Surrender is a significant part of many spiritual traditions. It is ego-puncturing, which allows a person to become teachable, and also, to be supported directly from higher powers. Most importantly, the highest...
An alcoholic/addict as described in the 12-Step literature will find themselves in a position where they have lost the power of choice regarding their behaviour. Utterly, completely. Only an act of Providence may restore them to sanity and a meaningful life. The new energy will have this same effect upon everyone who is not yet in tune with it, with love and joy and honesty and charity. As you detect increasing internal tension, you will wish to counteract it with something positive. So..
There are many methods to come into sync with the new energy. One is to, if you do not already, undertake great amounts of charitable work and donations, and to offer love to all who are around you, to include all Humanity in your prayers. Prayer for others being another service.
-"I am praying for the greatest possible good for Mankind and all involved". (ASAH forum)
-"I am praying for the enlightenment of all sentient beings." (Tibetan)
-"I am love, I am giving love." (Young-Sowers Divination Deck)
Join a church or spiritual group that is to your liking. The power of group prayer is significant, and should never be underestimated.
Surrender is to give up your own will (read: self-obsession) and to allow the higher power of your choice to guide your life completely. There is much in the AA Big Book about this, as there is in the AA book "Came to Believe". Addicts surrender because they know that they are dying. The new energy can make you feel like you are dying as well, depending upon your Self.
I have practiced surrender in more than one spiritual tradition. It works, so much as you =allow= it to. But how to surrender? It comes to each of us as we genuinely desire it. (This selfish action is allowed, but only as it seeks to be of service to others.) Those who know that they are completely defeated, through exhaustion and/or repeated agony, will reach out for help, uttering that excellent prayer, "Help me", even "Help me God". It is a giving up. If you truly wish it, it will be given to you, if it is part of your life's path. If you are not defeating yourself through not fully quitting the past.
It feels like letting go. It feels like being on a waterbed. Ever try to fight a waterbed? This is what life is like. Ever just float on a waterbed, completely relaxed? That is what surrender is like. When you begin to use your muscles and grab for things, to make what you want to happen, you are out of surrender. Yes, you are trusting your higher power to do for you what you cannot do for yourself, as well as to guide you to the best possible circumstances. (Note that sometimes pain will be placed in your life as a wake-up call, so that you may deal directly with things you would otherwise never seek to solve...but need to.)
A good surrender prayer is, when relaxed and with light attention on the in and out breath, "Let God/Let Go".
The Christ will help as well, if you ask and truly seek. Christ taught us what life would be like in this coming age. Spiritual mastery...
These things are always to be undertaken when selfishness rises up, especially if the concept of spending a day at the soup kitchen would get in the way of the big game. You get back what you put out. Invest in spiritual dollars...the return is obvious.
