IF YOU REFLECT BACK ON YOUR LIFE you will realize that you have already had many moments of surrender, some more profound than others. Although the circumstances in which we surrender are different each time, the inner experience of understanding, gratitude, and expansion that results from surrender is always the same. Each experience of surrender expands our consciousness and influences our life in a positive and profound way. Since the best way to learn about the healing power of surrender is through experience, I have chosen seven basic ways that you can practice surrendering to what is and have called them the seven paths of surrender. These paths are:

• Surrendering to Your Sexuality
• Surrendering to Life
• Surrendering to Your Inner Power
• Surrendering to Love
• Surrendering to Your Individuality
• Surrendering to Your Inner Wisdom
• Surrendering your will to the Will of Existence

These paths are closely interconnected and relate to the seven chakras or energy centers of the body as well as the seven stages of the ego's development. I'll be talking about the chakras in more depth in chapters 4 and 5; this chapter offers a practical way to heal and transform the ego-mind into consciousness through surrender.

To help you choose a path of surrender that is right for you, take a moment to contemplate and answer the following questions:

• Do you find it difficult to surrender to your sexuality?
• Do you worry about your survival?
• Do you have difficulty standing up for yourself?
• Do you find it difficult to surrender to love and intimacy?
• Do you find it difficult to follow your intuition?
• Do you find it difficult to surrender to your inner knowing?
• Do you find it difficult to accept and surrender to whatever life brings you?

If you answered "yes" or "sometimes" to any of the above questions, and have gained enough insight into the nature of your mind and the behavior patterns that prevent you from surrendering ask yourself: What do I usually do when I don't like what is happening in my life? and If I could surrender to just one thing, what would it be? Depending on your answer, choose a path of surrender you most resonate with and practice it for at least three months. You can practice with more than one path at a time, but I recommend staying with one or two at the most, so your energy stays focused on the path that is most relevant to your current life circumstances. Decide how much time you will allocate to your practice daily, and find ways to help you discipline your practice with ease. It is important that you enjoy what you do without struggle. Once you have created a suitable schedule, be diligent with your commitment. You can move on to other paths when you feel ready.

The paths of surrender will continually change as your life changes, but the main thread between all the paths will remain the same - it is moving from acceptance to understanding, from understanding to surrender, and from surrender to transformation. Surrendering to what is will bring you more joy, silence, and inner peace and will eventually lead to total transformation of your ego-mind into consciousness.

FIRST PATH:
Surrendering to Your Sexuality

Surrendering to your sexuality means accepting that you are a sexual being. Existence gave you a body, and sexuality is part of it. To deny your body and its sexuality is to deny God who created it. Usually, we struggle with our sexual desire by either suppressing it or immediately needing to satisfy it.

If we repress our sexuality because of social and religious conditionings and think that sex is sinful, we fuel the struggle between our body and mind. If we compulsively strive to gratify our sexual desires, we keep ourselves stuck in the animal realm and stunt our spiritual evolution into greater consciousness. Either way, we cannot grow solid roots and will always find it difficult to surrender to love, life, and existence.

To practice surrendering to your sexuality,
practice acceptance and understanding of your body,
desires, inhibitions, and conditionings about sex.

Before you can surrender to your sexuality, you need to first accept it with an understanding that it is an undeniable part of you. Begin exploring your sexuality objectively, like a scientist. Whenever sexual desire arises, look inside and observe your body, beliefs and judgments about sex. Observe your feelings, breath, and energy movements in your body. Be a detached observer of what is happening without judging or acting upon your desires. Watch your sexual desire and remind yourself that you are simply a witness to whatever is happening in your body and mind. Then, write down your observations and take time to contemplate them. Ask yourself, "Is my desire coming from my mind or my body? Did it start with something that I saw, heard, thought, or imagined, or did it arise spontaneously without me thinking about sex? Was I alone or physically near someone when I felt sexual desire?"

With the practice of observation, you will be able to learn to discriminate between the sexual needs of your body and the desires of your mind. If sexual arousal occurs without the imagination or thought, than it is the body's natural physical response to energy and sexuality. If it is triggered by a thought, by the imagination, or by visual stimulus (i.e., pornography), it is from the mind.

If you see that your sexual desire arises out of your mind, don't feed it with your attention. Release your attachment to it and let your focus and energy rise higher into your heart. If the desire is naturally arising from the body, surrender to it and give yourself permission to enjoy your sexuality when appropriate while you still remain a witness to it.

To discriminate between the two is not an easy task and requires much focus and awareness, but if you persevere you'll find the golden key to freedom from attachment to your body and its needs. Surrendering to your sexuality will allow your sexual energy to be channeled into love, intimacy, creativity, and higher consciousness. It will also prepare you to surrender to life, death, and existence.

SECOND PATH:
Surrendering to Life

To surrender to life means understanding and accepting your responsibility in needing to take care of your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual needs and well-being. Life always takes care of us and offers many opportunities for growth in consciousness, but we need to take responsibility to fulfill our part. We usually resist life by either worrying about our survival, withdrawing from life or contemplating suicide when life is difficult, or by struggling with how it unfolds.

