Have you ever seen a kid getting upset and throwing a tantrum? Have you seen how they ignore and defy and do exactly the opposite of what their parent said? When I was a child, that was me. I’d kick and scream and shout.
Famously, I once redecorated the interior of a museum foyer with the contents of my smarties packet, such was my fury at what I was being asked to do.
When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.” Stay up late? No problem. Do that essay? No thanks mate! Take the bins out? Not right now. As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.
Yet everything about life is telling us this doesn’t work. Mortgages, kids, cars and houses, relationships, families and physical exercise, the responsibility list soon grows. So if we can’t avoid these essential tasks and they actually help support our life and health, what is it that makes us resist them so?
Through the presentations of Serge Benhayon I have come to understand that there are two distinct elements inside of every woman and man. There is a Spirit that recklessly does what it wants and willfully makes choices that make no practical sense. It indulges in games and anything where it gets its way and gains a momentary high. And you can be sure it will viciously fight anybody that will dare to point this out. But there is another part of us and that is the Soul. It’s wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct.
Today I can feel that every moment I am receiving impulses of how to be in life. Read that book, speak to that person, walk this way or that. Every choice flows from an impulse – but who comes up with that? The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit.
So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do? And isn’t that the rub, for if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?
For a few years I’ve been doing Esoteric Yoga courses and hearing quite a bit about surrender. I’ve always had a picture of this being like being very relaxed – kind of floppy if you like! But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.
When I get the feeling to act lovingly and I listen, as I would to an ever-loving parent, this is surrender. When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender. When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender. When I feel to give myself a loving hot bath and I do, this is surrender too.
Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.
At first it was hard to hear, I had ignored it for so many years. But after attending a few Esoteric Healing courses it became clear that these impulses were just there waiting for me to heed. The more I followed these impulses, the more my life and body started to feel clear.
But the Spirit does not like to give up its throne without a fight. And so it’s quite content to continue to suggest a relentless list of alternatives you might like. It will often use ‘loving things’, seemingly important jobs or tasks, to sabotage and distract from what is true to do. So it can seem like it is good and ticking boxes in life, but ultimately it’s still the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices.
The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body. Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive. This is so different to the even and consistent way the Soul tends to be. When I live this way, and do what is true, I get a lovely warm feeling in my body.
Writing this blog is a good example. I felt to do it, put it off and did my finances instead. But the feeling kept coming, so it was clear there was nothing else to do but get my phone out and get typing… so here we are.
So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?
If this was the case, and it is, then doesn’t that explain how awfully tired so many of us are? For we have to work pretty hard to override and ignore these natural impulses in life.
What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body? What if we surrendered to the fact that although our physical frame had to cop the consequences, that all those choices, movements and plans we made, were actually not ours at all?
What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?
With appreciation for Serge Benhayon, Esoteric Healing practitioners and students, and everyone I meet every day – who teach me constantly about the Soul’s living way.
By Joseph Barker, Web Designer, Writer and Doodler, Melbourne, Australia
Further Reading:
Soul: Unimedpedia – Truth in Words
Spirit: Unimedpedia – Truth in Words
From Feeling Unsure of Myself to Surrendering to the Woman I am
The Power of True Surrender
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
All we have to do is to listen and honour what is communicated, ‘What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’
Surrender to the flow of the Universe, ‘When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender.’
Beautifully expressed Joseph, clearly showing the difference between spirit and soul, and the power of each of them once you become aware of the two of them acting our in our lives. Surely surrender to our soul is the way. How grand that can be.
“So if we can’t avoid these essential tasks and they actually help support our life and health, what is it that makes us resist them so?” I’ve been pondering on responsibility recently, as there is a pull to ‘get out of things’, and that comes with a supposed ‘good’ feeling, when the things I want to ‘get out of’ actually support me. It’s like the wilful energy offers a kind of reward in the form of feeling clever or ‘good’ that I have wriggled out of something, when actually that activity I’ve avoided would have lovingly supported me.
This is a great blog as you clearly describe the difference between spirit and soul, I can definitely feel when my spirit kicks in which is a lot of the time because my thoughts change, I become very selfish, have little to no understanding of others and make life all about me.
There is a difference we can feel when the spirit kicks in, ‘ There is a Spirit that recklessly does what it wants and willfully makes choices that make no practical sense.’
Thank you Joseph, starting to feel how much comparison is in our lives is something special, as when we allow our Soul to “constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do and not contact into any form of comparison or jealousy.”
Allowing our Soul to be in charge is saying yes to truth and love, ‘there is another part of us and that is the Soul. It’s wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct.’
The spirit can’t have it’s own way all the time, it is somewhat tethered in it’s range by the fact of it’s very vehicle, the body. The body can only go so far before it breaks down. Eventually, the spirit is humbled the more the body shows it that it’s efforts don’t work. Having impulses from the Soul only further solidifies this fact.
It really is essential to know the truth regarding Soul and Spirit. On my search in finding out more about this I would hear and read the words many times but it would just go round and round in circles there was no absolute clarity with what they truly meant that was until I met Universal Medicine; where it is not just about words and talking about worlds but instead a lived way. Truly living what is presented. Also looking back at my life there was a long period where I wanted to escape life, not be committed, not have any responsibility, move from place to place and job to job being a ‘free spirit’ … well I was certainly being led by my spirit! ….. to a place of emptiness and misery. I am now more committed to life now then every before, I have a mortgage, a job I love and have been in for years, and am studying counselling in order to be able to support others more and the irony is now I am more committed I feel freer in my being and life than I have ever done before.
Until you feel that stillness in the body it is simply a theory and feels out of grasp. That is where the esoteric healing modalities have been life changing, they connect us to what is already inside us, no magic, no going to a happy place, but surrendering to the stillness that resides within.
It is beautiful to read how our soul is always there guiding us and holding us.
It is key to discern if the impulse is from our soul, or the spirit, ‘if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?’
Understanding and accepting that we have both a spirit and a soul changes the whole game of human life.
Yes, why was it never made clear that we can be run by our spirit, or by our soul, something we all need to know, ‘The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit.’
You offer very practical examples of what surrender is; how little this is about others and how much this is about ourselves and our relationship with everything within and without.
“When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender.” There is no shame in walking with joy and fun, just a connection to the light within and sharing with everyone you meet.
It is really helpful to understand the energetic aspect of our world that offers meaning and understanding to so many of the ‘unexplainable’ experiences or events that happen to us. It calls us to take more responsibility and to be on the front foot, fully engaged in our own lives.
What I can feel is the complication and effort we invite in the name of “life“ when all we are being asked to do is just surrender to what is already holding us and let our body be the vehicle of its expression. There’s simplicity and ease I can sense in there and also the tantalizing allure of identification when we say no to that.
‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.’ Spot on Joseph, the movements when we align to our Soul are spacious and about purpose and brotherhood, when we are aligned to our spirit all our movements are very different in that we make it about ‘self’ and forget about the bigger picture.
There is more than just spirit and soul, there is a consciousness that is running the spirit in such a way that it is constantly fighting its return back to the one soul which we separated from eons ago to pursue this individual life. It’s the consciousness that deceives and lies. Our thoughts come from that pool of energy that we use and we think we think, when the thoughts are not ours but a collective from the consciousness we have aligned ourselves to until we wake up and chose to return to the one soul. It is a journey we will all make, some sooner than others.
Having that loving communication but throwing a tantrum and getting exhausted from it. Eventually the exhaustion in the body gets us to cease yet I know it has the opportunity to return if the reason why I ignored my Soul in the first place is not addressed.
Surrendering is becoming part of something bigger than what we can ever conceive as a human being.
‘Like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’ – I haven’t seen the Soul as this yet it makes sense, it is loving, never lets you down and always with us waiting for us to listen and be this love with all.
I had this image too as being ‘relaxed and floppy’ when we surrender. This statement ’surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside me’ – made me realise that it isn’t something we can compartmentalise, it is there as an offering all the time.
It is like an offering, an offering to surrender to…’When I feel to give myself a loving hot bath and I do, this is surrender too.’
I loved this sentence Joseph ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’ It reminded me of how much wisdom is available to us, when we surrender to what we truly know.
‘When I get the feeling to act lovingly and I listen, as I would to an ever-loving parent, this is surrender. When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender. When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender.’ I love these words Joseph. These are words that would be nurturing to read everyday. Surrender is becoming more and more operative in my life, and I am loving it!
The practical examples really show how rarely we do it though don’t they?! When I read those words and feel them in my body, my body relaxes, it has space to breath and doesn’t feel like it needs to do, achieve or prove anything. So I agree, a nurturing reminder.
It is nurturing to remind ourselves about surrendering, and to allow that quality to flourish in our bodies, ‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.’
I loved how you explained that surrender is so much more than lying on the floor like a floppy rag doll! It feels like, because I’ve had this picture of surrender, I’ve been ignoring moments of actual surrender and saying I’m no good at it. I reckon I am amazing at it, but have been expecting and wanting a certain visual of what ‘surrender’ is.
“What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?” Moving in a way that prepares our body to be aware of the communication of the Soul is to surrender to the power of love that is offered.
‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’ Beautifully expressed Joseph and so different from the bastardised floppy version that we have come to associate with the word. In surrendering we are given the power to complete whatever is needed, rather than fighting ourselves and ending up drained and exhausted.
Thank you Joseph, there is such a flow to your writing, and a feeling for me the reader of being lovingly held. The two energies of spirit and soul and how each looks when we follow them are distinctly different. I was reflecting on how a tantrum is, that a child may be asked lovingly to do something, something that is loving also and responsible for the child to do, but the wilfulness of the spirit reacts and creates a different choice (which invariably hurts itself and the body). We eventually come back to loves way, and sometimes only after a ‘stop’ presents itself in the form of an accident, illness or other shock. Loves way is very simple
I love your understanding of surrender Joseph, which is very clearly and simply delivered. And I will take this into my day: ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me’.
I was considering how hard it is for us to surrender on a personal and a global scale. I was considering how far we go to protect ourselves and others, in great fear of this word surrender as it has a picture of weak, vulnerability and danger. In fact it is time we were a little discerning about where that fear is coming from because surrendering to ourselves and to love, a more tender way, there is nothing in that which is dangerous or weak, in fact, it supports us to be stronger and more aware therefore less vulnerable.
‘What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?’ An awesome question to be asking Joseph, for me I would be getting myself out of the way and not be controlled by any images or pictures of how I ‘think’ the day should flow.
Getting ourself out of the way, surrendering to the quality of energy that is from God, from the Soul, ‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’
I think we generally have this picture of responsibility as being a burden, a huge weight to carry and something that we need relief from or to limit our commitment to in case life gets too boring or tiring and yet how I understand responsibility to be now – being true to who I am in my essence and committing to life with that it is actually genuinely enriching…
Great to read this today Joseph, I’ve felt that crazy, destructive energy that is my spirit, and boy is it reckless and it wants what it wants no matter the consequences; and the soul is very different, it’s quietly consistent and also insistent and there no matter what, but there is not that major push and drive to do, it’s a clear offering. And the biggie of course is that if we truly accepted that there are 2 energies, spirit and soul and that we are merely a vessel through which that can pass and the choice we make is which energy we choose and thereafter our body cops what ensues … no big I or me just an alignment to a choice of energy, this is huge for us to consider and it’s something that I can understand but am still learning to accept and live fully, and the more I do the more I understand the truth offered in it.
This is very helpful, Joseph. I really get the sense that responsibility is our ability to respond to the way of the Soul as it naturally, already passes through us, and not reject or fight, but just surrender as an active agent of co-creation – to accept our part in this grand picture.
The act of surrendering is to submit our entire being to a quality of vibration that exist outside our body; yet, one that we recognize immediately as something we belong to deeply.
Is it to submit to a quality of vibration that exists outside our body, or does it exist inside and is what we are part of and made from therefore we recognise it and know we belong to it? My sense is that it feels like it is outside because we have walked away from it but that it is part and parcel of who we are.
it is a very apt description of that which is so willful… That which so obviously does not have our true well-being at heart, and then to start the path of surrender… The way home.
Every moment is an opportunity to build a body of love for our soul to once again express through in full surrender to what is needed.
Thank you Joseph for a great blog on the two energies that impact our lives, it really is a choice between the two as we are vehicles of expressing one energy or the other, when I am in the energy of the spirit I feel tension, and anxiousness go into the doing and life becomes a burden, when I connected to the soul energy
life has a lightness to it and a flow when i surrender to the divine love within me.
This is a really great, and beautiful blog clearly reminding us of the importance of discerning the quality of energy we allow through the vehicle we call a human being.
Great question Joseph Barker “What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body? ”
When you simplify things to the point that it is all about one choice, one energy or another, all the overwhelm that I have felt at different stages of my life seems like a distraction. This is a beautiful way to approach life, as it brings things back to energy and away from the “personal”.
Surrender comes with discernment. We clearly feel in our body what is needed, what is loving, what is supportive. Then we are able to choose this or not… and yes, when we choose surrender, this always brings the expansion of Love in our life.
Expansion and efficiency. I have noticed that the body has no desire to waste energy, it is efficiency personified.
Joseph, I am deeply grateful for the fact that you chose to listen to your soul and write this blog. A touching account of how we are essentially masters of energy, knowing exactly what we are doing all of the time, and it is always just a choice that we each have to express from one source or the other.
Thank you Joseph, you have a lovely way of sharing through your writing. I appreciated your words on surrender and the simplicity of listening to the loving impulses of the soul.
We have a choice in each moment of which consciousness we will align to – and that choice of consciousness then provides the momentum for the next moment and choice and so on and so forth. It is not until we make that all-important choice and change the energy that is coming through us that we exercise what is otherwise wrongly termed free will.
This is a beautiful offer to take surrender by its true meaning and get a feel for what this means in our daily life.
True Esther for if we cannot feel and appreciate such words as surrender in tangible practical terms we will be unable to bring them alive in our day to day life.
Yes, sometimes we need to look deeper to feel the truth of things.
This is a beautiful and practical blog sharing about the truth of surrender.
To “surrender to being a Son of God” must surely be the most loving thing we can do for ourselves, From this point we are then able to see ourselves as truly worthwhile and valuable and no need for the searching to find who we are that many of us do everyday. Thank you Joseph for a great blog.
The word surrender is often used like it is a giving up in the bad sense, or a giving in but I think you nailed it by showing how actually that word – surrender – can be in truth about us surrendering to what we are being impulsed to do or express from our Soul, and with that is deeply empowering.
You are so right Joseph. There is a tension when we ignore that pull to connect to our soul. But we do have to accept there is a difference between our spirit and our soul and you have illustrated how they feel so different from our bodies. This is the experiment we all need to take away with us. This is about our bodies and how things feel for us. Are we dedicated enough to ourselves to take the time to stop and feel and then have a fresh choice?
What makes us resist responsibility and get so spirited about it? That is a great question Joseph for there is so much more than meets the eye going on in our lives – and when we wake up to this fact we begin to understand what is actually at play.
Absolutely, ‘there is so much more than meets the eye going on in our lives’, how much truth are we willing to see and embrace?
Such a gorgeous piece on the subject of surrender and written with such gentleness, clarity and wisdom.
Surrendering to the fact that there are two energies we choose from is life changing. Living surrendered to this awareness offers the next truth for us to choose. The less thinking about it the deeper the surrender.
‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body’.
This is super supportive and a great tool to feel and be aware of which energy we are choosing in any given moment. I clock so much more quicker when my movements have become rushed because I am caught in a time issue – usually believing I do not have enough time….so I stop and change my movements that are unrushed and feel more gentle in my body.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Reading these beautiful words I could feel a light being shone on the darkest corners of my being and my whole body breathed a very deep and freeing breathe. How the body loves it when we stop, listen and honour its wisdom.
What a truly loving sharing and understanding on the word surrender…. perfect for me to read today and a blog I plan to revisit.
Reading what you share Joseph I can feel the surrender in my body, surrendering to the truth and wisdom of returning to how my body feels. It’s amazing to feel reading your lived examples offer me the same choice by reflection. Thank you for the healing.
This is brilliant and exactly what I needed to read today. I watched a baby throw a tantrum recently. In the course of the tantrum she hit her head and hurt herself on purpose to show her anger at being asked to be responsible. When we resist love we hurt ourselves and we don’t get away with anything at all. Instead we delay the inevitable and need to spend more time healing the damage we do.
We do hurt ourselves by resisting love and we also hurt everyone, we all hurt at some level when love isn’t the foundation of our actions, it can be big or little but it still stings.
The fact that we can take this hurt and intensify it by adding a physical hurt is quite something and worth deep consideration. I might not intentional bang my head, but what if I do it when I’m not fully with myself? There are so many ways I can feel little hurts creep in to moments so I can avoid and delay my true responsibility as a son of God – now that hurts! Great to feel and surrender back to my body and simply feel the loving connection to God and then move from there, simple.
I really appreciate that you went with your impulse to write this blog and were not further distracted!! It has supported me to be more aware of the two energies and how they work, how they impulse me. There is no question the output is different so well worth continuing to study. Surrendering to love is one of the most powerful things I have been learning and I can see it will be ongoing and forever deepening.
