On the surface, surrendering and taking action seem to contradict each other when you’re manifesting something. After all, how do you take action if you also have to surrender? If opportunities come by, do you just have to sit still and wait for your desire to fall in your lap? In truth, surrendering and taking action are not contradictory; they are complementary. Correctly surrendering will automatically lead you into inspired action.
In my view, the confusion comes from not understanding that your actions are confined by the ideas, assumptions, or beliefs held in the subconscious mind. A person believing he is doomed to fail is not able to act in any other way until he challenges that belief.
This is the short version:
Surrendering and taking action do not oppose each other. Rather, action is a result of correctly surrendering. Surrendering is better described as surrendering all control, with the understanding that the subconscious mind is the causative power in your life.
Manifesting works by impressing an idea on the subconscious mind and then yielding completely in trust that the subconscious mind will produce the result. You will automatically be prompted to take inspired action, oftentimes through the appearance of opportunities opening a path between you and your goal. A path will be opened, but you will have to walk that path.
Let’s now look at this in more detail.
Why They Are Not Antagonistic
Contrary to popular belief, surrendering and taking action in the manifestation process are not opposites; they are complementary components. Surrendering and taking action are not antagonistic because letting go of control enables the subconscious mind to prompt you into inspired action. Your actions are part of the ”plan,” so to speak. These are the three main things to remember:
- Surrendering allows the desire to be maintained in the subconscious mind
- Action comes naturally when the idea is in the subconscious mind
- Your actions cannot move contrary to the ideas in your subconscious mind
To better understand this, let’s look at how conscious manifestation is done.
Manifestation means consciously working with the subconscious mind, the hidden power that shapes your world. By conveying your desire to the subconscious mind with the intention of manifesting it, you will not only be prompted to think and act differently, but you will also experience direct changes in your external circumstances.
Now, let’s examine the roles of action and surrender in this process. The subconscious mind is the only cause, so you need to surrender all control and trust in its ability to produce the desired outcome. As you surrender control, you let the subconscious mind do what it needs to do. In turn, it will prompt you into inspired action.
Think of the subconscious mind as the hand that orchestrates the movements of various pieces, with you being one of those pieces. When you impress an idea onto the subconscious mind, it strategically arranges the pieces to achieve the desired outcome. This means that you will be prompted to take certain actions as part of that process.
Here’s an example of how the process might unfold: Each day, you meditate and visualize (read my guide on visualization here) that you are already in possession of your desire, effectively impressing the desire on the subconscious mind. By letting go and completely yielding to the subconscious mind, you let it take the steering wheel without you getting in the way. You surrender all control, with the understanding that your only real responsibility is choosing the ideas you allow to be impressed on the subconscious.
As you maintain this surrender-attitude, opportunities will begin to arise. You will encounter chances to take action, or you may realize that consistently performing a particular action will lead to the fulfillment of your desire.
What It Means To Surrender And Why It’s Important
Surrendering does not mean inactivity. Surrendering means letting go of control. It comes from the understanding that your individual willpower is not the power itself. It is merely the operator or the wielder of the power.
The results you get, and the things that happen in your life, are the result of the ideas you hold in the subconscious mind. Going against an idea ingrained in the subconscious mind is ineffective and only reinforces that idea.
Emilé coué, who basically founded the idea of autosuggestion, said that ”when the will and the imagination are in conflict, the imagination invariably wins.”
Surrendering means accepting that you cannot use willpower to counter-act an idea. The only way to change is first to impress new ideas on the subconscious mind; then, both your actions and the external world will naturally and automatically begin to conform to the new idea.
How Do You Identify When It’s Inspired Action
The actions you take between now and the accomplishment of your desire will be prompted by the subconscious mind. Inspired action is the opposite of action based on desperation. Inspired action feels very natural and smooth, whereas action based on desperation feels strenuous and overwhelming like you are fighting the whole world.
Inspired action has a feeling of naturalness to it. It often feels like a path will be opened up between where you currently are to where you want to go. Inspired action feels like harmoniously cooperating with the universe. It gives you a path, and you follow it.
