surrender

"Nothing real can be threatened. 
Nothing unreal exists.
Herein lies the peace of God." 

~ A Course in Miracles

2014 ~ As I dove into the waters for an early evening swim before dinner, the idea of "danger" never crossed my mind. I love the ocean and have always loved swimming, but I was not prepared for what happened next..

I had only been in the water a few minutes when I started to feel a tugging sensation on my legs... not knowing what to make of it, I attempted to swim away from it but, the moment I kicked my feet, I realized I could not swim anywhere... the tide was pulling me out, my feet were caught and in a flash, before I could even take a breath, I was pinned, flat to the ocean floor by huge waves crashing in on top of me...

A rip tide had pulled me out and under faster than I could have ever imagined... as my mind raced to understand what was happening, waves kept me pinned beneath the ocean. The more I struggled, the more I realized I was going to drown.... clawing at the ocean floor in some attempt to push myself back up to the surface, I felt panic race through my body...in that moment I saw my children's faces flash through me.. and the last thing I remember before leaving my body is a voice firmly saying, “LET. GO.”

It was 2004 and I had been studying A Course in Miracles and working with the daily meditations for about a year at this point. “Nothing real can be threatened.” had become my mantra and my meditation during my week in Mexico as I worked on realizing this Truth within me.

However, in that moment, pinned by a Pacific Riptide to the ocean floor, I knew no one had seen me go under, I knew I had no choice, whether dead or alive, but to LET GO… so, I did.

The moment I let go, I felt my entire physical body, as well as "my entire being" taken by the currents. I was pulled further out and under. It became crystal clear to me in that moment that I had could not fight against the fierce tides of Mother Oshun, the Divine force of Creation - a power greater than me was either "taking me back" now or teaching me something very important... I surrendered.

The next thing I recall is floating outside my body, above the waters, witnessing and experiencing what followed...

I experienced mySelf outside of time and body. In physical reality, my body was under the water getting tossed by waves for “a time”. Outside my body I watched it happen as if in timeless motion, my body was leaving me and I was leaving it and I felt at peace knowing in that same moment that I was held by Divine Forces of Creation. Knowing, in that instant, I was not my body, for whoever “I was”, this consciousness of being, clearly did not need my body to continue existing. Though I will never know how long the experience was in “clock time”, the space I had entered stretched an eternity ~ timeless, infinite and filled with pure awareness of being...

I was completely aware and alive. The now moment had somehow been stretched into “forever” and I watched my body, as if watching a movie, a projection of the mind, telling a story of love in motion. The person I had believed myself to be now seemed no different than the pebbles rolling back and forth in the waves… somehow I was outside of my body, outside of it all and yet I was still aware… what?

Just as quickly as I had been pulled under by the ocean, I was back in my body, on hands and knees in shallow water, coughing, spitting and crying.

The force of the waves pushing me flat onto the ocean floor is a feeling I will never forget, praying it would stop long enough before the next one so I could get up, but then to be pulled under further as another wave crashed over me.. The replay was shaking my mind…yet, it was the letting go to a force greater than me, trusting in something beyond my control and surrendering that humbled me more.

Logic would have me say things like, “I should have died” and whether or not this meets the criteria of an NDE, I don’t really know but it certainly went beyond my previous experiences of the “out of body” sort, which until this happened, had mainly included mind-altering meditation techniques and random psychedelics. This was completely different.

The moment you KNOW there is truly nothing to fear, is the moment you are saved by the very current that took you under.

As I sat in amazement of the experience, hearing the voice that told me to "LET GO" like an echo through the caverns of my mind, I wondered, why did this happen? Though I had nearly drowned, I felt ecstatic and alive inside. I felt like someone had offered me a “hard reset” to see myself more clearly, energy was charging through my body and I felt an aliveness within ~ an expansion of consciousness that had just taken me beyond my physical body, beyond what I had known and I realized it was a glimpse into that which can never be threatened..

This was not my first spiritual experience, but it was the first time I had nearly drowned having one.. I realized quickly the Divine Grace that had been enacted between cosmic and natural forces in order for this event to take place and gratitude filled my being. In that moment I remembered how light it was possible to feel and it felt blissful. In that moment I didn't ask to “be put back” or “to be saved”, I had completely surrendered, knowing no matter what happened, all was well.

The beauty and magick of this experience taught me so many things and helped me remember more.. over the years I have often reflected and can still feel the bliss of total surrender... it is wonderful to remember but still often challenging to embrace in every day reality where “death” is still vehemently avoided by most and change is treated “as the enemy”...

Humanity has been taught to avoid change and fear death... however change, like the ocean, is also a cosmic Force of Nature, without which we could not and would not exist. Without change, energy could not move, form or alchemize. Without change there would be no growth, evolution or experience to life. Without change there would not be LIFE for that is its vibratory Nature. Though we may have become very attached to the physical form of matter within this earthly realm, recent events are further reminding humanity that we must LET GO of our fears if we are going to realize who we truly are... for as long as we are hanging on to life, attempting to control every aspect of it and "conquer nature", we are suffocating it instead of allowing it to flow through us and grow.

Nature shows us who we are and we have the opportunity to awaken. It happens differently for all of us but, it is happening all the time. When the current is having its way with us, and all we want to do is kick and fight, we always have the choice to let go and surrender it all at the altar of the Divine, for what we find in that moment is ourselves.

