Surrender is a conscious act of will.
It takes courage and humility to align our will with divine will.

LETTING GO OF CONTROL and surrendering to our moment-to-moment experience is the pathway to peace. It is also one of the most difficult challenges we face. Our rational minds tell us we have little control over what happens yet we go to great lengths and expense arranging our lives to uphold the illusion that we do. Eventually we come to realize that the only thing we truly can control is the attitude with which we approach our lives. It is our attitude and beliefs more than anything else that determines our experience.

How can we cultivate an attitude of surrender that will bring the peace we long for? For most of us, surrender is the result of some sort of catastrophe or great loss. We are left with no other choice but to accept there is a power greater than ourselves guiding our lives. Surrender may also come as a result of having exhausted every strategy our mind can come up with and still finding that our experience is not what we wanted to create.

Our capacity to surrender is intimately connected with our capacity to trust - which leads us to question What is it we are trusting and what are we surrendering? Ultimately we are trusting that there is an intelligence, a creative life-force greater than our limited minds can fathom. We are trusting that this intelligence is benevolent and is directing us toward greater consciousness and toward Itself. As we learn to surrender our separateness and trust that this guiding intelligence is with us always, we can gratefully receive whatever our experience is. It is from trust and surrender that we begin to know our personal will and divine will as one and the same. It is our relationship with whatever we perceive as divine that is the source of strength in our lives.

"May Thy will, not mine be done," is one of the simplest and most powerful prayers for surrender. From this prayer we see that surrender is a conscious act of will. It is an act of courage and humility, to give up control and align our will with divine will. Surrender is not a giving up of personal responsibility - it is a willingness to be guided toward clearer action in our lives.

The practice of surrender develops self-responsibility, especially in our relations with others. When in posture with our partner, we are neither passive nor submissive, but actively holding our own form, not overly relying on our partner for strength or balance. At times our practice will be challenging, other times it will flow freely. We may react to challenging moments by judging or blaming our partners or ourselves - creating feelings of separation and frustration. Even in challenging moments, we have a choice to either accept the situation as it is or try to control it. An attitude of surrender helps create space between our experience and our response. Surrender is the acceptance that we are powerless to change anyone or anything but ourselves.

Paradoxically, one way we can understand surrender is by experiencing our resistance. Resistance can serve to strengthen us, in posture - through tension and traction - and in life - through harnessing our will to overcome limiting beliefs and attitudes. As we begin to see there is no external force we are fighting with, but a part of ourselves we are in conflict with, we can make the choice to surrender our resistance and the physical and mental tension that accompany it.

As we surrender our fear and resistance, we have greater energy to live life fully. Our internal forces reconcile and our external life reflects this balance and harmony. As we become willing to accept whatever presents itself - even our resistance - our mind begins to quiet its attempts to resolve our 'problems'. This quieting of the mind brings the peace we long for.

Surrender as a spiritual principle holds the opposite meaning to that which it holds in the everyday world. Surrender is viewed in the world as an act of submission. Submission and its opposite, rebellion, both come from a sense of powerlessness. Surrender, like love, has no opposite. It is a way of acknowledging where our true power lies and a way to move out of the win/lose, us/them paradigm.

Surrender is an experience of deep trust and relaxation. Yoga teaches us the process of relaxation and shows us what it is we are actually relaxing. We begin by relaxing our bodies and our senses. We move on to relax our thoughts, concepts and beliefs. Ultimately, we relax the images we hold of our self - who we think we are at the deepest level. In Partner Yoga we support each other to deeply relax and surrender - and to know each other and ourselves at the deepest level.

THE PRACTICE: Back-To-Back Spread Leg Forward Bend

As you practice this posture,
engage your willingness to surrender and stay fully active in the form.

1. Sit back-to-back in upright spread leg position. Both partners solidly press sacrums together while rooting sit bones and extending through the backs of the legs. Take a moment to connect with the ground and your partner's presence.

2. Extend arms straight out from the shoulders. Keeping arms extended, Partner One places palms on top of Partner Two's arms or palms. Both partners lift and lengthen spines.

 

3. Partner One begins to slowly extend forward by lengthening through the sternum. Partner Two surrenders over Partner One's back also lifting through the sternum.



4. Partner One reaches forward to take hold of her feet or calves, gently extending further forward. Partner Two contacts the inner knees of Partner One while keeping his head raised and neck extending.



5. Partner Two releases hand hold and moves arms outside of Partner One's legs. Partner One places palms over Partner Two's palms, using the weight of her forearms to gently expand Partner Two's chest.
   
   NOTE: If Partner Two is unable to contact his head to Partner One's back, Partner One needs to stay lifted to support Partner Two's head while maintaining a lengthened spine.
6. Both partners take time to surrender deeply into the posture. Reverse roles.

© 2006, Elylsabeth Williamson
All images © www.wisdom-arts.com, 2006

For more information, your own copy of this gorgeous hardcover book,
or to check out Elysabeth and Rex's workshop calendar,
visit Wisdom Arts online at www.wisdom-arts.com.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elysabeth Williamson has studied and practiced Yoga for more than thirty years. She has taught a unique synthesis of various traditions of Yoga for eighteen years. Elysabeth currently teaches at the Shambhala Meditation Center in Boulder, Colorado. She also tr-avels internationally facilitating workshops on The Pleasures and Principles of Partner Yoga. Elysabeth lives in Colorado with her partner, Rex.