Two Rules For Identifying Inspired Action
Rule 1: To me, a good rule of thumb is when you see an opportunity or an opening toward your desire, then move in that direction. For example, if you want a better social life, do not say “no” if someone invites you to a party or some sort of social gathering. Most often, this will not be a problem as you will feel compelled or motivated to act on the opportunity.
Sometimes opportunities or openings like this lead to nothing – that’s okay. Do not let yourself get discouraged if your actions lead to nothing. Instead, simply just go back to letting the subconscious mind do the work until a new opening arises. Remember that you cannot act contrary to an idea held in the subconscious mind; you can only change the idea.
Rule 2: Another rule is when you realize that certain actions will you to your desire, you see clear action steps toward your desire. This is also an opening.
For example, let’s say you want to lose weight. As you impress this idea on the subconscious mind, you will automatically find certain ways of achieving that goal. It’s likely that your mind would gradually open up to the idea of exercise and dieting. As the new idea lives on in the subconscious mind, it’s also very likely that you will begin to resent eating certain foods and even get motivated and enjoy exercise.
Some will happen by you deciding to act differently, which springs from the subconscious mind, and some of it will happen automatically, such as your natural urges and motivations will begin to change.
Oftentimes, you will not even realize that what you’re doing is part of the plan of the subconscious mind. It is far more intelligent than you, so I recommend that you go with the idea that you follow the path that you see in front of you, even if it leads to nothing.
Do Not Fear Futile Action
As long as you don’t fall into discouragement, I recommend you take action every time you see a potential path to your desire. Instead of waiting for the ”perfect moment,” simply just move forward in whatever direction that seems to be forward. It’s okay if you end up at a dead end.
Again, the important thing is to remember that if the correct idea is suggested in the subconscious mind, you cannot fail. It WILL move eventually move you down the right path, and you cannot help it.
So, do what action seems most reasonable to you, depending on what your desire is. But do not fall into discouragement and doubt if it leads to nothing. The only ability you have using willpower is choosing the suggestions you give yourself. Everything else, including your beliefs, actions, and perceptions, flows from the subconscious mind.
Action From Desperation
You cannot speed up the manifestation of your desire by acting desperately. When you act desperately, you are using willpower in order to force things to happen. Again, if the will is in conflict with the ideas in the subconscious mind, you will find, in turn, reinforce the very ideas you are working against.
Think of your desire as a seed. The only actions you can take when planting a seed are watering and nurturing it. You cannot make the seed grow. In this analogy, the growth of the seed manifests itself as an interplay between you taking certain actions and the external world reshaping itself.
By a similar analogy, you cannot change the reflection in the mirror by fighting the mirror. If you want to change the reflection in the mirror, or your results, it can only be by changing the object reflected, the ideas in the subconscious mind.
“Stop trying to change the world since it is only the mirror. Man’s attempt to change the world by force is as fruitless as breaking a mirror in the hope of changing his face. Leave the mirror and change your face. Leave the world alone and change your conceptions of yourself.”
Neville Goddard, Your Faith Is Your Fortune
Accepting that the mirror cannot reflect anything but the object put in front of it or accepting that the seed cannot grow by external force is a surrendering, a letting go of control. You surrender to the fact that you cannot make a seed grow and that the mirror has no ability to change the object it reflects. It’s the same attitude of mind you need with manifesting; surrender to the fact that your results come from within and understand that your actions reflect the ideas within you.
Summary
The main thing to understand is that action and surrendering is not two antagonistic principles. Action will naturally come when your change the ideas in your subconscious mind. Both actions and the events that occur in your life must be confined by the ideas you hold.
When you surrender, you accept that you cannot force things to happen. Surrender means letting go of control, and accepting that the subconscious mind is the hand that moves the pieces.
Most people are really only a few steps away from a change in their life but are paralyzed by the ideas they hold of themselves. They have almost hypnotized themselves into inactivity.
So, I recommend you focus on going into a relaxed mental state and imagine your desire, as this will create new ideas on the subconscious mind. Yield to the subconscious mind with the understanding that it is executing the ideas impressed upon it. If they are negative in relation to your intended goal, no amount of willpower can fight against the negative ideas, as it will only reinforce them. As the new idea grows in the subconscious mind, everything, including your actions, will gravitate toward the accomplishment of that idea.
I hope you found this article helpful. Thanks for reading!