The ego wants us to believe that if we LET GO, everything in life will be "a mess", that we will not be able to "achieve" or become "someone"... but the thing is, this person whom the ego is obsessed with controlling, is a temporary expression of your eternal soul ~ the more we try to control the identity of who that person is, the harder it is to realize oneself beyond it.

THE PERSON YOU ARE SEARCHING FOR IS YOU - THE DIVINE AS YOU AND THE DIVINE IN YOU.

EVERYTHING WE SEEK IS WITHIN US AND OUR LIVES ARE DIRECT MANIFESTATIONS AND REFLECTIONS OF
WHO WE THINK WE ARE & WHAT WE BELIEVE.

Every time we surrender, we are offering ourselves up to Divine Lessons of Truth and great insight into our journey. We are acknowledging that there is a power greater than our own and a higher purpose for existing. The act of surrender isn’t giving up, nor is it deflecting responsibility. Surrender is a courageous act of love and a release of ego's grip on our consciousness. It is placing our lives at the altar of the Divine and offering our life back to Life so that LIFE may continue and evolve. It is the realization that everything is a co-creation and collaboration...that your Soul chose to be here now and when this part of the journey is complete, it will continue…. ~ the light shines through us but it is not ours to claim.

In the current state of affairs, we are all learning to LET GO. We are freeing ourselves from egoic and polarized states of consciousness.. embracing our higher minds, embodying deeper, expanded, higher states of consciousness and self awareness that do not fear change. As we shift, both individually and collectively, from mundane consciousness into higher dimensional consciousness and beyond, we can only do so as Masters of change.

At this time in the world many feel as if they are drowning... there is much fear in the collective for humanity to release and transmute for it is the fear of the unknown that pulls us under... but fear is always seeking to control rather surrender, to limit rather than to set free and it is the frequency of fear that has held humanity "captive" in a very narrow state of consciousness. Completely attached to and obsessed with our physical bodies and material possessions while separated from our Spirit and soul.. so afraid of change, or doing "wrong" that we have compartmentalized reality, as well as our minds and our behaviours to “suit the situation” rather than being our true selves and allowing “the ever-changing situation” to reflect our authenticity back to us.

IT’S ALL A REFLECTION

The chaos we are witnessing now in the world is like a riptide that is churning up all the muddy secrets that have been buried beneath the ocean for far too long.. shadows are rising to the shores of consciousness and we are learning to embrace the new while releasing that which no longer serves us.. the old, linear ways of life are crumbling and falling apart, but it is within the associated chaos that we have the great opportunity for rebuilding life anew ~ to live in harmony with Laws of Nature!

Surrendering to the bigger picture whilst consciously choosing to focus in the present moment on what we love and desire for our world (rather than what we hate) is a monumental shift for humanity; and, when we collectively realize that we have this great power within us, that we are master manifestors and divine co-creators of our reality, we will truly feel empowered by change rather than threatened by it..

In the unknown there is every, infinite possibility that we don't yet know, but we have the power to create. Light illuminates the dark. Divine Knowledge of your true Self illuminates the mind and expands its power to create from Soul.

It takes courage to go beyond the veils. We are not always pinned on an ocean floor with virtually "no choice", but if we are willing to let ‘just a little’ fear go and take a step outside our comfort zones and ask ourselves with honesty and self-respect, just how amazing could life on Earth really be? We know the answer.

The veils are rapidly thinning and humanity is quickly realizing that what lies beyond the veil is a magnificent, brilliant and benevolent Universe - not a judgmental, angry man in the sky...

Every time we can face and embrace the unknown, we are surrendering. Every time we move through an emotion, rather than burying it, we are surrendering. Every time we seek, acknowledge and stand in Truth, no matter how much it hurts, we are surrendering. Every time we love unconditionally we are surrendering to the Truth of who we are.

Discovering and aligning with Truth is a mind-altering experience for the human in a conditioned reality where illusion dominates perception. Truth does indeed set us free but only if we have the courage to accept it and therefore, release the illusion that has kept us from seeing clearly. However, as we “cannot see the forest through the trees”, the illusory construct of our reality which dictates fear, lack and suffering upon humanity, cannot be seen unless one is willing to go beyond what is known, perceived and stems from the social conditioning and “educational” entrainment of the illusion.

Surrender is an act of letting go…and sometimes it involves standing in your power and surrendering to "the fate" this presents.. whether in intimate, personal relationships or collective ones, the small self releases control and surrenders to the Divine when we are willing to go beyond that which we have known... the greatest experiences in my life have been the result of going into the unknown.. it has become a practice that I turn to whenever I feel anxiety bubbling up and will consciously sit and breathe and remind myself that I am not in this alone and that this too shall pass. There’s always “a reason” and usually many, many more.

You are not alone and the challenges we face now can only make us stronger as a collective who are ready to take our power back. Because the truth is we don't have to "drag ourselves" out of bed every day, we don't have to suffer, clinging onto the physical and material for "dear life" because we can choose to embrace a bigger and more complete picture of who we are in Truth. We may all invite our Higher Self awareness in and rejoice in the process of consciously embodying our being. We can all make the choice to let go and surrender to something greater than ourselves and the truth is that when we do, we may just realize that there is truly nothing to fear… and… in my humble opinion, “therein, lies the peace of God”.