2016 was the birthing of passion over living intentionally. 2017 has offered the obliteration of my confidence in intentionality by balancing it with understanding… Surrender.

It has destroyed me many times over the course of this year, and I am finally at a place where I can appreciate it in balance with its Yang counterpart of Intention. What a journey.

I have come to understand that Intentionality can tip out of balance without understanding the dance between these two forces. There is a flow between them. Intention isolated from what else is happening in your “outer” universe of relationships and circumstances can swiftly and subversively turn into unchecked dangerous ambition, a gaping inability for empathy, or harmful actions masked by noble sounding ideals.

In my best attempts to manifest what I thought would be amazing or better, there are still disappointing outcomes sometimes, expectations that don’t get met, self-reflection that forces me to take responsibility instead of adopting a victim mentality.

STAYING IN YOUR POWER

Ironically, knowing how to gracefully (or ungracefully) surrender is one of the keys to not giving up your power.  Let me explain.
The second I believe that I deserve to stay angry over how someone treated me, I am literally agreeing to a belief that someone else gets to decide how free I am.
This does not mean that you have to sacrifice your own emotional intelligence… by all means keep that well and alive!

THE GOODNESS ABOUT SURRENDER

This is the airy fairy sounding stuff, but I assure it is pragmatic. Surrender has the power to keep your ego in check about whatever it is that you desire. Surrender and Intention both have potential to fall into negative extremes, but coexisting, they can create the perfect suspension. Intention has the power to bring you out of stagnation and reservation, to bring you into creation, action, participation, contribution. Surrender is allowing those intentions to be echoed and reflected back to you from all the other voices in the universe. It lets you relinquish your energy when necessary, loosening your grip on trying to control circumstances. It does not mean you are submitting to predestination, nor does it mean that your free will is meaningless. I did not understand this at first.

This lesson feels huge, like it’s going to largely influence how I evolve (or devolve) over the next ten years, like I’ve chosen one ultimate reality over another drastically different one in the multiverse. There’s no guarantee that I can’t slip onto any other path along the way, but the decision I make about how I regard these things now in formative crisis and tough times could make all the difference.

Surrender is just as much an Adventure as intention. And its poise is powerful.

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What was your biggest lesson this year?  How are you stepping up to the Adventure in 2018?

Bless up you beautiful Souls, and as always, Live Adventurously.