Word of the week: Surrender

The word 'surrender' is spoken regularly throughout a yoga class and you'll see it dotted throughout any book on Buddhism. Typical interpretation of the word is to 'give up' or 'give in', but in a spiritual context, it simply means to 'stop the fight' – stop the internal struggle of the mind, that in turn, can cause physical tenseness in the body.

So surrender I have done. I'm pleased to say the 'Sydneyness' that was me is slowly losing speed....the need to be constantly on the go, and rush from here to there; the ceaseless planning of every waking moment; impatience for results and outcomes; to always be 'doing', and therefore, not really appreciating the present. Gosh....it's tiring just reading this.

Sydney noticeably vibrates at a much higher/faster/noisier frequency than Byron. It sweeps you up and spins you around. It's fun and intoxicating. But ultimately for me, it was unfulfilling. It wasn't until I arrived here that I became aware of how exhausted my mind and body really was.

I'm excited about the prospect of living and breathing the 'Byronness'. It's as though the locals are at one with the lower/calmer/peaceful vibrational rhythm that is Byron Bay. They appear to move with it, rather than be carried along by it. For me it's a state of mind that is centred around a calmness, a conscious letting go of the way I used to doing things, and just slowing down to take the time to just 'be' in the moment.

I guess it'll take a while to change 36 years of habitual living....but slowly (and without force) it'll come.