Agency vs. Surrender

Hi, welcome back to your Daily Mindfulness. In today's session, we're going to talk about the relationship between agency and surrender. So it's important to feel a sense of agency and influence in our life. This can sometimes get overlooked in contemplative practices, but it's incredibly important for keeping us feeling optimistic and also serves as a buffer against depression. As humans, in our brains, were hardwired to crave having a feeling of influence and control.

And this doesn't mean like controlling everything, but it does mean feeling like we can impact our environment. So agency and influence is important, but it's also important to remember that all we can do is influence how we show up in each moment. What follows and the outcome of all of that is very much out of our control. So we have to balance this. And if we were to summarize it, we could say, how about we stay committed to the process and detached from the outcome.

Committed to the process and detached from the outcome. This is how we can combine free will with what we could call, spiritual surrender. So try to take this into your day. Show up in each moment fully and let go of what happens that's out of your control, and in some sense, isn't really our business. All we can do is just influence how we're being in each moment.

Thank you for your practice. Let's settle in for today's meditation.