My life, my journey, has been deeply impacted by the writing of Michael A. Singer. I first discovered him through his book, The Untethered Soul, released in 2007. I have read this book and listened to the audio of it so many times, and every single time, it stirs my heart and soul and raises my awareness, while beckoning me onward. I desire that untethered life of peacefulness, of unbridled joy, where the day’s events don’t unsettled me at all.
The book club I am part of is currently reading through The Untethered Soul and I was very excited to learn one evening, from my friend Cate, that Michael was releasing a new book, The Surrender Experiment. The subtitle of this book is “My journey into life’s perfection”. I have wanted to read Michael’s story, and understand the path his journey took. It has been a delight to read this book, which I finished tonight, and I am once again encouraged in my own journey.
The Surrender Experiment is the account of Michael’s personal journey, beginning with an awakening in his early 20’s. Determined not to be controlled by his fears or allow his likes and dislikes to dictate his life, Michael began an experiment. He opened to opportunities and possibilities, responding to the situations life brought to him by doing the very best he could and offering the result back to the world, as a gift. If he found himself resisting an idea or an opportunity, he learned to let go…and flow with, rather than against, life.
The flow of life, the guidance of the Divine, took him from being a young man living alone in the woods, meditating and practicing yoga, to acquiring hundreds of additional acres and creating a community of like hearted souls to share the journey with, to becoming the CEO of a huge, successful computer software corporation, to a raid by the FBI because of unfounded accusations by a former employee who embezzled company funds. In this amazing journey, Michael discovered the perfection of allowing his life and his growth to be directed by all that was unfolding in the present moment.
There are a few books that I have read that so resonate with me that a deep sense of stillness comes over me, just reading the words within. The Surrender Experiment is one of those books. In the past few years, I too have experienced the exciting and profound growth that takes place as I stay in life’s flow, guided by the Divine. I’ve come to see myself as immersed in a great river that takes me exactly where I need to go, so long as I stay in the middle of it, in the flow. I can try resisting the flow, by swimming upstream, which drains my energy, wearing me out physically and emotionally and spiritually. Or I can remove myself from the flow and become stagnant, watching as life and opportunities pass by…an observer of life rather than a participant. I choose to stay in the flow.
This is what Michael’s newest book is about….surrendering to that flow….being engaged with what comes to him or where he is swept off to. His level of surrender was so inspiring to me. There is such a deep element of trust and faith involved, when I can’t see beyond the bend in the river, can’t know for sure, or at all, where the flow of life is taking me. However, I am learning that it is all for my good, all for my growth, all to help me release old energy and old habits so that I am, truly, free, untethered, moving beyond. Anything the flow of life takes me to, it will also take me beyond, if I will stay in that flow.
There was an experience in Michael’s life that shifted everything for him. He understood that he was holding himself back in his spiritual journey by thinking of parts of himself as the enemy that needed to be destroyed. In his mind, he kept that struggling person with his restless energies and chattering thoughts locked in a room. The day he opened the door to that mental room, and accepted himself, saying “You can come out now”, was the day his heart broke open and wholeness began.
I was there, four years ago. The day I threw open the locked door to a fiercely guarded room in my heart and told my intuitive self, my weird side, my feared side, “It’s okay, I accept you”, and embraced her, was the day wholeness started for me. There has been no looking back. And now, my journey, the flow of my life, has brought me to this author, this book, this time of growth, at this precise time, which is all perfect.
“Eventually, even the mind stops resisting, and the heart loses the tendency to close. The joy, excitement, and freedom are simply too beautiful to give up. Once you are ready to let go of yourself, life becomes your friend, your teacher, your secret lover. When life’s way becomes your way, all the noise stops, and there is a great peace.”
Michael A. Singer, The Surrender Experiment
I am excited to see where the flow of life, the guidance of the Divine, takes me next.
Michael A Singer