I had always believed that surrendering meant to give up, give your power away. But I have discovered that this could not be further from the truth. Surrendering for me now means to simply be all that you are, to let go of all that is not who you are in essence so that our Soulfullness is freely to the best of our ability. And the beautiful thing is that there is no end to the expanse of our Soul and so every day we are offered again and again to be and live more of who we truly are, a divine spark of God no less.
Thank you, Joseph for sharing that surrender is our key to Our Soul, we are the Son of God. Naturally anyway. So connection will only make our path brighter.
I agree Joseph the Esoteric Yoga is a beautiful support that allows the space for us to truly surrender and to feel a deeper connection to our Soul. The choice to align to my Soul is a choice that simplifies life and I am part of a flow that beautifully supports me versus choosing to be in my spirit where I am controlling and disconnect from this pure source and my body and then life becomes more driven and a whole lot harder.
What if there is no me, but energies to choose from … and we are constantly impulsed. When we consider this and actually live this, it really knocks out the personal and makes it about a choice we all have always, to choose our soul, the love we are or to choose our spirit, the distractions and dare I say it tantrums we can have and be. This is always playing out, our spirit and our soul there ready and waiting and it is all about what energy we choose love or not. We can surrender at any moment and in any place to the love we are, nothing special needed, just the willingness to choose this.
So true, we can surrender to ourselves at any point yet we resist! How crazy is that?! I spent so long resisting only to find myself exhausted and that what I had been resisting was myself and the least imposing and energy-sucking way of life – go figure!!! I life lived with a dedication to the love I am from.
Discovering surrender isn’t a dis-empowered thought or body but a body and mind in union without tension is such a gift. The more I play with it and choose to feel what a topic or situation is like in my body the more I can choose to hang on or re-choose the thoughts. If thoughts aren’t offering appreciation and or confirmation in that moment then choosing again supports a surrender back to connection to soul.
Life is actually so easy if we just allow ourselves to follow that inner impulse from our Soul and is very honouring to the whole of our being. So why have we chosen to give that importance to the spirit instead, that is recklessly abusing our bodies to get its pleasures and excitements in life. To me it is because I have chosen to accept the experiment of living this physical life my spirit has proposed to me and because of that act I have entered into a contract that I have obligations with until that time that I choose to connect to my Soul again and free myself from these agreements and start to live the life of the Son of God on Earth once again.
So beautiful what you have shared Joseph on surrender. When we come to an understanding of the truth about the two energies that run our bodies, be it Soul or spirit, we have a choice which impulse to say yes to. When we listen to and honour the impulses of the inner heart, we then are in true surrender.
Hi Joseph, you have so beautifully exposed the ‘Self’ that so often gets in the way of us living in our fullness, holding a body that allows the soul to flow through, to be and bring the love the world so desperately needs. Your comment – ‘What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?’ If I was to approach each day as a vehicle, which is here solely to surrender to the soul and live this – wow. Every day we make choices and this is clearly one of the most loving we can make today.
Learning to discern where our impulses come from, soul or spirit, is fundamental understand the quality of our movements and choices. Sometimes there is a strong impulse to go one way and it may seem irrational but if we go with it ‘not knowing’ and simply trusting, it can lead to incredible and often unexpected insights, meetings and even deepening relationships. When this happens we feel the magic of God at work.
Why are we doing things, who are we listening to, what is driving our actions? If there is an energy that determines our actions then do we make that the divine spark we can all feel inside, or is it being driven by the outside world, by what we ought to do, what everyone else thinks we should do?
Why have we made our life like this – that we tend to not live what we actually know so well but instead choose a life of creation that not only keeps us from who we truly are, it also builds up a tension in our bodies and when we make it bigger, in our societies at times needs a relief, we see in any outburst of cruelty and havoc? The choice is in fact so simple and equally accessible for each and everyone of us.
I have contemplating this more and more – ‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ When things got a bit heated today I went for a walk. It was clear I could continue to let the disturbance continue running through me by thinking about it and adding to it, or I could come back to my gentle grace, my capacity to let people and situations just be and say what is needed and no more or less. The energy that runs my spirit would like me to force a situation or attempt solutions and frustrations. I could accept people’s choices and let all the rights and wrongs dissolve in the simplicity of living the fact that life is simply a choice between two energies.
Cracker blog and with the three ‘s’ in tow, Soul, Spirit and Surrender. We often look at surrender as waving the white flag, giving up or giving over and this in part is exactly what it is. How do we surrender and are there different levels? The blog explains it very well and as things come up for us to face it’s not about running them over and over in our thoughts to try and make them look better or just make them better. It’s about allowing our bodies to settle and not running them around with thoughts or actions. This settled feeling is a surrender and so as soon as you can and as consistently as you are aware allow your body to settle, allow it to surrender to what you are feeling. Again it’s not to work it out, get on top of it, feel better but an allowing of your body space to truly breath and then in the next step the process could be the same. The only difference is that you have surrendered the best you could and now with the awareness of what has just been felt you are unlocking, unfolding or walking to the next part. Life isn’t just about living or functioning, there is a clear purpose to what we are here doing and these three ‘s’ are a huge part of it.
Surrendering to the truth of what we feel in our inner-heart is to start the connection to the loving energy of the Soul.
I love the true meaning of ‘surrender’ as you have shared here Joseph. I am learning to do this more and more. It is a choice in every moment to choose surrender and live more lovingly.
I am finally becoming able to feel the difference between the ‘voice’ of my spirit and the ‘voice’ of my soul, and it’s definitely my soul’s voice that I choose to listen to these days. Unfortunately my spirit is a trickster and certainly never looking after my interests but its own selfish ones, leading me astray at every opportunity, whereas my soul simply offers me a way of living that surpasses anything I have known in this life, and leaves the choice to accept it or not, to me.
Isn’t it extraordinary that there is something working through us that does not have our best interests at heart, and that it is happy to encourage us to eat, move and live in a way that wears the body out???? Crazy, we have to get to know the difference!
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our soul communicates to us?” A great question Joseph. Stopping and deeply listening to what our soul has to offer is so inspiring. Yet I know I can go about keeping busy in my day and not stopping to be in stillness, which is where the soul offers me gold. Always my choice. Beautiful to re-read your post Joseph.
This is the clearest writing I have read when it comes to talking about surrender, and this sentence is Gold
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.”
It has stopped me in my tracks and deepened my own communication with my soul.
Thank you Joseph.
Beautifully said Joseph, one of your many gems in this piece that stood out for me today ‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.’ Thank you for this simple yet powerful reminder to always listen to the wisdom we are receiving from our bodies.
‘But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.’ And when I surrender and listen to what my body has to tell me, it feels natural, there is an ease in which I do what I have to do, there is purpose without questioning and there is an appreciation from inside that makes me smile on the outside.
Reading this again it has resonated in a completely new, and feels, at a far deeper level. My spirit has been very strong and willful and although knowing that ‘surrendering’ is the ‘answer’ it is a challenge – not knowing quite what in reality that actually means. However, reading “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me”, I realise that when I get a feeling to do something but ignore it to do what I ‘think’ is best, then that is when I am being communicated with and being given an opportunity to surrender. I had not previously thought about it in that way and it feels like a door has been opened through which to enter into surrendering.
We are not taught to listen, it is not a valued sense but without listening we can be fooled into thinking we are listening!
Surrender is indeed the opposite to giving up or withdrawing. Surrender is a return to everything we are and always have been. I have discovered that surrender is in fact a strength.
“The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit”; given this Joseph it is incumbent on us to discern a true loving impulse from the soul or an impulse from the spirit which keeps us away from our true wise and harmonious selves. As you have pointed out listening to our bodies is the key to responding to our soul’s impulses.
Re reading your blog this morning Joseph, this line shone bright, “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Yes.
What would our day, our life be like if we truly lived in surrender to our soul?…’So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’
Surrender is an interesting word isn’t it …( Especially if you have a military background ) and yet here is being revealed a whole different world… Where you don’t surrender to anything external, where surrendering is simply a letting go to what is within, and where surrendering is actually empowering… What an extraordinarily different paradigm
Yes, I definitely had a picture of it being a sign of giving up to an external power, how funny, I am sure that is why I resisted the word for so long. The surrender here is so clearly internal, not to another persons instructions or will but to an internal connection with love, heaven, with our soul. Just yum.
Impulses from the soul are always there waiting for us to say ‘yes’ to. It is up to us and the quality in which we are choosing to live in and by that determines if we are ready to hear our souls communication.
Your question Joseph ‘if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?’ stopped me, as I’ve often been loathe to surrender or had an idea of what surrender should be, the floppy version you describe is one I know too. But true surrender, to hear, and honour those inner impulses which come from our soul – that is different. And of course my mind jumps in here and asks do I know what this is, and your blog describes it beautifully, I know based on how and what I do feel in my body. Often when I follow those impulses which are from my spirit I wreck my body and feel tired and strung out after, but following those soulful impulses there is a steadiness there, and not a drive, but a commitment and one that does not take the body away from it’s connection to the innate stillness it carries.
It is interesting to see the two distinct outcomes from choices made surrendering to what the soul has impulsed and to what the spirit has impulsed! There are clearly two energies and building a relationship and a familiarity with both is incredibly important and empowering.
I love what you share about surrender and also when we choose spirit the body feels rushed and not connected, I was really aware of this the other day when in a supermarket to even how my walking had changed, it did not feel good! Over the last few days I have felt to be particularly more aware of this, as you shared the spirit does not want to give up its ‘throne’ so even more reason to be diligent and choose the Soul. ‘The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit.’ Without knowing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine I would have not have known or remembered this about the spirit and Soul with such clarity.
I love this Joseph ‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ Beautifully said and choosing to surrender has supported me to let go of the control and making it all about ‘me’, making space for greater awareness, love and truth.
I have found that when we surrender to what we deeply know from our inner-heart life is very simple, and as soon as we start to override that simplicity and allow our head to take the lead everything starts to get complicated, when I start to feel the complication I know I need to stop and come back to myself.
Joseph I laughed as I started to read your blog, it brought back all those times I stuck my heels firmly in, refusing to do what my parents asked of me. It wasn’t that I wouldn’t do it, it was just not right now which brought a great reflection for me later in life to realise how difficult we make it for ourselves when we ignore the impulse of something and override it, putting it off until later.
What would our life be like if we surrendered to what the Soul is communicating to us? What if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?
“Surrender is any moment I listen to… and honour in full, the communication inside of me.” Well said Joseph, it is in the honouring of the body’s wisdom and not the mind’s indulgences that can lead us back to true purpose.
I love what you have shared about surrender and the exhaustion, it causes to go against what is natural and choose to resist the flow that is designed to guide us through life. It’s almost crazy that we would ever want to resist such beautiful support.
Our soul is forever communicating with us and the less stimulated and distracted we keep ourselves the more we become aware of all that is being received. Talking when not truly needed is just one example of how we stop ourselves from truly listening – listening to our inner heart.
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” Wow – what a question. To live every moment with my Soul would be awesome – so why don’t I choose this? I come back to my desire for comfort, which will not support me to evolve. Choices, choices…..
I love how you have highlighted how different surrender can be for you, but in essence is just us surrendering to ourselves, our soul, ‘When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender. When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender. When I feel to give myself a loving hot bath and I do, this is surrender too.’
Thank you for redefining my definition of what surrendering is. For it has little to do with lying on your bed with your eyes closed. 😉
It is a great analogy… The willful child who grows up and finally gets to do exactly what he wants to do, because we have all been in this place… And yes it is true at the heart of us all Is a still and beautiful centre that knows exactly what to do for us to evolve and return to who we truly are.
“But there is another part of us and that is the Soul. It’s wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct”.
A beautiful description of the soul Joseph. Thank you for the gentle reminder to surrender to the soul and the inner wisdom that guides us.
Thank you for this important reminder and beautifully explained piece of writing about the difference between soul and spirit and how we can live by their impulses. One of the greatest things I have learned from attending Universal Medicine presentations is this difference – it is a game changer. I never understood the difference – despite meaning readings/attempts to. Serge Benhayon takes the complex and brings such clarity and simplicity to all. And to know the difference as to how it feels in our bodies, that is when you know it…not because someone says it, but because you can feel it.
I have found that the spirit works according to mental pictures, of what we would like, want or need a situation to be whereas the Soul works imageless, it doesn’t need a picture or an outcome to confirm itself as it already comes with a feeling that it is enough and there is no need to try. With this quality of contentment how could the Soul rush around or drive and strive when there is simply no need because it knows who it is, who we truly are and what’s going on. When blinded we panic, but when we are aware we understand and this brings clarity and a knowing. This for me is obvious in my life whenever I get a push or need to do something, have a conversation with someone in a certain way, eat a certain food etc and it is often not true. Should I follow through with the expectation it always comes up as lacking, the image falls flat and doesn’t deliver its promises. Whereas following my feelings from the whole body has brought about the greatest amount of growth in my life, far grander and more consistent in resulting quality than the tiny image the spirit wants to achieve.
‘There is a Spirit that recklessly does what it wants and willfully makes choices that make no practical sense’…. its such a beautiful description of Spirit… I know it is at play, its antics are so obvious, so contrary to the choices and the purpose that I feel in the rest of my life. So contrary to the Soul!
Growing up not being shown we are divine and that there is a soulful way of being surely brings up lots of tension for us and then we might be creating a life in reaction to this.
I used to connect surrender with giving up, how wrong could I be?
‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ Simply do we choose our soul and love, or do we choose our spirit and indulgence? What if we surrendered to this fact?
How beautiful it is when we allow this, ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’
I love this blog Joseph and the way you have presented on the two energies we have the choice to choose between. One that is hard, bringing in complication and in the end very exhausting, and the other energy that presents a loving way we can choose as the quality of our way of being and doing – surrendering to being a Son of God.
It is only when we surrender that we re-connect to the stillness that is always there waiting for us to come home.
Surrender is a returning to all we are in truth, our soul, and allowing that to impulse us.
When I choose to stay with an emotion or a reaction it is like running on a mouse wheel, the justifications can be endless but a tension or restlessness also remains in my body no matter how clever I have been. When i choose truth and responsibility there is a stillness that returns to my body.
This is a great piece of information that we all need to acknowledge – that there are two different energies to source from in our daily activities and thoughts, and that one of those comes through the wayward spirit and the other from the loving responsible Soul. Knowing that this is so we can begin to extract ourselves from life’s exhausting drama and begin to build platform of true energy from which to operate. If we imagine that the tantrums are us, then we are lost, and our body will inevitably become exhausted with such a force running through it.
“But there is another part of us and that is the Soul. It’s wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct”. Beautifully and soulfully expressed.
Indeed Joseph why wouldn’t we live more from the impulses of our Soul; expanding the quality of our bodies supports us to do this.
Surrender is the gateway to stillness.
Great question Joseph – ‘So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do? ‘ Learning to feel the difference – soul or not – in my body has revolutionised my life.
‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ This was, and still is confronting as it challenges everything we have ever known. The idea that there is no ‘me’ means that there is no me and you, us versus them. Energy is something that we really can only feel and discern in our bodies, and there is no ‘thinking’ our way through the truth that there is no ‘me.’
Well said Joseph, something I get re-reading your blog is that we must 1st surrender to what is inside of us rather than go out and try to attain something new. It blows education out of the water and brings things back to the quality of our body. After all if our body is not clear then how can our thoughts be?!
I always associated surrender with giving up however in the context of this blog I feel allowing is what we are doing when surrendering-to-being-a-son-of-god
Yes, I too thought it was giving up, but the allowing is much more empowering and what Joseph’s blog shows so well is that when we are fighting we are fighting ourselves so the allowing is simply a surrender to embracing who we are and what we are naturally impulsed to do, say or be.
Joseph, you offer such a loving and very accessible understanding of surrender, I’d often tried to surrender or had a concept in my head about it; yet if I feel what you offer that it’s listening to the impulses of our bodies and understanding that there is only energy and only 2 energies spirit or soul then life becomes so much simpler.
“So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do? And isn’t that the rub, for if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?” an entire book could be written on this point alone! But first, we need to recognise that we are being impulsed by something other than what we usually identify as our own thoughts, for this is invariably not what we think it is.
Surrender shows us that the difference between living from Soul and living from spirit is in the quality of the life being lived, not necessarily its function or doings. We can do many of the same things from both, yet one makes it all about function and getting it done while the other makes it about living true to yourself and to all others, while living your All in all aspects of life. This is something I am forever deepening my understanding of.
Beautifully said Joseph – ‘So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’
I love what you write about the body being the indicator, to feel the energetic difference between an impulse from the soul or the spirit in the body. That is such a simple, practical tool, and I have definitely noticed the driven-ness in my body when I chose a pranic/spirit-driven action or behavior, or even just thought about a problem, making an elephant out of a mouse. I also become more and more aware of my breath and use that to come back to me – I notice often that I am hardly breathing when I’m engaged in mental or emotional stories, so I focus back on my breath, free my chest and my breath of the tightness until it is clear and easy again, and the attachment to the mental or emotional issue subsides or is gone.
There is a part of us that is “wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct.” – this is the part we really ‘should’ be listening to, for it is the part that takes care of us and knows and understands exactly what is needed and when.
