Surrender | January 2022

It’s time to talk about my One Little Word for 2022. Picking this year’s word has been a journey. I had my 2021 word picked out well in advance and was so excited to get started. My 2022 word has been much more elusive and has changed a few times, including just a week or two ago. But if you read the title, then you know that I’ve settled on Surrender.

I considered Surrender last November but decided against it because it felt defeatist and negative. I moved on to a few different ideas and started the year with a great word. I had a whole big plan and a really pretty blog banner all ready to go. And then in mid-January, surrender reappeared.

On Day 13 of Adriene’s 30 Day Yoga Journey, she said “see how quickly you can surrender.” I was so surprised to hear her say surrender. It had my mind spinning. As we settled into shavasana on Day 14 she said, “see how quickly you can surrender to stillness.” I caught my breath. She really had my attention when she paired stillness (my word last year) with surrender. I sat right up and said, “well, sh*it.” (pardon my language.) There was no chance for a chill shavasana after that!

I spent some time trying to decide if it made sense to switch words and eventually decided to, well, surrender. The idea of practicing surrender alongside stillness is too good to pass up and I’m going to give it a go in 2022.

What do I mean by Surrender?

It doesn’t mean I’ll just give up and let life run roughshod over me. It boils down to surrendering to the fact that most things are a struggle. And the quicker I can surrender to that and let my soul return to a place of stillness, the quicker I can move on with things.

I surrender to the fact that my house will always be a little messy, despite the fact that I feel like I’m constantly cleaning and coaching my kids to tidy up.

I surrender to understanding that clutter just might always be a factor in my life.

I surrender to knowing that things are difficult in my life and everyone has their own challenges that I’ll never know anything about.

And on and on. I’m sure it will be surprising to begin noticing all the things that aren’t worth fighting — that are better suited for surrendering. And wow – I’m getting more and and more excited about finding things I can release, just a little at a time.

One Tiny Example to Start the Year Off:

The easiest example from the month was surrendering to the idea of starting over with a new word. Like I said earlier – I had big plans for the word I began the year with. I have a whole spread in my notebook that’s full of wonderful ideas that I still want to implement into my life this year. While dithering this month, I held on tightly to that vision of the year.

Instead: I surrender.

Why spend so much time fighting it? Surrendering to stillness is such an intriguing idea and it showed up in a serendipitous way. And all those big plans in my notebook? I was already feeling stressed out about them. It was likely another manic effort at finding “my best life.” Dude – I surrender in the most wholehearted way.

And my heart has lifted just the tiniest bit by writing that. I’m looking forward to finding ways to surrender in the most positive and heart-lifting ways possible in 2022, as well as continuing my Stillness journey from last year.

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A great big thank you to Carolyn at Your One Word for hosting this gathering every month. Please visit her and the other bloggers participating in 2022. There are so many great words this year and I can’t wait to follow along!