What would it feel like to just let go and surrender to what is? To allow yourself to rest in faith and trust that everything is working out for you exactly as it should be. Even reading those words, how does it feel in your body? What words are coming up in your mind? Maybe you think that’s ridiculous or maybe you find that freeing and you felt your body relax. If you felt the latter, this is Ishvara Pranidhana. Yogis believe you can live this way all the time, but you must get out of your own way.
What is Ishvara Pranidhana?
Ishvara Pranidhana is the last Niyama, or yogic ethical principle. It invites you to surrender and allow a divine force to work in your life while you still take an active role. The active role for you is to live in the present moment and be curious about what lies ahead for you. And for you to have faith when your expectations of what you thought the outcome should be are not reality. Life challenges or bumps in your life’s road, give you an active opportunity to practice acceptance and trust that everything is working out for you.
Leave Your Ego at the Door
This principle asks you to surrender your ego. Most of us like to be in control. I know I do. It feels safe. Your ego’s purpose is to keep you safe. You need it to survive but it doesn’t need to run your life. When you realize you are part of something greater than yourself, you learn that you don’t have to move through life alone. There is a shared responsibility and a common purpose for you to be a part of while you learn to acknowledge your own power and gifts that you can contribute for the greater good.
Release Control
Many years ago, I heard a story about gripping sand in your hand. If you place sand in the palm of your hand and begin to curl your fingers into a fist, the sand starts to seep out through your fingers, and you lose it. I have thought about this story many times over the last few years, especially being a parent to two teenage boys. Sometimes we hold on so tightly out of fear and doubt, we begin to lose what we were fighting so hard to hold on to. Instead, if we hold the sand and support it with our palm without gripping, we keep the sand.
Too much control limits us. As you accept life as it is, you feel the freedom of letting go of things you cannot change. When you have faith and believe that everything is working out for you, you can let go of others’ expectations of you. Or you can let go of what you thought your purpose should be. You can live your life with an open heart and mind. You find the freedom to explore what your purpose is and what unique gifts you must spread into the world. And just like the sand story above, you can have faith that everything is working out for your loved ones without gripping so tightly where you may lose them.
Detach from the Outcome
To live Ishvara Pranidhana doesn’t mean you wait for things to happen to you and to not actively participate in your life. Surrender and faith ask you to have a goal or dream you want to pursue but release the outcome of what you think it should turn out like. Sometimes the outcome turns out to be far better than you ever could have imagined. And sometimes what we have dreamed about, doesn’t happen for us. When you reflect on those times, you may be able to see that it wasn’t meant for you in the first place and what actually happened was far better for you in the long run. Or you may feel like you missed what was meant for you. Sometimes that loss or disappointment becomes the catalyst for change that you needed to progress or make that scary leap.
On the Mat
Savasana is the final resting pose in yoga asana. For some people this is their favorite part of the sequence, but for others this is uncomfortable and challenging. Savasana is also called corpse pose. It symbolizes the death of what came before. After, you roll over into a fetal position which represents birth and an opportunity to begin again. Corpse pose is the ultimate act of surrendering. You are asked to release all tension in the mind and body and allow the earth to support you.
Too much control in a pose makes you rigid and hold tension. In your physical practice, it is always the active dance between ease or surrender and strength or control. You can come back to your breath to release the tension in your body. As you breathe deeply, you create more space in the body to expand and activate the parasympathetic nervous system. The parasympathetic nervous system is the “rest & digest” part of your nervous system. You slow down and surrender to what is happening in that moment on the mat, free of distraction. You are in the “flow” of life.
Conclusion
As you let go of ego and control, have faith in something larger than yourself, and realize that what is meant for you will not pass by, you will be in the flow of life. When you are in the flow of life or so caught up in doing something you love or are excited about, you are fully present in that moment and nothing can distract you.
”Surrender is that feeling at heart that makes us let go. It helps us be at ease and relax. It makes us understand that we don’t have to control everything that is going on in our lives. In fact, we can’t.”
– Om Swami, The Big Questions of Life
Much love & health,
Carrie
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