‘What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?’ – It will be amazing, but what I observe in myself and others is that there are still many ‘tantrums’ going on, creating complication where there is none. Our soul is always present offering, allowing and respecting the choices we make, waiting patiently for the tantrums to end and know the truth of who we are and choose to live that.
Surrender always had connotations for me in the past of giving up or giving in to something that was more powerful. I guess in a way it is indeed true, but not as expected. Rather than to a force outside of ourselves, true surrender is living in accordance to the voice of the silence within us, to our Soul. There is no greater power than this because it connects us to the flow of all things and to God.
We fell for the illusion that surrendering is something leaving us weak and unsafe. Whereas it just makes us feel more of the truth. We are vulnerable and very powerful beings.
This so simply explains spirit and soul one is always about rush and momentum in the body and the other is warm and steady in the body. I love the simplicity that Joseph is sharing here.
Surrender = strength. Quite the opposite of how I used to consider the word.
When you consider the effort that we have to put in to counter the innate divinity, vitality and energy that pours from our soul, then it begins to be possible to comprehend the gargantuan mountains of coffee that society consumes very day. We are exhausted. Utterly exhausted and thus need a constant and daily injection of this drug to keep us moving. I wonder what the world would look like if no coffee was consumed for a week??
Our greatest freedom is found in surrender – which is contrary to the fight we are sold.
Brilliantly said Kylie – it is a constant fight for freedom, an ongoing war we all wage. If only we stop and put the gun down to the ground we will see there actually is no enemy here just people like you and me.
Shirking responsibility inevitably comes at our own expense.
Surrender is quite the opposite of giving in or giving oneself away. Surrender is a return to all we are and have always been.
When our ‘instruments’ are finely tuned from the way we care and treat our bodies, our vehicles of expression can receive the souls impulses more clearly. In this respect our body is our temple.
Oh how well I know that absolute impulse that comes, and the way that I manage to take myself away from it. For example, I awake fresh and vital and know that my body wants to move and go for an early morning walk … and then I put on my dressing gown and slippers and the morning takes a different direction – I’ll just do this or I’ll just do that first pops in and the opportunity passes. Responsibility is really the choice to respond to that impulse, and even preempt… why do I not have my walking clothes ready for me to hop into as soon as I wake?
“The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.”
Yes me too Joseph, when there is any drive, need for recognition or reward the energy is fuelling the ‘self.’ where the souls impulse is all encompassing.
As your blog beautifully confirms Joseph, when we follow our Souls impulses it benefits everyone.
Once there is the understanding of the soul and spirit as you have relayed here Joseph, it becomes quite easy to see how this impacts our lives and explains the somewhat perplexing behaviours of ourselves and others at times. It also offers us clear choices with clear responsibility for those choices. We are not victims to life’s circumstances, we choose the energy we align to and the source that impulses our actions.
Very true, considering ourselves a victim takes away all our ability to bring about change and leaves us at the mercy of situations and people that do not have our best interests at heart.
It is great to know that there are two energies that run through us and that the crux of our choices boils down to one fundamental choice: am I listening to my Soul who confirms in each moment that we are all equal Sons of God or am I being run by the myriad versions of a story that is designed to keep us all from living that. This puts the generally heralded perception of ‘free will’ and ‘responsibility’ on its head.
‘But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life’ – this is a great point and allows me to feel the true purpose of surrender. When I can see it as part of my everyday rather than one ‘big moment of release’ it feels as though I am gently building a connection with surrender that is sustainable.
Surrender to me is getting myself out of the way and allowing that which is flowing through me to be expressed.
For so much of my life my focus was on doing the right thing or the good thing, this often involved a push or a nervous tension and when the task was completed I would be exhausted or irritated and not really wanting to connect with people. It was like trying to swim against the tide. I have found if I surrender to the stillness there is a natural rhythm and flow and order of things to be done that comes towards me.
Surrender is never giving our power away to another, but rather surrendering to the truth of who we are – and in that we know and feel true power.
Learning to surrender is learning to truly let go f the spin, the dramas, the reactions we run in every day – often without awareness of this, but we hold on because to truly surrender is to let go of the individuality that part of us,the Spirit holds so tight as the very reason for its existence, its identity. But in that surrender we enter into something that is so all-encompassing, so embracing, so knowing, and so much part of the all – and we know we have finally come back home.
Thank you Joseph, this is so beautiful, and a great sharing of the difference between being driven by our Spirit and heeding the true impulses of the Soul. Sometimes we can get it wrong, but learning to live by the impulse of the Soul is an ever unfolding ever deepening, ever enriching journey within.
A great point here Josepn that our spirits will often suggest so called ‘loving things’ which can easily trick us into thinking that this is the most supportive thing for us to do in a moment. However, this too can be another trick of the spirit. Our job is to feel what it is to distinguish and feel what is true opposed to what we think is right.
Yes I agree, we do know what is the loving thing is to do in life. It is a matter of simply making loving choices that are impulsed by our soul instead of our spirit. I feel we actually also know a lot more than we think.
I had a great revelation while reading this blog.
I have experienced the impulses that the blog describes.
Sometimes I adhere to them sometimes I don’t. However what I do know is that those impulses are so much clearer when I have a body that is clear, clean and crisp. Meaning that my body isn’t dragged down by emotional strain, heavy eating or physical abuse (by my hand or another). From this point of view we can say a body displaying these signs would surely be in the way of such impulses. Thereby having a body that can easily and readily respond to the call is thus required.
I agree Luke that a clear body is more able to head the natural impulses that are delivered by the soul, which is why our world is set up to weigh the body down and to almost permanently distract it. We are literally bombarded from birth to ‘look the other way’ whilst we pile on the pounds, stack the ipod up with music, take on beliefs, become hurt, form pictures of what life should be like etc, etc, etc. Distortion and illusion abound and this is what we have commonly come to call life as we know it. Serge Benhayon cuts through the illusion with the absolute precision of truth and many hundreds of people are being freed as a result. Vive la revolution!
It is crazy to consider how we do this — what we do every day, is fight with ourselves. we are fighting our own natural essence, our own bodies and therefore no wonder we also fight with each there. To play u this game of fight mens we have to have ourselves gripped 24/7… no wonder the tensions and high disease rates we now live with.
We set our lives up to be in a constant restriction and constriction — not to let the enormous grandness come out. We do this by holding on, not want to surrender — because when we do, we surrender into ourselves and that’s terrifying for the reduced son of man who doesn’t want to feel the enormous pain of having separated from the Light and Love he and she innately is.
There is more to add about the Soul – its harmony, it creates space, its impulses you truth, it forever there supporting you when big lessons are being learnt, it sees beneath the illusion and all that hurts, its movement is deliciously confirming to others, it reflects the love that we are, its presence is awe, the playfulness is ridiculously silly, its so confirming that it is always known, its endless in pursuit of evolution, its creative but simplistic in its delivery, and direct because the connection is only the one way — true beauty reigns from heaven through the Soul with the Spirit being rendered as One with it not in separation or wayward in its own pursuit of self.
Surrender is an interesting word in its modern day connotations that imply challenge or difficulty.
e.g dictionary definitions define surrender as some of the following –
1. The action of surrendering to an opponent or powerful influence.
2. give up or hand over (a person, right, or possession), typically on compulsion or demand.
3. to give the control or use of (something) to someone else.
I love how you have returned to the truth of the word surrendering – when we give ourselves permission to do so, the movement of surrendering is beautiful to feel in our body. This changes the way we express as there is nothing to fight against or give power away to, completely the opposite is in fact true and a different way of living can be established.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me”.
When I follow my impulse with no thought, there is a flow that occurs, no effort is needed and every thing falls into place. The right person is there that you need to speak to, the necessary information you are looking for seemingly magically appears, the piece of clothing you need is in the shop you go to, etc. Life unfolds with ease and grace. To consistently live like this is my inspiration to continue to listen to my body not my spirit.
I dabbled in the spiritual world for a long time, trying different modalities, retreats etc..and all while eating and drinking, swearing and lots of other things – all to excess. I tried to understand spirit and soul but it never really made any sense. Enter Serge Benhayon into my life and WOAH, all of a sudden the spirit and the soul and the vast difference between them, made complete sense. I started to live by the impulses of the soul. Incredible difference, the key self-sabotage ways just dropped off and I started to live a life filled with more patience, gentleness, love, care and also one that was strong and purposeful. The wayward ways of the spirit were slowly coming into line. It still digs its heels in now and then and also chucks the odd tanty but fortunately those days are less now
I love your description of how it feels in the body when connecting to spirit or the soul, it is crystal clear when we connect to soul as that is the love that we come from and who we truly are so to feel the warmth, simplicity and equality of the all is such a confirmation that needs to be appreciated deeply at all times.
So simple and beautiful that it really highlights the ridiculousness of numbing and dulling ourselves from the truth of what we are and what we belong to in order to void ourselves of responsibility to live such divine magnificence – while God keeps holding us all in his Love.
There are a few things I have been reading of late with ‘God’ in them. I remember thinking I didn’t believe in God and at times even physically turning away from the actual word, why? How did I think back then everything happened. I know one thing without the feeling of God I have now life was just plain crazy, I was lost. It’s not that I have found God and everything is alright but more I have rediscovered the feeling of what things are. In other words I always knew God but I had created a world that made it appear as though I didn’t and what’s more in that ‘creation’ I had even fooled myself. Universal Medicine supported me to see through the creation and now I see God again, not as a person but in everything. God to me is a feeling, an energy that supports everything.
“What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?” This is a big truth to accept and certainly a big humbling pill for us to swallow. It reveals that even though we think our thoughts are ours, they may not be coming from us at all! They may be coming from our spirit and not our true selves – our soul – at all!
Surrendering to the essence of who we are is like taking off a heavy coat that has made it impossible to move while we are struggling to run. It frees us in so many ways from the things that we did not even know were weighing us down.
It’s actually quite strange to realize we are surrendering to something we already are and have always have been. This is all the proof that is needed to show that the lives we have been living and the way society is set up is so, so far away from how we would live as true and claimed sons of God.
‘As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility.’ This is so spot on, why does everyone put so much effort into escaping responsibility, when it actually feels amazing to be responsible and commit to life with everything you’ve got?
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” Once we understand the difference between spirit and soul and how these energies feel in our bodies and the behaviours linked with both living surrendered in this way becomes something to experiment with and of a more of a choice in each moment.
When we experience selfless acts of love, we begin to see there is a bigger purpose, a bigger responsibility not only for ourselves but equally each other.
Acts of love can only be selfless because when an ‘act of love’ contains self it can’t contain love.
Thanks for writing about the Soul and the Spirit Joseph. This is such a vital piece of information to know. At some level we are aware that there is timeless known ‘self’ and there is another aspect of us that has been predominantly running us. These two parts of the ‘self’ – Soul and Spirit – were sensed by myself many years ago, but it wasn’t until I met Serge Benhayon that I heard these named and revealed for exactly what they are and this has enabled me (and many others) to begin to extricate myself from the time-wasting, energy-wasting, way of living the Spirit runs.
Serge Benhayon is the first person who could explain the difference between spirit and soul in a way that I could understand. Once I was able to understand this, everything else that Serge talked about with regard to life, the planet and the universe made complete sense, and the part that I play and the responsibility I have within that. Life changing indeed.
How empowering it is to recognise that there are different forces and energies that govern the way we go about our lives. Until coming to the work of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine, I simply hadn’t grasped how clear and simple this can be – that we can live our life and indeed make moment-to-moment choices that are founded in the will of our spirit (seeking its own ends…) or the love of our soul (which is always considerate of the all). This is what true religion is all about, knowing the choices we have available and deepening in our capacity to live the love of our soul, an experience that can be tangibly felt in our bodies, as you’ve shared Joseph.
“…true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.” I love the way you have unpacked this Joseph – that we live with the constant opportunity, to surrender to the love of our soul and the Will of the divine, or not. It’s that simple.
To discover by and by responsibility as a blessing and in fact as a love for humanity that is nearly incredible is probable the most life-changing realization I had have in my life. It is heaven sent.
Joseph, I love this, ‘When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender’, I thought surrender was only when we were lying down or sitting down and it was a relaxed feeling, but I can feel the truth that surrender is us simply being ourselves, it is letting go of the hardness and complication and being with ourselves, living the joy, tenderness and sensitivity that we naturally are.
What I love about “Surrendering to Being a Son of God” is committing in full to all that I know in that moment and what I want to know. Its only complicated when you put more on your plate and have images around what you can handle — forgetting to surrender to being a son of God and simple enjoying you in that moment.
This difference between Spirit and Soul is not something recently discovered but known for centuries yet hearing Serge Benhayon present the difference was the first time I heard it and it has been one of the most significant events in my life. Appreciating and understanding the meaning of this difference has lead me question my whole approach to life, resulting me to completely redefine it to a whole new way of living that now has true purpose and love.
What a great science this is, knowing about the difference in soul and spirit. I can relate to what you say about knowing the difference by how it feels in the body. When connecting with our soul it brings a warmth and very comforting feeling in the body, a bit like a coming home feeling.
Thank you for sharing this Joseph and highlighting what true responsibility is. “When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.” This quote shows the individualism of the spirit in doing things my way as opposed to doing things in consideration of the all. The greater consideration we have for the all the greater we realise our responsibility is.
Seeing and feeling the words spirit and soul…. the word spirit has two ‘i’s in it and soul has a ‘o’ and ‘u’. It is very revealing how the words themselves expose the different energy they carry. When it is all about ‘i’, the spirit, we cannot or do not see the bigger picture, whereas the soul’s spherical nature is all encompassing, holds all within it including the spirit (the wayward fragment). Why would we settle for less that we truly are?
Joseph- such a beautiful blog- clearly defining when we express from our spirit and when we express from our soul. Such a different result in our body. And its true we use more energy holding back what our soul is wanting to express through our body, than if we just surrendered; and it feels more painful – tight, constricted feeling in the upper chest with tight, sore throat. And could this be the very thing that leads to feeling constantly tired?
Shirking responsibility and throwing a tantrum – no more school, no parents to tell us what to do; what a short-lived dream/illusion that is, solely in reaction to our accumulated hurts and never about true freedom at all.
‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’ And how beautiful does it feel to simply surrender? Every cell in my body thanks me and I am in the flow of life once more.
Realising that there is a difference so enormous between spirit and soul has been pretty much the biggest realisation I have had in my entire life.. and that’s not an exaggeration. It is incredibly freeing and humbling to realise that we are not the master pulling the strings, but the puppet being pulled — and on one hand we have the spirit in love with drama, complication and the disregard of a loving life, and then on the other — the soul, forever there, holding us in love, knowing who we are, and keeping it so super simple and so super loving — and then it’s up to us what master we choose.
I love the title of this blog… surrendering to being a son of God. wow — the most beautiful thing we all long for but resist with all our might. Crazy…
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” – a great question Joseph! I would hazard a guess that our day would be without complication, have an ease and sense of flow and fun and be deeply nourishing.
It’s super supportive to see surrender not as something to do, or a place to get to, but simply the choice to connect and listen to the infinite wisdom we each have within.
Joseph, it is lovely to come back to this absolute gem of a blog! You make the differentiation between spirit and soul so very simple and easy to connect to.
I agree, Hannah. The explanation of the soul as a loving, guiding and firm parent and the spirit as a tantrum throwing irresponsible toddler are so easy to connect to and understand. Thank you Joseph.
Thank you, Joseph. Surrendering to God and the wisdom of the soul is the only thing that makes sense, and I feel how important it is in each moment to be aware of when I step out of this eternal flow through identifying with any hurt or picture of how life should be, to then surrender once more. Life is becoming simpler each day by living in this way.
I feel this too Joseph, that the greatest way to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body. The more I get familiar with living with my true self, the more like a sore thumb become the thoughts and behaviours of the spirit.
I’m glad you were listening to your soul Joseph and wrote this great blog, what would life look like if we stopped all the nonsense and started listening to the wisdom of the soul instead of the constant efforts of the spirit to keep us small and as far from who we truly are as it possibly can.
“…we have to work pretty hard to override and ignore these natural impulses in life”. True Joseph and life flows more harmoniously when we listen to the Souls impulse.
Yes Victoria, and it is remarkable to me how these impulses live in the very smallest of things, like how I type these words out on this keyboard, how I hold myself in my chair, how I have placed the hat I wear. In all of this there is a way with these things that is true and honours me. There is a caring way the soul has we can actually live every day.
Yes, it is in the quality of how we are and what we choose that supports a body (vehicle of expression) for the soul to work through. It is in all the everyday practical choices we make that can prepare a body of love.Thank you for sharing this Joseph.
Knowing the difference between soul and spirit has been life changing for me. Understanding that the spirit wants to run the show, if we allow it, has inspired me to take loads more responsibility for every choice I make, as ultimately we are responsible for what energy we align to and express.
I love your blog Joseph. If we surrendered each moment to our soul, our connection to God and his communication with us through nature would be a natural part of our life.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” I like your definition of surrender Joseph, the wisdome is all there when we listen.
wisdom 🙂
I am really loving exploring this word surrender – thank you for the opportunity. For me, it is quite simply the letting go of the battle and I am amazed how petulant I can be about that. All the evidence is there that this battle is exhausting, futile and detrimental and yet I still take part. Surrender is totally incredible and only wavers because of a familiarity and habit around the battle.
