Lovely friends,
I am really good at mentally putting my life on hold while I wait for something to work itself out.
There can be one unresolved thing sitting in the background and somehow my brain decides we should keep checking on it every fifteen minutes. Has anything changed? Do I know more yet? Can I solve it now? Perhaps if I think about it from one more angle at 2:17 in the morning, I will finally crack the case.
Usually I do not.
I think waiting is especially hard when we care deeply about the outcome. Maybe we are waiting to hear about a job, worrying about someone we love, wondering what another person is going to decide, waiting for test results, dealing with something financial, or hoping a situation will finally move. There may be very little we can actually do, but our minds stay busy because thinking about it feels like doing something.
I catch myself doing this sometimes and have to ask, “Is there actually anything I can do about this right now?”
That question saves me a lot of unnecessary mental work.
Sometimes the answer is yes. There is a phone call I can make, information I can gather, a boundary I need to set, something I need to say, or a practical step I have been avoiding. If there is something useful I can do, I would rather do it than sit around worrying about it.
The harder answer is when there really isn’t anything to do yet.
Someone else has to make their choice. An answer hasn’t arrived. The past already happened. I have done what I can and now there is a stretch of time where I simply don’t know what happens next.
I do not enjoy that part.
My mind would much rather create seventeen possible futures and prepare emotionally for every single one of them. It feels productive for about five minutes. Eventually I realize I have spent an entire afternoon reacting to things that haven’t actually happened.
Meanwhile, my real life is sitting right there.
There is dinner to make. The dogs want attention. Somebody sends me something funny. I have work I actually enjoy doing. The sun is out. There is coffee. There are ordinary little pieces of my day that have absolutely nothing to do with the thing I am waiting to find out.
I think surrender has become much more practical for me because of this.
There are times when surrender simply means I am finished working on a problem for the moment. I have done what belongs to me, and I am going to let the rest of my day be my day.
I can care about someone without spending every waking minute worrying about what they will do. I can want a particular outcome and still function while I wait. I can be disappointed about something that happened and decide I am finished replaying the conversation for the 400th time.
None of that requires me to stop caring.
It does require me to notice when caring has turned into trying to mentally control something I cannot control.
Other people’s choices are a big one for me. We can explain, encourage, support, advise, pray, send Reiki, and love someone tremendously. At some point, they still get to decide what they are going to do.
That can be incredibly frustrating when we are absolutely certain we have an excellent plan for their life.
Spirit seems annoyingly committed to free will.
I have had to learn to bring my attention back to what actually belongs to me. What am I responsible for here? What choice can I make? What boundary can I set? What can I do with the information I have right now?
Then I try to leave the rest alone for a while.
This is where I work with Archangel Michael quite a bit. I love Michael’s energy when my thoughts are running ahead of me because he helps me feel grounded and steady again. I can ask him to help me release some of the fear around an outcome and bring my attention back to the present.
Sometimes I will simply say, “Spirit, I have done what I know how to do. Please help me with what I cannot see from here.”
Then I go do something else.
That last part is important.
We can hand something over to Spirit and pick it right back up five minutes later. I have definitely done that. Apparently Spirit does not need hourly status checks from me.
This whole idea became the heart of my Let Go & Surrender Meditation. I wanted to create somewhere we could actually practice putting some of that weight down instead of only telling ourselves that we should.
In the meditation, we spend time separating what genuinely belongs to you from everything you have been mentally carrying that belongs to another person, the past, the future, or Spirit. We work with Archangel Michael and invite your angels, loving ancestors, Spirit guides, and loving spiritual team to support you while you release some of the pressure to know exactly how everything is going to turn out.
Then we come back to the part you can do.
Maybe there is one practical step waiting for you. Maybe there is a conversation you need to have or something you need to handle. And maybe you have already done enough for now and the healthiest thing you can do is go live the rest of your Tuesday.
I think we sometimes forget we are allowed to do that.
An unresolved situation does not need every available hour of our attention. We can come back to it when there is new information, when action becomes possible, or when something genuinely changes.
Until then, our lives are still here.
You can meditate with me here:
Let Go & Surrender 💜 Guided Meditation to Release What You Can’t Control
https://youtu.be/8V2SLv6X8pI
Much love,
Lisa 💜
