Healing Through Surrender

There’s a funny thing about surrender… it’s often the lesson we resist the most, yet it’s the one we need the most. Surrender is not something that comes easily to most of us, especially when life throws us challenges that we don’t feel ready for. But sometimes, healing isn’t about effort. It’s about healing through surrender.

My own journey with injury has been a humbling reminder of this. Most recently, a torn rotator cuff that has tested my patience, my resilience, and my ability to soften into the process rather than resist it. And isn’t that always the lesson? When we fight against what is, we create more struggle. But when we allow, when we give the body the space, time, and care it needs, we open the door to true healing.

This is the deep work of Ishvara Pranidhana, the yogic practice of surrender.

For months now, this rotator cuff injury that has left me unable to move in ways I once took for granted. Child’s pose? Out of the question. Lifting my arm overhead? A slow, painful process. The reality is, I’m in line for surgery, and no amount of pushing, forcing, or willing my body to heal faster will change that. It’s humbling. It’s frustrating. It’s overwhelming. It’s all of it and everything in between.

And yet, surrendering to this process has the potential to be one of the greatest gifts.

The Art of Letting Go (When You Have No Choice)

So often, we push through pain (whether physical, emotional, or mental) because that’s what we’ve been conditioned to do. Especially as women, as mothers, as caregivers, we’re taught that we must keep going, no matter what. There’s always a list to check off, a need to fill, a problem to solve.

But healing doesn’t work that way. Healing happens in stillness. In patience. In allowing.

When an injury happens, the body already knows how to repair itself. It doesn’t need us to rush the process. It needs space. It needs time. It needs rest, the right movement, nourishing food, and deep, quality sleep. Like nature shifting into spring, nothing is rushed, yet everything eventually happens.

I can’t speed up my recovery. I can’t force my body to be where it’s not. But I can support it. I can choose to trust the process instead of resisting it.

And that’s the real work of surrender — not giving up, but giving yourself the grace to be where you are instead of forcing yourself into where you think you should be.

Surrender Is a Practice (Not a One-Time Thing)

I teach yoga, so you’d think this whole surrender thing would come easy. It doesn’t. I get caught in the same cycles of control, frustration, and impatience that everyone else does.

Some days, I feel like a toddler throwing a tantrum inside my own mind.
“Why can’t this just be over?” “Why does everything take so long?” “Why does my body feel like this?”

But then I step back, take a deep breath, and remind myself: this is where I am. And where I am is okay.

That’s what I want you to take from this, too.

Whether you’re dealing with an injury, exhaustion, burnout, or just the weight of everyday life, know this: you don’t have to force your way through. You don’t have to hold it all. You don’t have to control everything.

You just have to practice resisting control and let go, just a little.

You have to trust that healing, balance, and energy will return. But only when you give yourself the space to receive it.

Bringing This to the Mat

Surrendering in real life is hard, but yoga gives us a place to practice it over and over again.

• It shows up in Savasana, when we resist stillness but need it more than anything.
• It shows up in heart-opening poses, where we physically soften our grip and expand into trust.
• It shows up in the breath, in every exhale, as a reminder that letting go is the most natural thing in the world.

So this week, I invite you to practice softening. Whether on the mat, in your daily routines, or even just in a moment of stillness, give yourself permission to let go of what you don’t need to hold.

Because surrender isn’t weakness. It’s wisdom. It’s an understanding that healing, energy, and clarity will return when we stop fighting against the process.

Take a deep breath in.
And let it go.

I’ll see you on the mat soon.

xoM