Surrendering for me is allowing myself to feel the All (‘the all’ includes everything that you are aware of and connected to) intense as it maybe sometimes, then physically meeting myself in the tender way this then needs to be expressed.
“When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.”” It’s those things we do not want to do, that if we do, we will evolve onto something bigger and better.
I thank God for Universal Medicine and presenting the difference between Spirit and Soul. There are otherwise, so many remedies on offer that are spiritual pursuits and strengthen the spirits hold under the guises of healing and self-empowerment – All, taking us on a deliberate detour from the Truth of the Soul.
I agree that there is a very different quality when the spirit is running the show to the Soul.
There is no push, drive, image or excitement, elation or emotion present with the Soul – rather a deep knowing, surrender and infinite wisdom.
The soul is constantly communicating with us. It is our job to prepare a body of love so that we can receive its messages and surrender is the key. Without surrender we fight the innate wisdom that lies within, the love that is there. Our spirits know this and put up a strong fight to keep us thinking we are less than a son of God.
Surrendering is something I am really starting to deepen my understanding of, especially from the fact it is very much a bodily surrendering which makes it very tangible and real, the then knock on effect to my way of being is very revealing.
Surrendering to my soul’s communication is not resisting the ‘things’ that come up in a moment, day, week etc. It is surrendering to the flow that, what is before me is part of the bigger plan, and letting go of my own created picture allows my soul to support all that is required.
The major question that rises within me with this blog is the choice I stand before in each moment: Am I a mere son of man or am I a true son of God? The answer to this question will determine my choices as the choices will confirm either the one or the other. And in this confirm my ability to see, my outlook on all that occurs in life and how I respond to it is either reduced or expanded.
In reading this I can feel how wayward I’ve been, just like a wayward child who wants to do things their way, arrogantly ignoring the wisdom of an ever loving parent and thinking they know it all! This causes so much dilemma and struggle. To feel the flow of letting go and surrendering to the living wisdom of an ever loving soul and God feels amazing; it brings an equality that the other way often, ironically, fights for but can never be because the whole set up is skewed.
Surrendering to the messages from my body is surrendering to God. Every little choice I make can be either loving to myself or harming. God is love, and he can live and express through a body of love. If I make choices that harm my body I am saying no to God. It’s that simple.
Thank you Joseph , I really enjoyed reading this blog this morning …. a great reminder – and can feel myself surrendering deeper.
Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me. Yes, absolutely, and the more we surrender, the more effortless life becomes, as we open up more to receiving and allowing our natural divine essence to flow through us.
Loved this blog for the simplicity and ease you write with Joseph, thank-you for following your impulse from your Soul to sit down and write this truly wonderful and supportive blog for all who read it!
‘So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full?’ This is a tipping point and a moment when our commitment to life and all of our evolution is shown. It is a point for me when I can see very clearly the impact of all that has led me to this moment, supporting me to surrender in full to all that is on offer, or keep me in the thrall of the spiritual distraction and indulgence.
Having a practical mind that needs little tools to navigate, what you said about feeling the drive or forceful energy of the choices the spirit comes up with, is a really good reminder to me. After practicing the gentle breath meditation and conscious presence for years, I now can feel that impatient force in the movements of my body so immediately when my spirit wants to have it’s way, even before the thought enters my mind. And the willfulness of it seems even stronger than before, or maybe I didn’t notice it so clearly. Now I do have the choice.
Its true, when we are emotional all we can see is what emotion we are in! Its not until we are free of emotion that we can see clearly and make wise decisions. Sometimes throwing the smarties all over the floor is the only option, but now growing up with responsibility shows us a different way.
We all have a best friend, our Soul!
It is such a powerful realisation to know that the quality of our lives is all about aligning to that which is true within our hearts and soul or that which comes from ideals and beliefs from the head.
After 12 years of esoteric yoga and learning to surrender to my essence I still have a way to go! We are always deepening our relationship to how much we can surrender to the inner-most and this to me is my path of return. A return journey that is definitely worth it from how I feel everyday!
The concept of surrender is what is so powerful, we have got this word so wrong and think it’s a weakness when I can see it’s actually very needed to live soulfully on earth.
It is almost laughable in way, when reading our soul backed by the divine is constantly communicating with us yet the response so often is “not right now”. Why would we ‘think’ that anything we can come up with is more important than our connection with the divine? It doesn’t take much practice to get in the swing of listening to what is behind our motivations but it does take a constant awareness that we have choice in every moment. This is where the “not right now” can rule if we choose.
That we are energy and therefore run by energy is actually a scientifically proven fact. That there are two energies to chose from is a bit more of a stretch but then again not because we have all experienced inconsistency, like behaviors out of character or like in your example with a child throwing a tantrum, we just never stop and feel into, what is happening.
I also never met someone that so congruently made sense of life until I met Serge Benhayon. There were always some things that made sense but then others did not live up to the picture. Serge Benhayon’s presentation make sense all the way, he presents it all even the things we do not like to hear, he does not hold back.
“So if we can’t avoid these essential tasks and they actually help support our life and health, what is it that makes us resist them so?” Great question and great answer in this blog Joseph. It really does not make sense if we look at it why we feel that we are giving ourselves something by doing something that is not supportive like not putting out the garbage or eating a pack of cookies. It often feels like a treat yet is it really if we look at it from a distance? It makes our homes smell like garbage and it makes our body feel sick, racy or bloated in truth this is no real treat.
Simply developing a relationship with my body in which I ‘listen’ and attend to it, has made such a huge difference to the way I live each day. I am opening up to the wisdom of my soul which works in absolute support and collaboration with my body and my body loves it and ‘tells’ me so.
I thank God for reincarnation and for the blessing in returning to all that I have chosen and lived. To bring Love to the areas lacking and to deepen the Love I have already lived.
The school of life is made possible by the loving science of reincarnation and our choice to enrol.
May our every day realise the deep healing and learning that is offered from every angle, in order that we may re- live our true potential that we have forever held, lifetime after lifetime.
I avoided for a long time accepting Love and accepting my divinity for to do so was to accept responsibility for my lived choices, to end my delay of living all that I am. I have come to learn that reincarnation presents us with every opportunity to rebalance, choose differently, to learn and to grow.
Reincarnation is a blessing and Karma is absolute Love.
“When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender. ” Too true Joseph. Letting go of expectation is a vital piece of the surrender puzzle. If I follow an impulse from my soul but attach to how others respond to my choice there can be no surrender as I have stepped into control instead.
Thank you for explaining this to me- I really love how you have described this distinction. I also step in to control too often, especially when I don’t detach from what others think, or invest in how I want them to respond.
‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.’ – Beautifully said, our body tells all whenever we are willing to listen.
The big marker of truth is how our body is feeling. When we have not experienced the flow, opening and ease of our body this may be hard to understand but once we have felt this connection within, and become ore and more familiar with it the difference can be clearly felt.
“true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life” – that is an interesting line for me. I am so familiar with the idea of taking control is the way to be and become happy that to surrender and just have this one choice – soul or spirit – brings up a challenge. To surrender not only for a while, like a session or workshop-day but all my life…means I have to give up on all of my control and this I do not like. Or should I say, my spirit does not like the idea…. However, if it is true that I have just this one choice – spirit or soul – than the idea of that I am controlling anything head of this choice is an illusion anyway.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Thank you Joseph this is what I needed to read today, it is not about going ‘floppy,’ but about surrendering to what I know to be true and what is felt deeply within. Surrender is a powerful word that says to the body it is ok to let go, there is no need to hold onto anything, just surrender to the moment and enjoy.
Such a great question, Joseph – “What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” It opens life up to being about everyone and everything rather than being fixated on self in a restricted and contracted tunnel vision. It makes the quality of our thoughts and movements super important, as we accept the bigger picture of what we are a part of. I will take this into my day, and listen intently to the quiet but powerful voice of truth that resides within me.
Joseph I love this part of your blog this morning as I go into my day with a few meetings that can often get confrontational, “When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender.”
Great blog and how it is exposing the spirit in its tracks of self destruction, even when it is seemingly making ‘good’ choices. I know I have been fooled by the spirit into thinking I am doing the right thing so when we bring it back to the body and how it feels then we have a true marker of what it actually feels like and not what we ‘think’ is right. The more I am in connection with my soul and surrendering to what it is communication to me the more I get to see how wayward the spirit actually is. This is crucial.
I love how the soul impulses me, it’s like receiving an email to my inbox. But there is also the mail that doesn’t come from my soul, but it’s the responsibility of taking care of myself that allows me to discern what mail gets deleted and what mail is listened to and acted upon.
Our soul is communicating with us all the time. What will our day be like when there are large chunks of the day when we connect to that communication? Short instances of it are wonderful!
‘ When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.” Stay up late? No problem. Do that essay? No thanks mate! Take the bins out? Not right now. As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.
Yet everything about life is telling us this doesn’t work.’ This simple understanding and the fact that ‘this does not work’ should be a granted part of all childrens education and learning, starting way before they even go to school. The best support we can ever offer children is to reflect to them the enormous importance of responsibility, and that there is no ‘off time’ from it.
“As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.” This is so true Joseph – I remember this very well. I couldn’t wait to leave home so that I could do what I wanted to do without all those parental restrictions on me. But of course it doesn’t last, and before long you have to start taking responsibility for yourself. What I have come to know thanks to the teachings of Universal Medicine, is that this lack of responsibility is driven by our spirit which loves to indulge in anything that will disconnect us from our soul. Today I understand responsibility in a much bigger way and realise that me being responsible is not just about looking after me, but the way I look after myself actually has an impact on everyone else I come into contact with and even ripples out to others who I do not. By surrendering to my soul, and to the fact that I am a son of God, and everything that I do will have an impact on someone else, no matter where they are, brings a whole new level of responsibility that then becomes a normal way to live.
Surrendering to being a son of God is true surrender in our bodies and we can feel it and the more we do the easier it becomes. Life comes in and tries to upset this but it is always a choice of energy for us to choose even through this may seem difficult simplicity occurs. A great blog offering a true reflection and way of living as who we are and our choices.
I love the analogy of the child throwing a tantrum as it does not get what it wants but even more so how you say that our body is copping our spirit’s choices and we think it is worth it because at least it was OUR choice. We are being played and fooled to an extend that has us abusing ourselves for the pleasure of an energy that cares not one iota about us.
I will be coming back to your blog a couple of times I am sure Joseph as you have revealed to the world the true meaning of surrender: surrendering the illusion of there being a self and the resistance to the soul in every choice we make. Beautiful.
The more I experience the mess that I can get into if I do not surrender to my Soul and the responsibility that is required of me, the more I realise that I actually do want the responsibility of surrendering to my Soul and the divine will. Given a choice – mess or Soul – I will choose Soul every time.
Call them what we will, there are certainly these two aspects to ourselves, one rebellious and uncaring about how the body is affected and another, just knows how to be caring and loving of ourselves and others. Surely everyone can relate to this. I appreciate how Joseph has defined surrender to be about this knowing and about what feels true in our bodies.
You make the difference between spirit and Soul very clear and practical as it applies to daily life; and yes, the general exhaustion epidemic might well have its root in the relentless recklessness that the spirit likes to indulge in and our efforts to override what we know is true and loving.
Yes Gabriele, when we throw our ‘smarties’ out of the pram we loose the connection to the truly smart part of me and you – our steady, clear and simple soul who is powerful in it all. It does not buy into the reckless stories that our spirit likes to spin.
Yes, the spirit’s recklessness makes it feel as if it is alive and has some command over life, yet all it is doing is wasting precious energy and creating harm and illness.
“What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body? And what if we were taught this information from very young and in our schools? How transformed life could be.
Thank you Joseph, for delivering so clearly the difference between the sprit and the soul and making it so practical and easy to understand. Even as I write I can feel my soul inspiring me to be still and listen and my spirit wanting to take me out of this and go eat. Slowly I am coming to realise the more we release the hold the sprit has on us the more our life is a flowing truth, now why would I wan to sabotage that?
Such huge teachings and questions, so simply and accessibly expressed, thank you, Joseph. What if we simply surrendered? Giving up the futile fight against the impulses of the Soul. I know when I do surrender, there is a realisation of the exhaustion I have accumulated in this fight, alongside something so much greater, which is the embrace of the unwavering support and love of the Soul.
This is so topical for me right now. I recently attended a Healing Level 4 workshop where I became super aware of which organs were driving me and with that I became more aware of the difference between being driven by Spirit or Soul. It’s amazing to realise this but at the same time it’s so obvious when you start really reading the situations as they unfold. Your article is a great inspiration Joseph simply because it really does ask people the question and supports everyone to consider what is driving them.
If one was to ask how does one surrender? I feel your line “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me” is the answer. To surrender is to deeply listen and honour (as you say) in full, the communication inside of me. So beautiful, so deeply loving and honouring.
Become soulful cannot and should not happen over night. I like to think of it like this, if you ate Macdonalds your whole life and then all of a sudden started eating super heathy, you would probably go into shock and get sick, that doesn’t prove Maccas is the way to eat, it simply shows us how fare we have strayed and how gently we must ease our way back to truth. Sometimes it just feels like the spirit is the easier option but long term our soul reunited to the body delivers way more then easy, in fact in time with patience it just might bring everything you ever dreamed of.
I have never been very good at being told what to do, I proved that in school and continued to prove it when I dropped out of school, I was self righteous and opinionated and to be honest I am still pretty feisty now but something has drastically changed in me, something that use to be in the driver seat has been demoted to the back seat and that it my spirit. Defiance is something we have all experienced at one time or another, if not every day. The defiance can be comfort over what we know supports us, frustration over reflection and anger over letting yourself feel sad. It’s a slow process to gain back ground and get the soul more involved in the everyday living way but that does not mean it is not our natural way of being.
A great reminder Joseph to listen to that inner voice as apposed to the spirit that takes us off track! We can all be stubborn and resist what is truth for us and then wonder why, when the results prove to us that they were the perfect loving choice all along. Such a beautiful sharing Joseph.
‘When I get the feeling to act lovingly and I listen, as I would to an ever-loving parent, this is surrender. When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender. When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender. When I feel to give myself a loving hot bath and I do, this is surrender too.’ I have been recently really surrendering when cleaning the house – if I see a corner or section of the house that needs cleaning and sorting I am surrendering to sorting what needs to be done without haste or tension. This feels whole.
I can also remember that feeling of wanting to get away and have no responsibility, so I ended up travelling Europe with only a backpack. As I’ve started to be self-responsible, it has generated a desire to be responsible for all worldly problems and issues that surround me and that if I don’t say or express anything that is needed, then I am responsible for that problem existing but it is not felt as a burden in the slightest. It’s interesting how the perception of responsibility has been very different to allowing myself to surrender to being responsible.
I love how you have written this blog Joseph, especially how you explained about surrender. The teaching about the spirit and the soul was a significant lesson in understanding how and why we do and think the things we do. It’s interesting that often the two can be mixed up, interchanged or usually thought of as one and the same yet they are very different and can lead us on vastly different paths.
Thank you Joseph for a really beautiful blog on surrender, in the past surrender for me meant a giving up a failing of some sort. I love this simple line “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” when we surrender to the souls’s love life has a flow and a gentleness to it, no hurry rush or drive as it is with the spirit, our sense of time expands and much more is able to be accomplished.
Who are we truly? If the ways of the spirit has been chosen in momentum over a very long period of time, we would think that is us. When we have returned to truly feeling what Soul is, we begin to understand the truth of who we are is so much so much more, everyone of us is craving to feel this.
I have not known the difference of spirit and Soul before Universal Medicine and the teachings of Serge Benhayon. This is the turning point of awareness in my life. Observing children in tantrum is a great example of understanding the ways of the spirit in life. With their reflections, I understand more of how my spirit works as well, and exposing that there is much more clarity to choose Soul.
Learning the deeper we can surrender and let go, the greater connection we can feel with ourselves, with others, and even with the Universe in its immense grandness and space.
Hello Joseph and I’ve found all I need do at any point no matter what is happening is just let it go. Not let it go by turning my back on it and doing something else but let it go by just ‘surrendering’, allowing your body to settle. At times when something is tense or there is tension, in place of fighting this fact we can settle and find our breath before continuing. For me at any time of the day no matter what is happening I go to the ‘surrender’ and allow my body to settle before my next step. Thank you.
Great explanation Ray of how when we bring it back to the body, the anwers are all there.
I like the simple clarification between the spirit and soul, well written Joseph
Responsibility is actually one of the most supportive things we can be, and yet one of the things we resist more than anything else.
It is strange that as described here there are two types of energy that can impulse our thoughts and actions, from our Soul or via our spirit, and that the quality and the end impact of these are completely different, yet there is nowhere in our education or even in our general communications any mention of this. Humanity is indeed walking blind and such conversations are needed. Thank you for your blog.
Choosing responsibility is taking charge of everything in your life – every detail – everything that is felt honoured in full. The more you are responsible for the more you feel, and the more is at your own risk if you do not act and confirm — ‘Such is life’ in the spherical meaning of what that means .. not how that term is bastardised in the meaning life is hard, painful and a struggle.
