The Soulful Art of Surrender is a form of meditation that requires only one breath, just one exhalation. It takes perhaps 8 or 9 seconds to do. The key is that you do it the first thing in the morning, the last thing at night, and every 15 to 20 minutes all day long. Do it as often as you can remember to do it. Do it wherever you are, whatever you are doing, and no matter how you feel at the moment. You don’t have to close your eyes, or stop walking or talking. You can’t do it too much. The more “letting go” breaths you release, the more you will experience the results.

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This 25-minute practice will guide you through how to do this one “letting go breath”  form of meditation. You can just sit back, close your eyes, and listen as you allow my voice to guide you through how to open your heart and let go. The intention here is letting go of holding on to absolutely anything being of any importance at all, not forever, but totally letting go, just for the time it takes for one breath to effortlessly fall from your body.

I am not suggesting that there aren’t things that are important in life. But there is something quite remarkable, freeing, and peaceful that happens when you learn how to completely let go of holding on to their importance. Holding-on does not come from love. It comes from fear. Letting go is an infinitely safe and wise thing to do. Letting go of holding on for even a few moments will take you to that Soulful place way deep down inside where you are naturally and completely and always at peace, where you feel free, safe, strong, and clear.

The Mechanics

At the moment you begin to exhale this letting go breath I invite you to do two things simultaneously.

First: Physically relax your body as best you can. Just let go of holding on to any tension anywhere in your physical body. Sometimes it helps to think about softening your eyes, your tongue, or your belly. If there is a place that seems tight and won’t let go, then lovingly allow and invite it to be there just like it is.

Second: For the time it takes for the breath to fall from your body, I invite you to totally let go of holding on to absolutely anything being of any importance at all. Let go of holding on to the past, let go of holding on to anything that ever happened in your life. Letting go of holding onto the past does not mean forgetting or denying or stuffing the past. It is simply letting go of clinging to your story and all your evidence, about what happened or didn’t happen for you or to you. It is letting go of your attachment to how things will turn out in the future in regard to your health, your career, and your relationships. It is totally letting go of the illusion of control. Nobody has ever been in control of anything, not for one moment in the history of the universe. Like fear, control is an illusion, just a thought, a fear-based thought. It is letting go of your need to be special. It is letting go of your need to be right and all your evidence and agreement seeking. And sometimes it is even about letting go of being able to let go. Sometimes we get so hooked that we simply can’t let go. Our ego can get so hurt, scared, angry, or jealous, that it just can’t release. This is when you can learn to open your heart to yourself. It is your soul holding your hooked, reactive little ego with tenderness and compassion. It is giving yourself permission to feel whatever you are feeling, and finding a way to express it that is not hurtful to you or to anyone else. As you can learn to be gentle with yourself, you will find that the reactiveness will quickly pass and you can let go of holding on to whatever it was that had you in its grip. 

What to Expect

As you learn to do this letting go breath, the results I would expect you to notice are that you begin to take things a little less seriously, without losing your passion or your sense of direction in life. You may notice that you are taking things a little less personally even if someone is being reactive or challenging you. You may notice that your intuition is up, that you just have a way of knowing things that you have no logical way of knowing. You may notice that you are a little more creative in your problem-solving or in your play. You may notice that you are more interested and listening better to others. You may notice that it is easier to set healthy and appropriate boundaries with others and to be able to ask more clearly and more directly for what you want in life. You might notice that your libido is up, that all of your senses - sight, sound, touch, smell are just a little sharper. This is what I notice and it is what virtually every person I’ve taught this to over the last ten years has reported to me. This is very simple but it is not easy.

The challenge is that our innocent but misguided ego structure, our mind/body, literally thinks it is us. And it thinks its very survival, life, and death, depend on it never letting go. So our ego does not want us to do this “letting go” breath. In fact, it will do everything it already does to run our lives, it will try to get us not to do this letting go of breath. So if you tend to be self-critical, you may think you are so bad at this that you might as well not bother doing it. If you tend to be a little cocky or arrogant you’ll start thinking you are so good at this that you don’t need to do it anymore. If you don’t have enough time in your life, you’ll think you don’t have time to do this. It is just a matter of bringing your loving intention and your willingness to release and totally let of one exhalation.

If you have any questions about The Soulful Art of Surrender, this one-breath form of meditation, feel free to contact me. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have or to assist or coach you. Remember, you can’t do it wrong. You can only do it or not do it. The more you do it the more you will experience the results. Don’t underestimate the difference this one letting go breath can make in your life.

You have to breathe anyway. So give it a try and see.

Warmly, Frank