We impose our will on life by either wishing things were different or by fighting against and manipulating it. When we surrender to life and ride with its ups and downs we not only grow and evolve individually but also contribute to the evolution of others. By taking responsibility for our well-being, we also affect the well-being of others.

Life is always wiser and greater than our small ego-mind. When we surrender to what life brings, we can see and understand the hidden lessons and the new direction that life is pointing us in. By resisting and rejecting the guidance that life offers, we miss learning our lessons and stay in ignorance and suffering. When we accept and surrender to our own life, we also accept and surrender to other people's lives instead of resenting, judging, and competing with them.

To practice surrendering to life,
accept everything that life brings you without a grudge or complaint.

To do this you need to learn how to read the signs that existence gives you each moment. If you stop spending the energy that you normally waste on complaining, judging, and resenting what life offers and instead follow its wisdom, you can use your energy creatively and purposefully. Surrendering to life without complaint will bring you greater understanding and peace of mind.

One way to practice surrendering to life is to use your breath. You can practice this at any time and anywhere. Whenever you feel fear, resistance, or judgment towards anything that is happening, take a moment to look inside and bring your attention to your breath. Move your breath and attention into the center of your body, just below your navel. As you inhale, watch your breath reaching deep into your center in the second chakra, and as you exhale watch how it leaves your body through your nostrils. With the inhalation, say to yourself: "I accept whatever is happening in my life right now, and I take full responsibility for my part in what is happening." With the exhalation, say to yourself: "I let go of my struggle and surrender to the will of existence. I will focus on understanding the lessons that existence is showing me."

Practice with this exercise only if you sincerely feel these words are resonating with you. If you practice with them mechanically, they will not be of much help. You can also use your own words to suit what feels truer to you. You can practice with this exercise either with something current, or by working with a memory from the past with which you are still struggling.

THIRD PATH:
Surrendering to Your Inner Power

Surrendering to your inner power means living your life without compromising your own truth. From childhood we have been taught to suppress our inner truth and power. As a result we become insecure about our uniqueness and learn to suppress our true voice. We learn to doubt and criticize ourselves and others. We learn to lie, deceive, and manipulate to get our needs met.

To regain our integrity and authenticity we must develop the courage to surrender to our inner power. To do this, we must live according to our awareness and remain true to ourselves even if others disagree with us. We must stay alert not to allow anyone, including our own mind, to manipulate or in any way control our inner truth. Only by surrendering to our inner power can we have the courage to manifest our unique gifts and talents and be of help to others.

To practice surrendering to your inner power
you must acknowledge and accept your instinctive knowing (gut instinct)
instead of following your conditioned mind.

Trust your gut feeling and take risks by saying "no" to things that don't feel right for you. The best way to practice surrendering to your inner power is to cultivate courage. Dare to be different and do what feels right even if others disagree with you. Watch how when you suppress your feelings of anger, resentment, insecurity, neediness, weakness, jealousy, or competitiveness you are diverting from surrendering to your own truth and power. For example, if you usually agree with others out of fear of conflict, or because you don't want to offend them, observe your thoughts and feelings that get triggered as a result. Ask yourself: Why am I compromising? Understand that no one is responsible for your choice to suppress your power - in spite of your fears and the possible consequences, courageously and honestly express what you truly feel. If you can live this way, you will not only give yourself a chance to live a more authentic life but will also become a source of inspiration to others.

First, make a list of all your fears, insecurities, and anything that makes you compromise your own truth and power. Opposite each point write what you do (your usual behavior pattern) when you compromise. Then take some time to contemplate the following questions: "What do I gain by compromising my truth and having others agree with me? What will I lose if others disagree with me?"

Next, choose three behavior patterns that you are ready to break. Write them on a separate sheet of paper. Opposite each point, write the thoughts and emotions that you normally have when you act out this behavior.

Finally, surrender to your inner power and break your old behavior patterns by beginning to act from the place of courage and without hiding, suppressing, or manipulating. By being prepared to face all the consequences and staying true to your inner truth you regain your dignity and honor and start feeling good about yourself. If you still feel paralyzed in the course of this exercise, return to the 2nd path exercise, above, Surrendering to Life, and try practicing them simultaneously. Once you feel you have broken through one stumbling block you had been working on from your list, move on to the next.

This article was excerpted with permission from Chapter Three of Eliza Mada Dalian's book, In Search of the Miraculous: Healing into Consciousness. The full chapter within the book walks the reader through ALL SEVEN Paths of Surrender, offering much guidance and addressing several frequently asked questions. To purchase this book, visit www.amazon.com or www.barnesandnoble.com.

In Search of the Miraculous was ALSO chosen as a Nautilus Award winner!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eliza Mada Dalian is a visionary, mystic, medical intuitive, spiritual guide, and the founder of a groundbreaking new healing method – DHM (Dalian Healing Method), which can quickly identify the root cause(s) of energetic blocks, physical, mental and emotional problems, and effortlessly and miraculously heal the body and transform energetic blocks into health and consciousness. After her awakening experience at age 33, Mada has dedicated her life to helping others towards healing and spiritual awakening.

For more information visit, www.madadalian.com.
To see when Eliza Mada Dalian might be in your area please see her calendar of events.