In truth I still throw a tantrum if I do not get away with the way I want it. The tantrum is just an excuse to not feel my hurt, and the hurt is just an image to throw you off into a tantrum. So .. what is the image? Something you know is true but you’re not willing to create this yourself, instead you allow an image the show..
We do know what to do next, and what I have found is the more I let go of control, and trust and surrender, the more taken care of I am and things just happen way better than I could have even imagined.
There is such a large difference or separation between the Soul and the Spirit. This large separation should be the difference in discerning what is true to act on and not. One is the firm Love and the other dis-regards the body.
Joseph I love your simple but very true way of sharing how we are irresponsible: when the soul calls upon us, as it does continuously, do we say a full hearted yes or do we say ‘not right now’. I know the last feeling very well and it is the spirit buying time of the inevitable return to its origin.
I remember a rather heavy night out, when I had left home and lived by myself, during my study. I was walking home and it was becoming light and the birds were singing and I felt this excitement and sense of freedom as no-one was going to say anything about it. The important point though is as being made in this blog, the freedom was freedom from responsibility, as in true responsibility I would have never chosen to put my body through a night like that.
Joseph, surrendering is huge and allows us to really feel what is going on for the body and by doing so helps us become more aware of what is going on around us. It also helps stop exhaustion in the body as generally when we are not surrendered we are running with a tension, and this tension is exhausting.
Great to read and feel how powerful it is when we Surrender in full to All of who we are. Joseph the clarity and ease in which you share how your relationship with Surrendering is for you is very inspiring. Honouring and acting on what we know is true and not being distracted or dismissive in what we feel is a steady and consistent relationship that I too am developing and I am loving every moment. Learning when the spirit is taking control and realising that it doesn’t feel true and then to feel it in my body and say ok that is not it and then move forward in the known every more strongly who I am in truth when in connection to my Soul.
Joseph I only can agree as it is my own experience as well that: “Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive.” In the beginning I was not aware of it but since I allow myself to feel that there are these two qualities determine my life it becomes very obvious what comes from the Soul and what comes from my Spirit. It is really worth it to give it ago to make your own experience with it.
The soul knows responsibility and welcomes it. The spirit is wily and will avoid responsibility at all costs.
Truly beautiful to read Joseph, it was like a warm reassuring hug from my soul. I appreciated this line “What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?”. So simple.
it’s all a simple choice and responsibility. Boy, is living with this awareness getting my spirit rattled.
I loved reading about the idea of what true surrender is. Hearing what the body speaks and simply responding to this. My spirit has been so subtle and insidious recently; Such a great reminder that if it feels like a drive, it is spirit – to live from the communication of our soul feels simple, focused and still.
Your description of spirit and soul makes perfect sense Joseph. We all know the difference, it’s just a matter of practicing to listen to the one that feels true to us.
I love the point about the moment we fly the coop, we actually increase our list of responsibility by a million, yet we certainly don’t expect it at the time. However what is so awesome about this is that we finally start to get an understanding of what it means to ignore those responsibilities….as they suddenly have huge consequences, unlike at home with the family where despite all the yelling and screaming to get us to comply with the rules, ultimately if we didn’t put our dirty dishes away, someone else would, and as a result no lesson learnt. When you no longer have someone picking up after you or not paying your rent, or cooking your meals, you very quickly appreciate how unsupportive that is and the snow ball of drama begins.
That drive to want to do everything ‘my way’ and ‘when I want’ and to be free of the expectations of others can be exceptionally strong. I know I have certainly felt this growing up, and as you’ve highlighted Joseph, a key driving point for leaving home for the majority of us. Whilst I agree with you ten fold about this false sense of freedom we think we have created for ourselves when we do finally get to leave the dishes in the sink, I’m also pondering the other side of why we are so keen to be free of responsibility. How has that responsibility actually been taught? I know from my experience and I’m sure many of us, that it was often taught through threats and anger and control. Naturally as we grow up we go through a defiant period, but in general when I consider all the rules I had growing up, they always felt like they were there to control me rather than to support me. Is it possible that the way we have been disciplined has much to do with us wanting to escape? Is it possible that if we’d been taught that responsibility was actually about supporting us and not about ‘have to or else’, our attitude towards it would be different?
I love the questions you are asking here Elodie, I have to agree wholeheartedly, maybe its not responsibility at all that we are running from but rather the clutches of control and ideals of right and wrong, good and bad.
With the understanding and observation of how these pockets of ‘not right now’ distraction and delay pop up. I have been shocked by the games, the lies and manipulation that I am willing to play with myself on a day-to-day basis, the devious dialogues that are ready to pounce & override all that I know to be true.
Ha!! ‘…kind of floppy if you like!’ Crack up Joseph! This is exactly the image I’ve had about surrender!
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” I love this simple explanation of surrender that you have given here Joseph. What is given to us when we allow ourselves to surrender to the soul in this way is truly amazing, and it comes with an inner confidence and an innate value of oneself.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.”
Acting on these impulses gives me the feeling that I have just grown 5 inches taller, every moment of surrender is a step closer to our true potential.
This is so important Joseph. Once we surrender we are back home – and from there we can live our way that comes back to that surrender every time – until the connection with our surrender is so strong that it flows naturally everyday – we realise that we are the Son of God and we have always been.
‘What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?’ Simple, spacious, light and true.
Joseph, thank-you for choosing the call of the ever loving parent and down loading this hugely confirming blog, in reading through your words I can feel myself saying Yes that’s me, that’s the duality that I am curiously learning to read and observe.
“Have you ever seen a kid getting upset and throwing a tantrum? Have you seen how they ignore and defy and do exactly the opposite of what their parent said?” This is such a tangible analogy that clearly calls out the spirit for what it is – a child throwing a tantrum, trying to get its own way with the only concern being for self, no consideration of anyone else. This highlights the separatism of the spirit and lack of regard that the spirit holds for the human form.
Kind of funny analogy Joseph, losing your smart(ie)s in the museum foyer. You made me laugh.
My whole life was about not having responsibilities or only being responsible for myself and this is only when it suited me. Responsibility was laced to be able to get on with life, but the fun was to let go of it. Through Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon I learned that responsibility is actually an absolute joy and a natural expression and the only truth we express when living as the divine vessels we are.
The beautiful thing about the way the world works is you can read the words you wrote on a blog and go ‘wow did that come from me?’ or ‘this is exactly what I needed to hear today’. And yet I already knew these gems, this gold, these pearls of wisdom! Isn’t this the most revealing symbol of the fact of the battle between Spirit and Soul? We all have access 24/7 to great wisdom, but forget the most simple truth in pursuit of some ‘holy grail’ only to constantly return to this surrendering way, in the end one day.
From reading this I’m getting how amazing it would be to live without judgement and to get to appreciate everyone we meet for the beautiful person they are. That actually we can choose to live this way and completely change the world through how we relate -relating to the person in truth and not some made up reality of ours.
Just feeling how judgement doesn’t allow one to appreciate the essence of another and oneself reveals how toxic it is.
I like how you pointed out that the decisions of the spirit make no practical sense. It is often so illogical yet I do it anyway! For instance I go all day without eating and not feel that hungry. But when I start to eat, I can suddenly want to eat more, despite being full after a meal. Anyway I look at this doesn’t make sense, except when I feel the energy making this decision that my body would not make. This doesn’t feel like freedom to me!
It was interesting considering the contradiction of wanting to leave home so we can be free to make our own decisions and finding everything in life is still about responsibility. We believe that being able to make our own decisions is a sign of freedom. But when those decisions go against the soul, I can now see that we are less free than we ever were. I have observed that the more we give in to the decisions of the spirit (whether that’s staying up late, eating junk food, fighting rather coming to an understanding in a relationship etc) the more the energy is there to make more of these type of “decisions”. Really it is the dominant energy of spirit or soul that chooses.
It felt important that you commented on why we are so tired or exhausted. I agree that a lot of our exhaustion is from not surrendering. It takes a lot of effort to constantly ignore and go against the wise council of the body and the soul. I find living from body and soul is effortless and rejuvenating. Everything flows and despite me not being able to logically know when it will happen, space always opens up for things to be completed in a timing that feels easy and just right. The fight to do it our way or in our time driven by the spirit through the mind is the complete opposite of this, leading to stress and exhaustion.
I really enjoyed reading this blog. It was something I could have given to anyone to read, as it is enjoyable, simple and matter of fact. I feel we can all relate to the examples given, as we are amazing at putting off what we know we have felt to do. Understanding spirit and soul and how to determine which is running the show at any time is life changing. It may not always stop me from making decisions from my spirit but at least I am making that choice and in consequence what I am not choosing to listen to.
Ahhhh, the temper tantrum of the spirit aspect, that still wants everything his way and not to be responsible for the impact of what we do on ourselves and others.
I love the distinction you make about Spirit and Soul Joseph, and the fact that “the greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body”. I find that this is an ongoing deepening process, because as you say there are so many things that look good and tick the box but may not be true. So the only way has in fact been building my connection with what I feel within my body and start to distinguish between the difference between those inner feelings. A great tool I found for developing this has been the Universal Medicine’s Gentle Breath Meditation, especially because as you can see on unimedliving.com there are so many different flavours of the same meditation offered, so it is possible to see beyond ‘the technique’ and get a profound sense of what we are actually feeling underneath it all.
This observation is packed with wisdom Joseph..’It will often use ‘loving things’, seemingly important jobs or tasks, to sabotage and distract from what is true to do. So it can seem like it is good and ticking boxes in life, but ultimately it’s still the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices.’ – lately I have been noticing this, that is, how I displace myself by doing something when my body actually feels to be doing something else. Displacement activities as good as they may seem actually contribute to sustaining tension and drama in my body.
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” – great question. How would my day be different if I did surrender to my soul?
So beautifully said Joseph. I now have a new awareness about what surrender is, it is going with the impulse of our soul – trusting, knowing and just going with it.
I really get the analogy of the spirit being a child throwing a huge tantrum, totally refusing that it is now time to put down the playings of creation and return to who it is and where it comes from.
It’s quite extraordinary how we resist all our responsibilities in life. After all, they need to be done in order for our lives to run smoothly. What on earth are are thinking when we try to get away with not doing what needs to be done?! Far better to accept the fact and apply ourselves in a way that supports us rather than stamping our feet and having a tantrum. Will we ever grow up?!
Joseph, I have been very inspired by reading your blog, what stands out for me this time is, ‘So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’ Wow, pondering on this I can feel how true this is, I have very often ignored these signals from my soul and instead chosen to do/behave in a way that is familiar to me, I can feel how this is very capping and that to listen to my soul is evolving.
I agree that giving way to the impulses of the spirit is exhausting. The adrenaline, the high and the rush that comes with getting swept along by the spirit leaves us wasted when the energy fades out. In contrast, staying with the energy of the Soul allows us to connect more and more to our bodies and the present moment, and it allows us to stay humble and gentle which only helps us to build energy to move forward with.
I have definitely had to understand a rebellious streak in myself that carried a bit of (my mother would say a lot of) defiance and arrogance with me, thinking I know best and wanting to do things my way. Occasionally I did genuinely have a more effective solution, but often I was in massive reaction and feeling frustrated at not being heard, so I could become difficult. Once I began to let go of the struggle and commit to myself taking more responsibility for my expression, there was no need to rebel against anything.
It is great that one of the choices you were aware of was a loving one!
Surrendering is being all of who you are, not choosing a part and expressing from there.
What you have written about surrendering is lovely, very simple and very practical. Thank you.
So actually we are all trying to escape responsibility all of the time to one degree or another. . If we consider that we are a whole, humanity as a whole if only one person runs away from responsibility we are all affected in some way. Rather than this being an onerous situation it could be one of showing us how by loving and caring more for each other we can keep it all together.
Beautiful Elaine, I love how responsibility here is truly seen as the ultimate support network, the greatest friend, and continually confirms that we are all connected. Whilst we can hurt and harm we can truly support and lift others too, just in the way we choose to move.
If we make life about just mortgages and kids and all the temporal practical stuff that we naturally have to commit to in life it’s never enough, and we’re never truly fulfilled, the truth is we’re from something much grander, we are something much grander and that part of us cannot be neglected.
Having understanding of life, behaviour and choices through the perspective of the spirit and soul changes the view of life completely. For me, rather than being lost and in overwhelm and just living life to get by I feel much more aware and purposeful in everything I do. Understanding the difference between spirit and soul has been absolutely key in turning my life around.
“When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.”” I remember thinking exactly the same thing, I wanted to be free but what I found was a rude wake up call to reality! Even though I continued trying to make my new “freedom” live up to what I expected. It was only after coming to a workshop of Universal Medicine and feel a warmth in my body that had not been there for a long time, did I actually realise that its not about doing things my way but about re-connecting back to a feeling of trust and love instead, surrendering to this that I was really after.
“What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?” A great question Joseph. Becoming still enables me to hear the sound from my soul with more clarity. I find Esoteric Yoga a great support with this.
‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ Your words really highlight for me how attached to ‘me’ I have become. When I am willing to surrender to my soul I have that sense of coming home – coming home to me and a way of livingness that is brotherhood and heaven here on earth.
I like the way this blog highlights the fact that there are two energies which run through us, one from the Soul and one from the Astral plane. One is destructive which is more than happy to cause havoc within our bodies and our lives, and the other impulses us to be so much more for the whole of Humanity. Learning to discern is key and this is where our bodies come in, and the relationship we are able to build which enhances our ability to see and feel the truth of a situation. This does take some time and is ongoing, but more than worth the effort.
I find the part about putting off the task most interesting. There are many example for me of times where I put things off, have them handing over me and then when I finally get around to them I realise how freeing it was to do them. This for me is the difference between living from spirit and living with soul, spirit creates delay and complication while soul makes life simple and efficient and a joy to be a part of.
Thank you again Joseph. I’m learning to live the surrendered way and reading this blog is a great support
“And isn’t that the rub, for if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?” This is such an important question Joseph and one we are not commonly encouraged to ask ourselves or are very well educated in. So often we follow our ‘impulses’ without question, choosing to observe the nature of the impulse is life changing. When we can begin to truly distinguish the quality of the impulses that come from our Spirit or our Soul we become empowered to make choices that truly nurture us and the whole of humanity. Serge Benhayon is the only person I have met in many years of ‘New Age’ investigation who offers us a palpable way to feel the difference and provides us with some powerful tools to surrender to our Soul’s wishes. In building this relationship with our Souls, we cannot help but return to who we truly are.
‘But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.’
I love the honesty in your sharing, as sometimes there can be impulses coming from our spirit and sometimes we even do not clock them. I have the feeling that impulses coming from my spirit leave an exitement in my body, whereas when impulses from my soul are dropping in I get very still, when I am not in resistance to them, because they can ask things which are not fostering comfort.
Surrendering to Soul is actually very simple, it is just adhering to and appreciating the inner impulse I have at every choice there is for me. So it is either Soul or not, surrendering or resisting the call to be more, the call to rise from the shadows I have once chosen to live in.
Love the simplicity of what you offer here Joseph… it makes so much sense. It has been very inspiring to read this as it has made me realise just how much I do the exact opposite and try and control my life! It feels like surrender is the allowing of the natural harmony and rhythm of our Soul, even in the smallest of things, moment by moment. How gorgeous and inspiring is this.
We can see the consequences all around us of when we choose to run amuck with spirit… tantrums as children (and adults too!) to the crazy acts we see and hear of in the world today – all driven by an arrogant and irresponsible spirit. In complete contrast, a life lived with Soul is in complete regard of ourselves and everyone around us, has a harmonious flow and natural rhythm, and respects all of humanity equally… which we choose is up to us in every moment.
The spirit is all about self, arrogantly so. It has a total disregard for the human body and in this way is totally irresponsible – it cares naught for the consequences of its choices on the body, and being self-absorbed doesnt care about those around us who are affected by our choice. But within all this we have a choice – we can choose spirit and run with it regardless of the consequences, or we can choose to live our lives from our Soul.
Your explanation of surrender brings a whole new and valuable perspective Joseph. I too always thought of it as letting go completely, being relaxed, but as you describe it, I can feel it is in fact a way of being in every moment… this has been very inspiring to read this morning – thank you.
“As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.” So true Joseph, when i was younger, freedom from responsibility was the ultimate success, it was rock and roll, yet honestly I knew these were all unreal pictures, shots from a movie, the illusion of celebrity, the spirits playground – yet i always needed rewarding for what i felt were my pockets of responsibility.
Lucindag I have prided myself for ages on the fact that I have a job where I am able to not be very responsible in certain areas. I have enjoyed skimming over the detail and doing only enough to make the work presentable, falsely believing that I am one of the lucky ones. This year I made a commitment to be more responsible at work and have felt a huge shift in myself both at work and also outside of work. What I have realised is that there’s no such thing as ‘at work’ and ‘not at work’, therefore if I lack responsibility ‘at work’ then I carry that lack of responsibility with me where ever I go. Conversely now that I am more responsible I carry that renewed commitment wherever I go. Our environments change but it is us that is the constant across all of our different environments.
