A Three-Part Recipe for personal peace. Ishvara Pranidahana: take 2.

This weekend, I attended the Watern Latern Festival in the Sparks Marina. We wrote our intentions and floated our deepest wishes out into the water as we let them go.

What do we do when life is difficult? How do we respond to the shortcomings of our own expectations? How can we connect with the best version of ourselves to meet our heart-mind’s needs?

I think we all experience self-imposed angst, if not guilt, from time to time. We reflect on a conversation or reaction and think, “Hmm, that wasn’t my best self.” We all make mistakes.

Controlling our behavior is challenging enough, right? But think about it, we have the added complexity of interacting with others, each on their own path and learning their own lessons.

So how do we approach life’s struggles to overcome them successfully? it shouldn’t surprise you to read from me that Yoga provides an opportunity for us to practice mental processes of pausing and reflection, which translates into our everyday lives.

A concept that frequently arises in my yoga instruction and personal practice is the concept of surrendering. If you’d like to learn more about Ishvara Pranidhana, you can check it out here: [Ishvara Pranidhana](https://www.grassrootsyogacenter.com/post/yoga-philosophy-ishvara-pranidhana).

According to the Yoga Sutras, the process of surrendering involves three stages, which I’ will briefly outline here:

1. Discipline: Get yourself to your mat and follow the teacher's instructions to enter the pose to the best of your ability.

2. Reflection: Internally assess what’s happening in your body and compare it to the goal of the practice. For example, in a restorative class, if you’re holding tension because your knee isn’t resting in a reclined twist meant to release your lower back, you adjust the pose accordingly and slide a block under the knee. This allows the low back to relax as the leg rests.

3. Surrendering: After aligning your body with more integrity, you let go of it all so that you may receive the benefits of the posture. Here, you let go of  expectations and embrace whatever unfolds.

Surrendering isn’t just about releasing desires or expectations. To surrender like a yogi means to practice discipline, reflect on your actions, and then let go, allowing your body to find the benefits of the posture.

This approach applies to life as well (chuckles to herself). I often view challenging life circumstances as asana (pose in Sanskrit). Just like yoga poses demand adjustments to fulfill their purpose, being a mother to a growing girl is a daily practice of this asana as I command my calendar and my compassion to fit the needs of healthy development.

While we can’t control everything in our lives—our children, partners, family, or friends—we can control how we navigate the world. By exercising discipline in our language and behavior, reflecting on its impact in order to make adjustments with integrity, only then can we let go and surrender into the beauty of life and the boundless moments of joy it has to offer.

By following this basic formula for surrendering, we allow the world to respond to us as it will, knowing we’ve put our best selves forward. We strive to act with non-violence and honesty, doing our due diligence in every moment that we are conscious of our dharma.