Surrender.
When you hear the word surrender, what does it make you think?
Giving up? Giving in? Or going with the flow?
I believe your answer will depend on your level of consciousness.
And before I get into this and you start to feel defensive, there’s nothing wrong with any level.
You wouldn’t say a 5 year old was worse than a 10 year old – they are simply at different stages of development.
So, back to surrender and the 4 levels of consciousness:
- To me
- By me
- Through me
- As me
When people associate surrender with giving up, it suggests they are operating at ‘To me’ level. Why does this always happen to me? People are always trying to take advantage of me. Life isn’t fair. They tend to have a victim mentality. There’s no point trying any more, I may as well give up. There is a sense of hopelessness about life and it feels like everything is against you.
At ‘By me’ level there is more energy; you’ve been working really hard on something so the word surrender is likely to evoke a sense of giving in. Surrendering feels like a negative thing to do. Can you imagine a Royal Marine saying they are going to surrender?!
A person at by me level is likely to be an achiever. They get things done – this will be achieved by me. This level of consciousness can be useful for achieving desired outcomes but by goodness, it can be exhausting. I’m going to make this happen one way or another! It can often lead to burn out and frustration.
The next level is ‘Through me’. People operating at through me level experience a greater sense of flow. Things just feel in alignment and there is a sense of ease to everything. Surrender at this level means letting go of resistance and going with the flow. Things seem to work out without huge amounts of effort. They happen to meet the right person at the right time and things simply fall into place.
The last level is reserved for the select few. ‘As me’ is when people reach a sort of enlightened phase, people such as Mother Theresa, Ghandi, Nelson Mandela, Buddha. Here, surrender is about recognising everything and everyone is connected, we are all ‘as me’ and ultimately there is no separation.
These people are likely to start off at a higher level – probably because they’ve already worked their way up in a previous lifetime.
This model can help us to see how the different levels of consciousness impact how we experience the world and how we operate within it. Do any of the above statements resonate with you?
You may feel things work better in one area of life than in other areas – it is possible to be at different levels in different areas of your life. Perhaps you are an achiever at work and are known for getting things done, whilst in your personal area it feels like everything bad happens to you; you get into the wrong type of relationships, you suffer with poor health and everything feels hard work.
Through me is probably the most effective level to be operating at because life feels easier and things flow. However, we can’t just decide ‘I’m going to move up to through me’. We work our way up the levels through life experience and practice. By raising our self-awareness and learning to see the world differently we can gradually start to live from a place of through me.
When we master our minds and mindset, we master our lives.
If you’d like help with improving your mindset, take a look at my RHYTHM book or make a free appointment for an Experience Session