Learning to surrender is massive and is something I am learning more and more the importance of. The more surrendered I am in my body, the more aware of my senses I am. And so the more equipped I am to deal with life and so on. It is a magical gift and tool we can all use but largely do not value the importance it can make to our lives and those around us.
Responsibility and freedom… Amazing topic in which we all (I suppose) have to learn a lot from. Often adults see a lot and if we would accept their guidance we – as kids – would be much better off listening to them. But instead we choose to kick, scream and fight what actually is presented. It seemingly is too hard to admit that we’re to learn a lot (!!) from adults. Of course, as well as they can learn a lot from us – as kids, as we’re so surrendered when we were young – but that’s a choice…
I’ve come a long way in dealing with irresponsibility and take a lot more responsibility that I used to. Appreciating and surrendering to this fact is in fact the only way to Truly feel (FEEL) that I’m indeed a Son of God. Innately so.
“There is a Spirit that recklessly does what it wants and willfully makes choices that make no practical sense.” This is a very apt description of the human spirit, that makes choices that actually harm the human body. The only way some of these decisions make sense is when we realise that it is the spirit making these choices and that the spirit has absolutely no regard for the human body.
Lee I agree with what you say ‘The only way some of these decisions make sense is when we realise that it is the spirit making these choices and that the spirit has absolutely no regard for the human body’ and I would add that the soul rejoices when we honour the body.
You express so much simple wisdom in this blog that has helped me to re-frame surrender into all the lovely little details of each day of our lives. Thank-you Joseph.
Surrender has been a word I’ve had to become familiar with it’s true meaning. I had a bit of a game with myself resisting surrender because I was thinking it may mean ‘giving up’. I love what you share Joseph as it grounds a foundation for the feeling of true surrender: “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” This isn’t weakness or giving up this is true power and self-honouring.
I love this sentence too Sandra and has been a great reminder to me that God is always communicating to us. The more we surrender we can hear his call through the many magic of God moments that are offered to us throughout our day. Our job is to have a body that is open, receptive and ready to receive.
Joseph I love the clarity and simplicity you bring in your description between spirit and soul, also of surrender in any moment of the day.
That there is no ‘me’ at all but a choice of two types of energy coming through has taken me a while to accept – and is an ongoing process because, for so long, I’ve wanted to hang onto ‘me’. But in surrendering to the truth of me being a vessel through which energy passes through, I’m allowing myself the awareness that by trying to stand out and remain ‘me’ is like pouring acid through my veins; and the allowing of divinity to flow through is well, divine!
The teachings of Serge Benhayon on the Spirit and Soul make so much sense of the relentless struggle we seem to have going on inside, when we constantly sabotage ourselves in life, or just when we start feeling more alive and ourselves.
Surrender can happen on so many levels, but in the end I would say the body is the true marker for surrender. I find myself sometimes struggling to surrender in the body – I can feel the tension, sometimes so subtle and other times so acute, a tension in the upper front part of the shoulders. In my mind I can try to convince myself of all being ‘fine’ that I have accepted a situation or am fine with things around me, but the real marker, if you like, is for me the level of contentedness that I feel combined with that looseness in the shoulders. And the looseness in the face and jaw. But really it is about the whole body. This does not mean that everything must be as I ‘wanted’ or percieved it to be, but it has to do with my ability to allow things to be as they are and accept it and myself with it.
Until reading this I’d never fully clocked how the great dream is to escape responsibility – going on holiday to ‘escape it all’, winning the lottery so you never have to return to work. it’s awesome to start to observe this in life and to see how I can look at my relationship with responsibility is and start to appreciate how joy-full responsibility is because it actually is a part of me that is painful to ignore. And to bring this responsibility, to bring me to all I do is a much needed reflection to inspire others to re-evaluate their relationship with responsibility and not see it so negatively.
‘if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?’ What a great question. Who would want an impulse that came from anywhere else? So looking at the somewhere else, what that is and how it works is definitely worth it so we can more easily recognise what is actually going on and allow ourselves some informed conscious choices.
It is a huge concept to grasp (especially if this hasn’t been our experience) that there is a way of living that is consistent, loving, considerate and beholding of ourselves, without being perfect.
Awesome blog Joseph. What I am being reminded of today is surrender. -“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me ” When I do I feel the power of who I am and know that by my reflection in my livingness blessings happen around me.
The reunderstanding of the word surrender to be the allowing of expression of our true nature, is so very far from the common connotations of ‘giving up’ (‘I surrender’). How entirely opposite that common definition is, to the truth of the word used in this article’s context.
Great to open up our understanding of surrender and what it means to surrender. Our connection to our innermost and honouring what is being communicated, is an act of surrender
Great to open up our understanding of surrender and what it means to surrender. Our connection to our innermost, and honouring what is being communicated, being an act of surrender.
Thank you Joseph for a great blog, “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me ” I too have felt the impulse of the soul but at times I have ignored it, put it off, then going into my head feeling anxious and unsettled, but the times when I am surrended to my souls calling, that day has a gentle flow to it, time is expanded and a warmth fills my body.
I love how you bring it back to the body, Joseph, as the way to discern whether an impulse is from the spirit or the soul. Once we let go of the mental drives to ‘be something’ according to our ideals and beliefs, the relationship with our body opens up and can inform us to the subtlest degree as to whether our movements are in the natural flow of love from our soul or not.
‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.’ When I am being directed by Spirit there is always a drive and momentum to get whatever it is done whereas in following the impulse of the Soul I am truly surrendering and playing my part and there is a feeling of calm and completion and then I have the choice to surrender to whatever is next. This is so different to how I imagined surrender in the past which involved a giving up whereas I now see it as an aligning to what is needed and that I am an instrument in this and the more I get myself out of the way the more effective I can be.
This is such a beautiful explanation of the spirit and the soul…for many years of my life I would have dismissed your sharing as some ‘mumbo jumbo’ and would not have been able to get past the physical aspect of us. But now I can really see how our sprit and soul plays out through our human behaviour and what this looks and feels like. For me what you share makes complete sense.
Great blog Joseph, one I could have done with many years ago, especially on the day I remember saying out loud to no one in particular – why do I do such silly things, I’m not a bad person. It has certainly taken me a few years and the shared wisdom of Serge Benhayon to come to understand that it really wasn’t me, but my spirit having its “reckless“ and “willful” way with me, while my soul waited patiently for me to recognise its gentle voice and its presence – which I know now that I did every now and then – and to make the choice to re-connect to it.
Joseph, this is gorgeous, ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me. ‘Reading your article i can feel how that inner voice is always there and if I listen it guides me and always proves true, I can feel how my spirit likes to come into it and ignore my natural impulses and do or say what is familiar instead, if I ignore my inner voice this always then feels like hard work and like im battling against life.
The beauty of simply surrendering to who we are is the best gift we can give ourselves in life and we become one with the all . A beautiful blog offering so much wisdom.
The roar of the life, I had chosen for so many years left me deaf to the voice from within me. I also have from that with the teachings of Universal Medicine rediscovered the voice within me and have surrendered to it willing last a long lost best friend. As you have said, Joseph, the Spirit does not give up gracefully. It is like the old cartoon with the little devil sitting on your shoulder whispering things in your ear to temp you to become something it wants to be, other than a son of God. When we surrender we can feel what the energy is like when it tries to enter us and over time can spot it coming to allow us to avoid it fully. But it is always waiting in the wings for an opening to come it again.
“The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.” in a world where we try to work everything out from our heads this point you make about discernment from the body is key. And it ties in with the fact that we first have to surrender to all that we are, to being a son of God. The fact that this is the one thing that allows us to truly inspire another, and we avoid it shows how we avoid the responsibility but how simple the future can be when we do choose surrender over fight.
“As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.” Our current opinion on growing up is that we are free to do what we like, we are beholden to no-one but ourselves, if we want to eat chocolate for breakfast, lunch and dinner we can. It was not until meeting Universal Medicine did I truly understand that everything I do has a much wider ripple effect than I have been willing to admit or take responsibility for. Becoming an adult is all about responsibility and this is a very empowering realisation, because when we apply ourselves to supporting our selves, our family life and communities with equal love and care, life takes on a rich, vibrant quality that enriches our hearts and unites our wisdom. No amount of irresponsible behaviours can ever substitute the joy of true responsibility.
Although I am getting to understand that there is so much to surrender that is non physical I am also getting to feel that our physical bodies are key components. Our bodies reflect our emotional state, if we are resisting something, fighting something or basically in a non surrendered state then our bodies will reflect that. When I connect to my body and feel the tension in it, I am finding that I don’t need to go into my mind and find out why, I can simply work with my body to release the hardness and that supports me to become more surrendered.
‘When I feel to walk with joy and fun and flaunt it shamelessly, this is surrender’, Joseph, I just love that line.
It is exhausting fighting the soul and the surrender. And it is equally exhausting living in push, drive and force as per the spirit. All we are fighting though is our return to our naturally divine state. You would think that we would embrace it rather than turn away!
‘…it became clear that these impulses were just there waiting for me to heed.’
This is important too. It is apparent both from reading your report here Joseph and my own experience that the soul is never far away and that we can in fact tune into it in any given moment. We don’t have to wait or be given permission to ‘dial in’. We just need to accept what is there ready and waiting for us and, as you say, surrender.
‘…if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?’
Great question. When I feel my soul, I feel it’s impulses comes from a source I can trust. When I consider my spirit, it doesn’t feel that way – it feels comparatively hollow if not deceptive. So from this I could say the source of each is different and that one is natural to me and the other not. The natural part I feel is connected to God… and the other is not. The ‘not’ source is what I would call an anti-evolutionary force, ever ready to lead me astray and throw me off track. I’d rather tune into the divine source than the one which is not!
‘So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do?’
Wow, yes – how many times have we been faced with that ‘moment of truth’ and turned our backs on it because we wanted to stay in the comfort of whatever it was we were doing or thought we wanted to do instead? Avoided responsibility and went into delay? When the soul points the way we should go there. Actually, it now feels horrible not to do so.
If there is just two energies to choose from and there is no me, the world would look so different. There wouldn’t be “mine” either. No “my child” – no “my idea” – no “he/she did this to me”… The awareness of this would instigate a true shift in societies.
Love it – and thanks for pointing out that ‘surrender’ is not a floppy and suspended state of inertia but a vey actively engaged with our Soul movement from moment to moment, if I so choose.
Surrender is such an important word to define as just like many words in our language it’s definition can vary greatly from person to person depending on our perceptions from what we have heard and felt that word means. As you share it is far for that just how we live but rather the quality that way of life comes from.
“The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.” Yes Joseph so beautifully expressed for it is the greatest gift we have and that is the discernment of life from our bodies constant conversations. An ever present reminder that we have the true power to change the way we live from duress and stress to harmony and joy. Simplicity is the key to our soul’s beautiful calls.
“But the Spirit does not like to give up its throne without a fight…” love the analogy you use Joseph about how the spirit creates a whole lot of ‘things’ to divert and detract away from it being the causation of its (our) own pain and grief by remaining on the throne, in the illusion that it has the top seat, when in fact rather like the Emperors’s New Clothes [fable] we see there is nothing there… nothing there but to surrender to fact of the naked truth – of the Soul, no finery required.
Our spirits remind me of that fake so called friend that just as you are starting to question if you really should do something, they pipe up and encourage and support you to the hilt to say yes – go for it, you’ll be right (with a thousand different excuses or reasons why) – and they don’t care if you sink or swim in the process. On the other hand our soul is that patient, ever loving unconditional friend that’s always there, checking in, making that phone call to say hi and honestly and genuinely forever supporting never wiping their hands of us. When looking at it like this, it is crazy that we don’t cut the ties to the detrimental friendship and listen into the soulful one. I know which one I spend way to much time hanging out with.
It is so helpful to have the distinction between Spirit and Soul set out so clearly for all to see. I remember distinctly feeling the difference between the two, especially when I first came down to Sydney by myself as 16 year old to go to the Conservatorium of Music. I was seduced by the glamour of the big city, the jazz cellars, concerts, clothes, food, shops, book shops, and i was aware of reckless ‘me’ as well as the deep timeless still me. I would waver between the two and wonder who I was! So all the time I knew, but it was only when meeting Serge Benhayon that this distinction between the two fully came to my awareness and was a ‘known’ choice. Even today I will still go reckless and throw all truth to the winds, and jump back into that old groove of justification – everyone does it, it won’t kill me. But Oh it will kill me . . . as we have so clearly seen. Even the WHO (World Health Organisation) has powerful stats on the damaging and fatal effects of our lifestyle upon us.
This is a great description of how to discern between the Soul and the Spirit – and a much-needed one: ‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body. Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive. This is so different to the even and consistent way the Soul tends to be. When I live this way, and do what is true, I get a lovely warm feeling in my body’. Just very simple and beautiful. There is nothing in this world that can be a substitute for that true warmth of the Soul’s light or energy in the body. It heals all need, all forceful striving, all fretting, all longing. We simply have to step out of the river of relentless drive and into the harmonious flow of the stream of Soul.
Love what you have written here Joseph. Even though what you have written is something I am familiar with, hearing it all again written in your unique approach really refreshes that wisdom in me and the movement that I will then choose. I have had a couple of food lapses lately, then yesterday I made some kale, fennel and prawn soup. I just heated it up this morning to eat and I could feel the warm-bodied support that it was bringing me and how different this choice was than stuffing myself with something I knew was not quite right two days ago. The difference between the Soul and the Spirit is very clear. Thank you for this wonderful blog!
Thank you for sharing this Joseph. This has shown the truth of responsibility and the more we explore the various levels of responsibility we have the greater this awareness is. We are not only responsible for the functioning of our life, mortgage, cars, bills etc. but also the impact we have on all those around us and what we are putting out to the world. The question about responsibility is then, what are we putting out to the world and where is the impulse for what we put out coming from? That is, are we impulsed by our soul or spirit?
I love your commentary on what surrender encompasses Joseph, I hadn’t thought about it like that before… still having it restricted to a certain physically surrendered state as you described also.
“true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.” – I love this line, it reminds me to watch out for those thoughts and beliefs that want me to surrender by doing a session, getting support, participating in a yoga class, when in truth, as you point out so well Joseph, surrender is my our responsibility to be feeling all that I can in each moment. Being open to the communication of the soul.
It’s true Joseph, with a bit of honesty, we can acknowledge we are far more aware of our choices and the irresponsibility we choose in making them that we would ever want to admit… yet therein begins the path to the joy of true responsibility and true deep self-empowerment which we have been denying ourselves for so long.
Our lives would be so very different if we lived surrendered to our soul in every moment of every day. It simply comes down to choice, and how much we are willing to be aware of the choices we are being consistently and constantly offered.
What if every moment was simply a point at which you just surrender? What if all we need do in any situation that is before us is surrender and feel what is next? More and more this is becoming a reality and as this becomes a ‘normal’ part of life, life is changing. It has been said we have all the answers inside of us and all we need do is let them out and for me surrender is the key to these ‘answers’.
Spot on Ray… how simple does that make it… and therefore how true!
Love it Joseph – and this sentence is GOLD: “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” – and I love how you have spelled out that surrender does not have to happen on a yoga mat when you are lying down and not moving. Surrender is all about aligning to the soul and how we then are with all that we do and live. Of course in the beginning to help us connect to and listen more to the wise voice inside us, the lying still on a yoga mat helps, but we can’t leave it at that and can’t leave it there, as there is more surrendering to ‘get done’…Thank you Joseph!
Surrendering to our Soul comes with no effort. It is an extension of a natural Divine flow that is moved by the harmonious rhythm of the order of our Universe, beautifully reflecting the quality of the Oneness of our Love. A Divine hum through which we live with the power we were born to live. Effort comes when we resist this and it therefore a sure sign of what we then are instead surrendering to.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” You have captured the essence of surrender here. We are forever in a state of communion with ourselves.
As adults we can still throw tantrums we just tend to be less honest about it!
The spirit seeks to distract us in any way to ensure that it can continue to run its course through our ignorance of how we are feeling in our bodies. The antidote for this is honesty, which will always lead us to what is true. This truth is always reflected in our bodies whether we choose to listen or not.
Your description of surrender, how it is real, practical and in every moment is masterful. Surrender in the way you describes insists we know that God is there, that there is something greater than us offering a true way of living.
A gorgeous expose on the difference between the Soul and spirit and how we have the choice in which we surrender to and are to be impulsed by. Through what you have shared it is clear how invaluable the connection to our bodies are. As without the awareness of how we feel in our bodies (which is what serves the spirits agenda) we are then at the mercy of our spirit’s drive for ‘self-gratification at any cost’, which has us acting and moving in ways that does not support our well-being or honor in any way who we are or the communication that we constantly receive from our Soul. And constant it is, as is the choice offered in every moment to whether we surrender to the call of our Soul or not.
“So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?” That is so amazingly simple, what a great way for us to live our lives, constantly connecting to this knowing. So why do I constantly let myself be distracted from this simple loving way of life? It is time for me to cut the connection to my Spirit, it makes my life so much more complicated than it ever need to be.
