One of the most useful concepts to grow spiritually and becominghappier is the method of acceptance or surrender.
I have personally found this method to be perhaps the mostworkable and useful in retaining my poise and staying happier asI go through life. Partly because of my upbringing no doubt, Ihave had a life–long habit of being very self critical andjudgmental. I have the habit of criticizing and feeling badabout myself for every little thing that happened to me ?internally or externally. I tried to reason my way out of thishabit but it did not work ?the habit is still with me. I alsofeel guilty many times during the day when I am caught up withmy memories of times when I behaved badly.
For anybody in this situation, or anybody who feel negativelyabout himself or the situation in which he finds himself theproper attitude is that of acceptance and surrender. Surrenderto the thoughts and feelings which arise in you. If you arefeeling bad about yourself, or your relationships, or your workor anything about your life–situation welcome and accept thatfeeling. Surrender to it, perhaps it was what was meant tohappen at this time. Watch the feeling with as much detachmentas you can. It will pass as it must; all things in this worldare impermanent.
In the classic spiritual bestseller ?The Power of Now ?EckhartTolle advises us to treat whatever negative feeling that arisesin your mind as a message saying, “Attention ?Here and Now.Wake up ?Get out of your mind ?be present?
Surrender does not mean resignation to your life situation. Ifyou are stuck in the mud you don’t say “I resign myself to beingstuck in the mud?and do nothing about it. If you have lost yourjob, if you find yourself trapped in a bad relationship or inany situation that you find intolerable then obviously you mustdo something about it. We all need to plan and work to changecertain aspects of our lives. I am not telling you to blame yourfate or destiny for everything that happens and do nothing aboutit.
What I am asking you to do is to surrender to everything, whichis happening to you ?internally and externally at thisinstant in your life. If you are trapped in the morning rushduring your daily long commute to work, then accept whatever ishappening ?inside and outside ?at that instant. Surrender toyour feelings of freedom, irritation and frustration. Don’trepress those feelings ?accept them, surrender to them.
Surrender to the long life of cars or the crowd in the bus orlocal train. Accept your present situation ?at that instant ?fully and without reservation. This should not prevent you fromchanging what can and needs to be changed. Perhaps you can getanother job, or shift to another branch of your company closerto your home. Perhaps you can take the bus to your officeinstead of driving yourself. You can make use or your dailycommute by reading a newspaper or a book or doing some work.Change what can be changed, surrender to what is happening atthis instant ?the one thing that you cannot change.
For a more detailed discussion on the concept of acceptance andsurrender please refer the classic bestseller The Power of Nowby Eckhart Tolle, available at Amazon.
I hope you enjoyed this article and that it will be useful toyou.
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