexic sees themselves as fat, no matter how bony they get, because that's what they believe they are.

A constantly sick person doesn't see themselves well and whole, and for some reason thinks that to be well and whole will conflict with something else they believe. This isn't often conscious, but the 'mirrors' of our lives don't lie.

You can change what you believe, once you understand how it's creating your life. You can harmonise beliefs to your desires, and build your Designer Life. You can be free of the shackles and millstones of old ghosts that come haunting and drag you ever back into dungeons of your own psyche.

You can be FREE. And it starts with you painting a picture of yourself and your life as you wish them to be. Only you can do this for you.

How do you want your life to look? DIY Designer Vision.

And now I've climbed one headland...I'm gonna do the other and present yet another set of perspectives! lol (see the video!)

Everything's Connected

INTRODUCING ROSIE



I wanted to share a little story with you.

A number of years ago, when I first moved into this house, I was exploring intentional use of the Law of Attraction. I feel like I've always been doing this, but this particular outcome was something that has stayed with me, as an eternal reminder of how we 'draw' our reality into being.

Firstly, my place, is three storeys high, with a big double garage and lots of cupboard space, but no yard. It's a terrace house. It was only 2 years old when I moved in, so it's modern, airy and...nice. It has two balconies. a squarish one out front ( where i often sit in the sun) maybe 8'x8'

The back one is double the length, but as I said, no back yard. So...no clothesline facility anywhere.

ROTARY ACTION

Well, Australian backyards usually boasted a HILLS hoist, rotary clothesline, as we grew up. And I had a great one when all the kids were little, lots of cloth nappies and clothes to wash. Those kind of clothesline actually had a nostaligc value for me, and hanging washing ( and folding it back into the basket when dry) almost became theraputic coz I associated it with quiet thinking time.

So, I wanted a rotary, PORTABLE line. I didn;t even know if such a thing existed. I just knew that was what I wanted.
All I did, was think about it. Not even an intentional thing.

30, 60, 100 fold...

First the blade, then the ear, then the full corn in the ear...

Sure enough, some store advertising "junk Mail" came and there was my rotary line! It was about $30, but it was at a store somewhere that I didn't normally go...off the usual track. I never got to it, but I didn't stop thinking about it, coz now I KNEW they existed!!

Not long after that, in another pamphlet, there was my desire again. This time it was dearer, and still in a part of the Coast that i didn't get to. There was delivery, but all up it'd cost $50. Not that I minded the idea of paying that much, but by this time, I started to realise that I might be able to have what I want.

Of course, yet another sale flyer, and there SHE is-Rosie...not 2 mins away...and only $25!!
She was Rosie the rotary clothesline from that moment,and I loved Rosie becasue of all she meant to me..the old associations and now, all these new ones!

A LITTLE SPINNY

So, now, I can understand why people think i'm a little 'out there', but I name a lot of my belongings and plants. in doing this, I build a snese of 'relationship' with these elements of my life and it leads to some very positive and powerful 'connections' for me.

Firstly, it constantly reminds me that animate or inanimate or inbetween, we are ALL connected. All things are LIVING in that all things are energy. All things are moving, vibrating and being. It's much easier to 'feel' this about everything, and every space between, when you give them names. Along with name comes nature and characteristics...it's just all part of 'knowing' and recognising.

I love doing this with my things/plants/furniture/shoes...shrug...I've been doing it a while! Personifying everything-wind, trees, piano...as well as the obvious...pets, nicknames of friends/family.

This 'naming' breeds attachment and appreciation-and i feel the CONNECTION It's a GOOD thing for me.

AND FROM THAT IS THE SECOND THING

As we are ALL one energy field...
I don't think it's possible to feel inadequate, or in enmity with any part of existence, AND know this state of connectedness at the same time.

I KNOW WHICH STATE I PREFER! And in making the above statement, I finally understand what has troubled me off and on the past week or so...an intermittent connection!

ROSIE TO THE RESCUE AGAIN!

But thinking about Rosie, the delightful way she came into my life, all the pleasure I felt from having her, and all the warmth of the memories she encapsulated for me, fixes any sense of disconnectedness.

It's really not hard to ALLOW myself to BE who I am... Replace resistence with gratitude in the smallest, simplest, and almost nonsensical places, and find yourself-right there! :-)

it feels sOOOO Good!!