Hello Joseph and this has always been a ‘thing’ for me growing up, “Have you seen how they ignore and defy and do exactly the opposite of what their parent said?” I watch children around now also do the same thing. We can say that it is their choice not to listen which would be true but equally it is our choice in the quality of what we say that’s also important.
Joseph, I love your examples of what Surrender is, it seems that to truly surrender can be lots of fun and a very loving life for both oneself and for all others that we are in contact with. “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me” is such an apt and concise description of Surrender, I love it. How crazy we are that we so complicate our lives, by letting ourselves be distracted by that destructive Spirit, rather than listening to the messages and impulses from our Soul. Simplicity is key, and we do make our lives so much harder than they can be.
‘ What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’ Joseph this is a gorgeous blog about an amazing choice we have in every moment…. surrender or fight, align or separate, connect with the soul or disconnect with the spirit. What will we choose?
After reading your blog Joseph, I was reflecting on the difference between the impulses from my spirit and my soul. It reminds me of the cartoon with an angel in one ear and the devil in the other.
Like you Joseph, I feel very much that there are two sides to myself, a reckless spirit that cares not for myself or others, and an ever loving soul that loves me along with all others equally.
Every minute of the day we are choosing one or the other whether we realize it or not. It really pays to be honest about the distinction between them.
Something that I find most revealing about the spirit in my body is how, when I am letting it make all the decisions I cannot or find it very difficult, to stop, and feel the quality of my body again. Usually I just keep on going, pushing and driving until something drastic makes me stop, and then I feel very humble because I realise that again, I have been moving away from the soul.
Love your definition of surrender – that it’s any moment we listen to and honour in full the communication that is available from within ourselves and that it lives available inside every moment of our life.
The formula to understanding all seeming mysteries or conundrums of life are found in understanding the difference between spirit and Soul. So that should be our first and foremost endeavour – knowing thyself.
We know what is true and what is not because our Soul never leaves us, always providing a sense of harmony, love and truth. The moments we are not connected to this truth simply means we have numbed our awareness, nevertheless the knowing is sustained and never leaves us. Numbed we are when we choose the spirit to impulse us, but this can only be temporary. Finally we always come back to who we truly are.
It makes perfect sense that we are so tired as it requires huge amount of energy to go against the natural flow of the soul. Is it any surprise that there is an exhaustion epidemic around the world, not really when you see the scale of lovelessness that is being lived that is the opposite to our natural nature.
I am closer than ever before to surrendering and in that I create the most enormous struggle as my spirit does not want to relinquish its existence, fair enough it’s run the show for a very long time but it is in the final acts and a new play is about to begin with a new director in charge.
It is true that when we are coming from our soul there is a lovely warmth in the body.
‘Surrender’ is something very fascinating to explore. What is it that we surrender and leave behind while moving forward and what are we surrendering to? The spirit surrenders what is not of our true making and keeps us from fully uniting with Soul again.
Before we understand where our impulses come from and the difference in intention and quality, we are actually lost to the arbitrariness of whatever happens in the next moment – the next thought, mood, movement, reaction etc. How can we know ourselves – and that is our true self – and not just the fickle version that more or less stumbles through life, when we cannot differentiate the two sources, spirit or Soul, who make us who we are? So well done Joseph in presenting with simplicity how spirit and Soul express through us.
“Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive.”
I can really relate to this and am realising how much my spirit is running me even when perhaps I think that it is not! Such wise words for me to ponder today.
Awesome you stopped and listened to what your soul was impulsing you to write this blog Joseph, very powerful and needed wake-up call. I have felt how both spirit and soul feel in my body and how they run it… and for the spirit this is spot on – “It will often use ‘loving things’, seemingly important jobs or tasks, to sabotage and distract from what is true to do.” This jumped out at me, as I can assume something is ‘loving’ but is most definitely not, and just a pure distraction away from what my soul was impulsing me to do. Like when my body is speaking very clearly that it is time for bed but then I ‘think’ that I will just do this job to be more prepared in the morning (it’s very convincing)… yet it then changes how I go to bed and how I sleep thereafter.
Our lives would be totally different if we were to constantly follow the inner-impulses of our soul. Our soul considers the whole, from a wisdom far greater than any knowledge or intellect we can learn in any education system. Following our soul comes with a trust and even a knowing that every choice is for the love and evolution of the all, of every single person and our planet. Knowing this how can we live any other way, which is only for the betterment of the ‘I’.
The issue for me is that if these messages are all there for me, if I live through impulse and inspiration, then where does that leave ME??!! It’s amazing to observe the fight that I put up to justify all the investments. Crazy. Let go, Let God.
What you say about impulses is so true. If our senses are fully open to the messages, every single step and movement is guided for us. I am only beginning to really see this. It’s amazing. Our Inbox is getting a continuous stream of messages!
I have been playing with the idea of surrender as well; what if I surrendered to the fact that my body already knows everything I need to know, I mean truly surrendered, stop the self doubt and drama and the struggle, how different would my life be?
The spirit has tantrums, and wants its own way consistently. It’s willing to lie, fight, attack, rebel, destroy, manipulate, cower; do whatever it takes to avoid the thing it actually wants and hates at the same time – the ultimate surrender to soul.
It’s a great point Joseph that ‘right’ is not true…. and no matter how many excuses, justifications or reasons we can come up with about what is right – we are resisting the truth that is available in that moment.
Love your description of how you discern the difference between Spirit and Soul. “Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive. This is so different to the even and consistent way the Soul tends to be. When I live this way, and do what is true, I get a lovely warm feeling in my body.” It makes so much sense!
Serge Benhayon and his family live in such a way that totally reflects the truth of the Soul communicating and being aligned to. Simplicity instead of complication. Life being true rather than striving for ‘better’.
“So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?”
The willingness to surrender is there and yet there are countless times that the arrogance of the spirit comes up and ‘digs its heels in’ in not wanting this to occur. I am seeing now that if complication has arisen, I have chosen to let my spirit be at the helm again!
“When I live this way, and do what is true, I get a lovely warm feeling in my body.” And when we live this way, others get to share and be inspired by that warmth.
Joseph this article is absolute gold! You can feel the care, the connection and lightness in what you have written. When you share about the feeling the difference between an impulse from the soul and from the spirit by the quality felt in your body, it made so much sense.
Thank you Joseph, surrender now makes so much sense!!
“The more I followed these impulses, the more my life and body started to feel clear.” – so true Joseph, when we follow our true impulses, life becomes incredibly simple, rich and full.
A very inspiring blog.
Gave me a new understanding towards understanding surrendering.
A great sharing Joseph! I can understand that we need to choose the energy that we prefer to run our bodies. For me I choose the soul, but what happens at times is that the spirit is strong and I have allowed it to take over again until I read (something like your Blog) or something else that may try to sabotage, and exhaustion sets in. To surrender to my Soul and therefore God there is only joy and Love.
Beautiful article Joseph, thank you. I love how you have brought it back to the simplicity of our choice of two energies and I really relate to description of how Soul and Spirit feel in relation to your body. For me there is such a push, a hardness and a drive forward when I allow my Spirit to dominate and there is an ease, an allowing and a flow with Soul.
Thank you for sharing your understanding of the soul and the spirit Joseph. When I first had this understanding shared with me it changed the way I saw life and everything started to make much more sense. The spirit and soul aspects of life provide an amazing insight into human behaviour.
When we bring it back to this simplicity, as you’ve shared here Joseph, and we then let ourselves experience what it feels like to be loving with our bodies and feel our inner natural fire, it’s then a matter of making daily choices to rekindle this way of living, that is choosing fire every day. Now, when I feel annoyed, jagged edges around me and in me, I know I’ve taken something on that isn’t me. I know I’m choosing a different energy in that moment, and not love. In that awareness I then can make the choice to call it out for what it is, and my body realigns back to its natural way – which is fire.
Thank you Joseph… I love how you’ve brought it back to the simple absolute truth. Underneath all dilemmas, complications and all the suggesting and pain that we experience in life, it comes down to the energy we let run in our bodies at any given moment.
Joseph, I love your words ‘So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’ I often feel my Soul guiding me through life, and then for some reason I fight it, I don’t want to hear its loving way. It takes a huge amount of energy to go against the love and light it offers and I am exhausted by my own turmoil inside as I try to turn off its light.
Serge Benhayon’s presentation on the difference of spirit and soul is huge – it has totally changed my life for the better because it gives the power back by giving you the awareness – you then have the choice of what you want to do with it once you know.
I experience many levels of surrender. The main criteria seems to be how separate I am from others and from the world. True surrender seems to be when I don’t feel separate at all.
There is a huge gap between what life offers us and what we register it is offering us. Our normalised interpretations of what can life indeed offer us, based on boxed realities, is not really it. In an essential sense, life offers the everything to everyone
The Spirit does not have an easy relationship with responsibility since it wants to avoid by all means being seeing as responsible for this world of ours, fact that cannot be denied if one really goes for it.
This is HUGE. Bigger than big. IT IS GOLD. We cannot value this distinction between spirit and soul enough. It is so super important as a race we learn this fundamental key to life. I once thought it was crazy and that there was no difference at all, but the more I come to realise who I am and what it truly means to live from Soul instead of spirit the more I realise that the very fact of where humanity is truly at with regard to the true state of well-being and how sick we really are as a race is all because we are choosing to live far more from spirit than from Soul.
What a clear piece of writing on the difference between Spirit and Soul and the impulses that drive our every choice – thank you Joseph – especially how each type makes you feel in your body – it shows us the importance of paying attention to what we feel.
You have explained surrender so simply, Joseph and I now have a greater understanding of it and how I sometimes sabotage the process of surrendering. When I follow the impulses of my soul I will naturally surrender- so simple but so profound.
I just love this clear and simple explanation of the difference between the Spirt and Soul, and actually discerning the difference by the quality of energy/feeling in ones body….. thank you Joseph.
Joseph I really like the examples you give of surrender. That word has many connotations, and the one I associated it with is giving in, or surrendering in a battle. I can see that the way you use the word is about, being in a rhythm that is natural to us. My favourite example you gave was this one – ‘When I share what I am feeling is there to be said, without expectation, this is surrender.’ One that I’m working on at the moment.
Our spirit loves to think that we have the right to be free and do what we want, and that is freedom, whereas the Soul in all it’s wisdom, when we are impulsed from it, informs us that true freedom is in the mastery of the choices we make to take full responsibility for every thought, action and expression.
Wow Joseph thank you for this blog, sometimes we read a blog and it brings a truth so clearly no longer can it be ignored. Surrender is love and the overriding of the feeling to surrender never feels like love it often feels racy or driven. Thank you for your clarity.
‘So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do?’ – The ‘not right now’ is reckognisable… the way you have laid it out is brilliant, as there is zero judgment, just an offering to feel what the consequence might be.
For me, learning the difference between spirit and soul was a huge turning point in my life and it was a bit of an ouch realising that I had spent all my life allowing something that was not the true me, to control me. It is never too late though, and once realised, and the awareness is there, steps can be taken to say no to the what is not, and surrender to the what is, which is to embody our soul and bring heaven to earth.
‘As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.’ – Love how you have nailed the spirit’s game Joseph, to avoid responsibility.
The difference between Spirit and Soul was not one I understood, let alone could feel, before I’d heard Serge Benhayon present on this. Such are the relatability of these presentations that it is not knowledge but an understanding and feeling from within my body, of the different forms of energy.
In a world of energy it is crazy yet very deliberate that the vast majority of earths inhabitance are unaware of the fact that we are vessels of energy. If we do not connect to this fact and the fact there are two energies we can choose from by way of our movements, then we don’t have to be accountable for our actions. The power is in knowing which energy is which and choosing to live in a way that is true to the innate quality of Soulful energy we are all from.
Oh yes, I know that rebellious teenage pursuit to do what I want when I want. It still gets me at times, in the supermarket of all places – I can buy whatever I want in here and no one will stop me.. and I don’t have to ask permission. Well, it’s a bit of an illusion, because my body still has to deal with the effects of whatever I choose to buy, so really, I’m not getting away with anything! Great example of the spirit energy aspect, trying to get away with something.
We don’t need a parent or supervisor to feel the responsibility we have in life which is proven by the fact that even if we move out of home, work for ourselves or on a holiday, we always feel that sense of what is true and needed to do in our lives. The responsibility we feel is ultimately to be the Son of God we are and express from our Soul in that.
This blog has supported me to feel more deeply the quality and simplicity of surrendering. Thank you Joseph.
‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’ And so with surrendering comes responsibility – they walk side by side and hand in hand – when we are surrendering, we are being responsible.
I know so well that feeling of ‘rush’ that you describe when we are making a decision from the spirit. It is a very strong force that can take over if we allow it. It does not care for anything else accept to get what it wants. It’s like a stampede that can wreck anything in its path. It can feel thrilling at the time, and we can ride on this feeling for quite a while, but ultimately this momentum has to stop at some point and we are left with the aftermath and the possible devastation of our choice to run with it.
I love the words ‘the soul’s living way’. If we surrender to the soul’s impulses and messages we can live the soul’s way and bring our divinity into our everyday.
It is very important to know that spirit and Soul are not one and the same, in fact, they are completely different. Our behaviors impulsed from Soul are healing and everything else is not.
When we come across children, adults or ourselves getting into tantrums and rushing with intensity, we have to call that out as the spirit being wayward and recognize these behaviors as not soul-full. It hurts to see these behaviors in others as well as in ourselves, and these behaviors hurt everyone, but calling them out we do not have to take them on, and we always have a choice to choose Soul again.
We are very good at getting ourselves distracted when surrender is at bay. So first of all we have to come back to our own stillness for surrender to happen.
The feelings that keep coming are for us to simply express, as you have said Joseph, without expectation. Sometimes surrender feels difficult, as we have already built a momentum of having our own way. And the true confirmation of surrender is in the body, a feeling that is irrefutably lovely.
‘…if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?’ – This is a great question Joseph. Something well worth pondering.
“It will often use ‘loving things’, seemingly important jobs or tasks, to sabotage and distract from what is true to do. So it can seem like it is good and ticking boxes in life, but ultimately it’s still the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices.” This is so true and so insidious Joseph how we allow the Spirit to take over and distract us from what is true……I have experienced this and it is only when I recognised and accepted that things were not flowing and nothing was really working and that it was me trying to make them work that I stopped and looked at what was really going on. The name of the game for the Spirit is to keep us away from our Soul and it knows all the tricks in the book to make sure we play along with it.
To surrender has some negative connotations in our common belief systems but to surrender to the way of the Soul feels very different. It is a surrender to a way that is unified with all others, aligned with the biggest picture of all – not a giving up of power but an embracing of true power. Part of this is I feel sure, the letting go of ideas of self-interest and self-promotion and trusting that Soul-full sense of being that we all know in our hearts. When I have connected to and worked with this sense of being, it has certainly been an amazing experience and had unforeseen benefits for me and for others. To surrender ever more to this loving guidance feels truly wise.
Thank you, Joseph. It is very powerful and incredibly simple to see life as moment to moment impulses, which come from the spirit or the soul. I love how you have broken it down like this, so really there are no excuses and we cannot avoid the responsibility of making the choice to love with every breath, and not falling for the illusion that we are victims of circumstance.
‘If this was the case, and it is, then doesn’t that explain how awfully tired so many of us are? For we have to work pretty hard to override and ignore these natural impulses in life.’ This exactly describes the feeling we get of trying to walk the wrong way in a wind tunnel – exhausting!
We are fed so much information about what a spiritual life is like, but I had never heard about connecting to soul and the clear difference between the two before Universal Medicine entered my life. Now when I make choices I can actually discern more clearly each day when I am choosing to make a complicated, self centered, comfortable choice and when I am acting from my soul and making life simple and getting tasks done. This understanding makes everyday chores much more appealing as I know the importance of creating order in my day and how I live is about choosing energetically how much I commit to life and purpose.
When we are in emotional turmoil we think this is the only way to live life and that is how life is…it seems that surrendering is the only way to cut the emotion and spin we like to create. When we do this life takes on a whole other perspective. Looking at life through soul and spirit’s eyes is like the difference between land and the ocean.
So, even the me that thinks it is me is something that is being fed from my Spirit and is not me at all. I have to say, that when I have felt the alignment to the Soul there is no less sense of being who I am – in fact I would say that there is a far greater sense of beingness. The Spirit feels familiar – but that does not make it either true or all that I am.
‘There is a Spirit that recklessly does what it wants and willfully makes choices that does not make any practical sense.’
This is true, Joseph, the spirit hides behind so called intelligence and intellectually but its choices do not make sense and mostly are overriding the body.
There is this feeling about responsibility being a burden. That is why we love to throw tantrums on it. There is hardly beauty associated with it. But this is not true.
Joseph what a great way of sharing about surrender and what this means. As you say “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” your post is providing me another way at reflecting on my relationship with myself.
Joseph, this article is so clear and simple, this is super helpful, ‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body. Whatever the Spirit does, however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive.’ I can really feel this difference – when there is a rush this feels awful in my body, it is tiring and achy doing things in this way and when I’m calm and steady I feel great and enjoy whatever it is I am doing, so I’m either with my spirit or with my soul – love the clarity you have bought here.
