Are you struggling to pay the bills, manage the kids, get ahead at work, be healthy, keep your head above water, and stay sane? Do you feel like you’re cursed, like nothing is going your way, like you’ll never dig yourself out of the hole your life has become? If you feel like this, you’re SO not alone. We've all felt like this at times in our lives, and most of us feel this way all the time.

When you feel this way, how do you react? If you’re anything like me in my past, you grab onto the handle of your life with both hands and try to wrangle your life into serving your desires. When you fail to control the outcomes of your life, you cling even harder, struggle even more, and work yourself into a tizzy. You pray for help with your business, a way to fix your relationship, more money, better health, and solutions to your problems. But nothing helps. You only find yourself struggling more, sweating blood and tears, and attaching more vehemently to the life you’re trying to build for yourself.

Sound familiar? Yup. Me too. For years, I grabbed that bull by the horns while it bucked and snorted, bouncing me all over the place. The more effort I expended, the more the bull bucked and the further from my goals I drifted. After a decade of this, I expended all of my energy and simply couldn’t keep up the fight. Instead, I jumped off the proverbial cliff and took a Pleap (Pink leap of faith), landing myself in what I lovingly and gratefully call “the lavender-scented river.” Since then, I’ve given up fighting, quit bucking around, and let go of the handle, leaving my life in the hands of JABA (Jesus/Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Athena, etc). Now, I go with the flow, and magic is happening. As long as I lie back, float on the river, and breathe in the lovely lavender scent of surrender, doors keep opening. What surprises me is that the doors are not necessarily ones I would have opened myself, yet the openings continue to lead to beautiful meadows of insight, peace and love I might never have explored. By surrendering and trusting the Universe, I leave room for the unexpected, and because I’m not so tired from struggling all the time, I have the energy to explore uncharted waters.

What about you, Pinkies? Have you learned to let go and let God? Believe me, I was as resistant as you may be. If I really want something (that job, that book deal, that perfect relationship), then I’ve gotta work my ass off, right? To succeed, I must suffer, right? Only the lazy surrender, right?

Nope. It’s just not true. In fact, Pinkie Dr. Doris Jeanette (@DorisJeanette on Twitter) writes about how hanging on is just about the most unproductive thing we can do. But believe me- I hear ya! Really I do. I’m a doctor- we’re the ULTIMATE control freaks. We like to PLAY God, not surrender to a higher power.

But I swear to JABA, it works.

Here’s what I propose. Instead of praying for what you think you want, pray for inner peace. Pure and simple. “JABA, help me surrender to your will and lead me to inner peace.” Trust that the Universe knows better than you do what will bring you inner peace- and let go.

You may think you want to save your marriage, but maybe that’s not the Plan. You may pray for that book deal or that promotion or the ability to quit your day job or to finally get pregnant- or whatever it is you think you want. But how can you know this will bring you inner peace? Can you TRUST that the Universe knows more than you can possibly know?

An Exercise in Surrender

1. Grab your journal and make a list of all of your desires- everything you can think of that you want in your life right now.
2. Examine your list. Why do you want these things? What is your ultimate goal?
3. Apply the Law of Attraction. Visualize what you want. Be very specific, but don’t attach to the vision. Allow the dream to manifest in your mind’s eye, but let it remain there loosely, understanding that you can’t possibly know what the future holds or what will bring you inner peace.
4. Now pray for JABA to guide you towards your dreams, but more importantly, towards inner peace. Go ahead and pray for what you really want in life. Desire is critical to getting your mojo back. If you can’t dream it, you can’t do it. But rememeber that you may not know what outcome will bring you joy.
5. Surrender to God’s will. Let it all go. Put you life- and your desires- in the hands of God and lie back into the lavender-scented river and trust. Have faith. Let go of the handle.

Living the life that brings you inner peace may take longer than you expect. Be patient. Set your intention- to live a life of inner peace. And then sit back. Stop efforting. Quit struggling- and BREATHE.

Surrendering into life,

Lissa