Surrender is being me and honouring the connection to my body, to the best of my ability, without trying to live up to a set of ideals and expectations from outside. I’m still working on this…
The relationship we establish with responsibility, by and large, is subsidiary of the ecstasy of feeling that in our life we are in control (a pure illusion).
What an exquisite explanation of the difference between Spirit and Soul. And it is in the surrender to honesty that we get to be aware of the Soul’s impulses again.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” And hence you have re-established the correct meaning of ‘Surrender’ Joseph, the willingness to listen to and respond to the impulse of the Soul. We are never taught this, in fact the common understanding of the word is to ‘Give Up’ or ‘Give In’, but true surrender means communicating with and expressing the Will of Heaven, which does not mean being good or nice, but living Truth, expressing our Sacredness, embracing true Brotherhood. There is so much more to learn about who we truly are and the most accurate education on this subject is Universal Medicine, presented by Serge Benhayon, a man who is forever deepening his connection, awareness and surrender to his Soul and hence to God.
Surrendering to what we know in every particle of our body to be true is the biggest fight.
It is with the greatest joy I am learning to live the ‘Soul’s living way’. It brings true purpose, assuredness, openness and above all love to life.
The changes in our world when we realise and learn that our sprit is running our mind and is far away disconnected to our body to God and the Universe and who we truly are . Connecting to our soul and living this connection is truly embodying unifying and beautiful and allows our divineness to be lived with clarity simplicity and true joy.
“What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?” What huge support. Whereas the Spirit is constantly trying to keep us away from a loving life, with the idea that there is always something more important – A complete lie that gets exposed when we get to know ourselves and what feels truly loving.
Freedom of choice is a double edged sword, whilst we have the freedom to choose the quality of our every breath, we also have to accept the consequences of our choices in full, which is asking us to take responsibility for the way we are living. There is a saying that ‘ignorance is bliss’ ….. which I can relate to in the sense that it allows us to avoid taking any responsibility. However, we can’t in truth be ignorant as deep down, we all do know the truth, of everything. Maybe the saying could be ‘avoidance is bliss’. With the understanding of what it is we are actually choosing in each moment, ie which energy we are allowing to flow through our bodies, to see it this simply, we are either choosing to be with ourselves and humanity in brotherhood, or to separate and be on our own, serving our own interests.
I love how you mention the exhaustion we feel from ‘fighting’ our natural way of being, just writing these words, I’m feeling how very simple it seems for us to surrender and allow the loving impulses from our soul to guide us, always. However, it’s also worth considering that there is a lot of momentum for us to work through from having lived against our natural way of being and, in truth, so much in life has been manipulated to lure us away from our soulful way of being, to become individualistic. As always, it’s not about perfection, rather allowing a deepening of our awareness and being better equipped to discern what energy we are in at any moment in time. In the same way we may recognise we’ve made an ‘unloving’ choice, it’s not about chastising ourselves, rather appreciating that we always have the choice to choose differently.
One of the most valuable things that I have learned about life through studying with Universal Medicine is the difference between spirit and soul and that we are run by one or the other, never both. It brings so much understanding to myself, my life and others.
Learning about energy and seeing that every thought either comes from our spirit or our soul has been an absolute game changer for me. I can either choose to be individual (via aligning to my spirit) or choose to live universal (aligning to my soul).
The more awareness I allow, the more discerning I’ve become as to which energy I am allowing to flow through my body. There is a gorgeous spaciousness when I’m in connection with my soul, no rush, rather a surrender, allowing events to unfold and a joy from being a part of so much more than me.
Wow, what a totally awesome blog, Joseph, thank you ….
I completely relate to your example of the difference between being in the energy from the spirit versus the soul. I can feel for myself the raciness in my body when I am being impulsed from my spirit …. usually to eat something that I know does not support me in any way. It’s as though there is an urgency to carry out the impulse as quickly as possible before ‘being found out’, before being exposed for the sabotaging energy that it is. When I put up feeble protests, there is a sickly sweet, cajoling energy encouraging me to go ahead, soothing me to just have a tiny bit …. but, of course, I’m already so in the momentum of carrying out the impulse, I’m already lost.
Thank you Joseph for writing this inspirational blog impulsed from Soul. What is brought through Soul is impulsed from heaven and with that we express heaven on earth. That for our body is effortless while when we express from the spirit we are exhausting our bodies instead.
Joseph this article is truly beautiful. Thank you for honoring the impulse you received from your soul as this message that you received is for us all.
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” this is a great question Joseph. One I will experiment on for the rest of my life.
The spirit would say the life of the soul is boring, and I know that is what I said many times to myself in the past, ever-seeking excitement. But the thing is, where does that excitement end? Does it not need to keep escalating to keep its hyped momentum alive? Now I am embracing the life of the soul, I have never been more content. The spirit’s treadmill is exhausting, to say the least and, ultimately, hollow.
Speaking of arresting, does not the spirit explain so much of what occurs in our world, from the drive to climb Mt Everest or sail alone around the world to the irresponsibilities that land people in jail or in an accident, quite literally arrested from doing further harm?
‘As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.’
We are all familiar with great tantrums – in children and in adults. And we can all recognise the adult who refuses to grow up. With the spirit revealed here as the architect of such tantrums and avoidances, it all makes sense. The spirit hates accountability and wants to be free to do as it pleases, including manipulating the human frame, mind and emotions to do its bidding. The dominance of the spirit is defiinitely worth arresting.
Beautiful blog Joseph, beautiful just like you are. Another way I have found to identify the spirit is to note if there is anything childish or immature that I am considering doing or thinking about and that is if the thought or deed is irresponsibly, indulgent or disregarding in any way
Beautiful blog Joseph. You so clearly delineate the difference between spirit and soul and how it is to live aligned to one or the other. Having lived in a great deal of spirit for most of my life – and the unceasing anxiousness that comes with going against our natural grain – I too am loving the even-handed consistency of an ever-increasingly soul-full life.
“….for if this impulse doesn’t come from my Soul, is it really me at all?” – what a great question Joseph to just stop and think about this… and what ‘me’ actually is , i.e. that when what i do, how i operate it’s not from soul, then it’s not me.. and then look back on my day to consider how many times i have been me, or not. For ‘not being us’ to be the root of exhaustion makes complete sense, because in ‘trying to be’ a move or pull away from the original is created from the trying, to undoubtedly exhaust. No wonder we have a worldwide epidemic of exhaustion and depression that’s only increasing the more and more life is lived away from true self; the light of the Soul.
Super post Joseph. Very thoughtful and insightful confirmation of the way life truly is. Your words, “The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit”, yes, the deeper life is lived in connection, the greater the awareness of this very fact… at first a few years ago when i came across this truth, I found it hard to distinguish because of the force and years of living the spirit’s way over soul’s…though patience is a great quality that reveals the beauty of soul.
Brilliant blog Joseph, it makes so much sense because often I feel this internal battle going on inside. The battle is present and continues when I resist listening to my body and my soul’s constant messages. Your blog explains the difference between spirit and soul so clearly. So, by listening and honouring our body is a loving way to connect to our soul. Also you are beautifully reminding us that we have a constant choice to choose to be run by our spirit or our soul. Everything expressed through our soul is healing, all-encompassing and supports us to evolve. Whereas our spirit is fighting evolution and creates delays towards our return to love and to God. From understanding what you’ve shared Joseph, I have come to understand life and human behaviours without judgement, resentment or sadness, but with clarity and truth of what is actually going on. It is deeply freeing and empowering to know we are responsible for what we choose, our soul or our spirit.
I have just finished an intense week of full-time work after being part-time for a couple of months. I enjoyed it, but now, Saturday morning, have a cold. I’m aware that the busy-ness and achievements of the week had masked the fact that I was not paying attention to my body. Clearly I was choosing the energy of spirit to get me through and enjoying the ‘success’ that came with it without consideration to the impulse of soul.
This is one of the best descriptions of Spirit and Soul I have ever read. Thank you for putting pen to paper and sharing that with us all. I can 100% vouch for what you have shared as that has been my learnings over the past 5 years. The Spirit has ruled the roost for so many year and you are right, it does not like being dethroned. Learning to live from my Soul has been incredibly game-changing and my life is the lightest and loveliest it has been in years. I still chuck the metaphoric smarties on the floor but fortunately those moments are becoming less. Awesome sharing Joseph.
The spirit can love the identification of the drive and push and also be equally identified while lying on the banana lounge. The spirit has many wily ways that can take us away from our true unified purpose.
Beautiful Joseph. Lately I have been playful with this theory to help bring myself back to soul. I have been saying yes to what the impulse is, then getting a beautiful confirmation in my body when I follow it. The more I confirm this true impulse the more the want to follow it.
When the soul is impulsing us our every choice and movement encompasses us all, by nature it is co-creative. Quite the opposite is the case when the spirit is in the drivers seat and it is all about our own creation.
“So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do?” I can plead guilty to sometimes doing this, Joseph, and I admit, my spirit can offer something that at that point can feel more important, and I can let myself be distracted. But as you say, that being that is making that choice is not truly ME. How awful that feels as I type it. The true me is quite awesome, I know and feel that. I want to be the true me all the time. My choices need to be more absolutely consistent. No more time wasting, no more distractions.
The soul is lovingly impulsing us all of the time, calling us back to our oneness and often this is not be to the spirit’s liking who wants to do things on its terms. I like your reference to the soul being like the loving parent. “It’s wise, and is patient most of all. It’s simple and straightforward, kind and gentle, but firm, strong and direct”.
A beautiful sharing, Joseph, I love how you describe the fact that we have two different impulses running us every day of our lives. It was a huge change in my understanding of life when I learned that and for me brought up the huge responsibility we have in making our day to day choices in how we are going to live. Your statement, “So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?”, at first sight seems to simple, of course, I want to choose my Soul. But that pernickety Spirit so often gets in the way, it can be so seductive, so distractive, I can be feeling so great, but something is put in my way, can pull me down, and I have lost that great feeling. But then, I let it do that. It was my choice. Back to responsibility for me, I want to feel that loving warm feeling again.
Since I was small, I just couldn’t wait to leave home and be free and do whatever I liked. For me, living away from home, living abroad, traveling meant I was freer; not being in a 9-5 job meant I was freer. And because it never was quite what I wanted it to be, I kept moving and changing jobs. It was through Universal Medicine presentations and therapies that I came to realise that I was actually binding myself to some ideals and beliefs and that identification was actually weighing me down, and the ‘freedom’ I thought I would relish was never to be found in that way. Pretty quickly, I was able to let that all go. Understanding the difference between the spirit and the Soul supported me very much in this process.
This has something that has really once again been highlighted to me today .. who is driving our vehicle (body) the spirit ‘the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices.’; that also likes to make everything about the ‘me’ and walk away from true purpose and the Divine plan or the Soul that makes it about the All. Everyone and everything. I tangibly felt today the latter feels so lovely, expansive and so simple. You are right going against our true nature is exhausting!
The simplicity you’ve offered Joseph in understanding the difference from the body between the spirit and the Soul is spot on… and something I would add to that also is that the spirits impulses have not only a drive and push that accompanies them, but also a momentum that makes it feel hard to stop, to pull yourself up, a bit like going against the tide. The Soul’s impulses feel as though you are in the flow of life, effortless and never feel as though they need to be halted in any way.
A brilliant reminder, Joseph – there are two types of energies running through us and we surrender to either. It used to confuse me a lot, and it still does sometimes which one of them that I was/am aligning to. I too find Sacred Esoteric Healing and Esoteric Yoga to be great support in building trust and a marker in my body to discern between the two.
The whole world needs to be reminded about the difference between spirit and soul, the ills that currently plague us would cease to exist.
And I realise what you’ve shared… that ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me’, also further illustrates the level of control we exert in any given moment to NOT listen to the deeper and less obvious feelings we might have. This is a beautiful understanding to have of what surrender is in action…
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Words to take into my every moment of this day.
I like how you say surrender lives in every moment of life, it is not something to do or to reach but the willingness to express in accordance with God.
This reminds me of a recent conversation with a close family member who was remarking on the ability to override the body’s signals that it was in extreme distress and push on (to finish a half marathon in this case) despite collapsing, becoming unconscious for some time and waking to behave irrationally and incoherently with those around her. She was left with the sense that she had no control over all this, and was marveling at how effectively the bodies signals that it was approaching this extreme state of distress were able to be ignored. Your blog explains exactly how this can be happening thank you.
When we choose to re-connect to the soul our whole world become a playground of love!
Joseph this is stunning… what a beautifully practical way you have shed light on the interplay of energy that impulses us, where it comes from and how to be in relationship with it in a way that makes perfect sense.
‘When I get the feeling to act lovingly and I listen, as I would to an ever-loving parent, this is surrender.’ This is a great reminder not to be judgmental of ourselves and to honour what our bodies are communicating rather than going into critical thoughts which sabotage any chance of surrendering.
Thank you Joseph for your clear explanation of the difference between the Spirit and the Soul, I know that to be true but constantly need to be reminded of its importance in daily life and choices.
‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me’ – The beautiful quality of surrender offers us the opportunity to experience the Divine in action without the limitations of the spirit’s judgement and critique and others get to experience all of who we truly are. The vitality I feel when I am living from the communications of my soul is endless. Why hold back?.
Great sharing Joseph, it is fascinating how I observe my thoughts and generally they are either for bettering myself, rebelling against the norms, gaining something or for humanity, for bringing love. Some of the thoughts can be disguised and sneaky but underlying knowing that they are from one source or the other gives us back responsibility. So we have no one to blame for any of our choices or actions!
Exhaustion is still a world plague, We often answer the question ‘how are you’ with ‘tired’. We are fighting ourselves instead of surrendering to our soul.
Thanks Joseph and as I’ve said before this makes so much sense, “The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit.” At times we can almost feel like we have a split personality which isn’t true but this is the back and forwards between these two parts. As in the tantrum in the child, or adult and then a few seconds later it looks like it never happened. I guess you could say truly it didn’t as a tantrum is merely a simple step away from your soul.
An important part of teachings of Universal Medicine is the difference between spirit and soul and to support us in connecting with our soul. By experiencing the different feelings in our body we get a marker to which energy we hand over our vessel of expression
As young children we generally had a much stronger connection to our true feelings and our Soul. Very often adults would tell us what to do in an imposing way coming from the spirit saying what was right but not speaking as the Soul which only speaks truth and not right. Therefore, in many ways it made sense to rebel against the imposition!
Joseph, so many golden nuggets here. Just reading this blog dropped my body more deeply into surrender. “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Very powerful!
I completely agree Joseph that all we need to do is surrender to our true selves, to our Soul and stop the exhausting fight. However, there also comes a time of learning what are the true messages of the Soul as so often the spirit which thinks it is it, can fool us. As you say listening to our body is a great way to discern between the two.
Another great way to discern between the spirit and the Soul is that in connection with the Soul things are very simple whilst the spirit loves complication as it brings it identification.
Freedom is found in responsibility yet so many of us have the picture that it is the opposite.
Awesome blog Joseph. I love the blue print for how you can tell if the impulse is from your soul or your spirit – by the quality in your body. My spirit wants to get things done and it has blinkers on. Time is not a factor for the soul and it is all encompassing – of everyone and everything. The soul is intelligent beyond what our mind is capable of knowing.
Awesome blog Joseph, I love how clearly you differentiate between our spirit and our soul and highlight the fact that recklessness or irresponsibility are nothing but detrimental to who we are, to the bodies we walk around in every day. To surrender is to simply be true to yourself and not try to fight how amazing and awesome we really are in any given moment, to not take on emotions or dramas and just enjoy the space around ourselves by just being. It’s all rather freeing really! and this is contributed to by the possibility you present that we are not the sole ones making decisions as we might think; there is a bigger picture at play and a constant reminder that we don’t do anything alone.
I love and recognize your honest sharing Joseph: “It will often use ‘loving things’, seemingly important jobs or tasks, to sabotage and distract from what is true to do. So it can seem like it is good and ticking boxes in life, but ultimately it’s still the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices.” We are so clever at fooling ourselves to not take responsibility.
“As an adult our great dream seems to be all about being free from responsibility, even if it’s only temporary.” The things we do and how much we do to escape responsibility is huge.
A great paradox of life you offer on responsibility Joseph. Yes we can choose to become our own independent authority and feel very grown up to make our own decision and resist responsibility. Such a detour of the use of energy and time. Because until the penny drops that we are only fighting , resisting and hurting ourselves with the defiant ‘I’m in charge – no one is going to tell me what to do”, we can spend years not living the magic of what life truly offers when we choose to surrender to the simple truth that it feels great to put the garbage out, have an order and purpose to life, feeling there is more to the big picture than our own tantrum of ‘no’.
What you’ve said here Joseph is huge; the difference between Soul and Spirit, and what true surrender is… This should be an integral part of our education, something we are all raised knowing. At least then we have a clearer choice in how we are in life.
“So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?” – I love how Joseph describes our Soul as our loving parent. Our Soul never goes away, never hides, is never plays games, it’s just there. Offering us continuous opportunities to re-connect deeper and deeper into the connection. To do so requires surrendering, surrendering indeed to the flow that represents both our Soul as well as Heaven. We’re to re-turn to the One-ness, Union we come from (whether we like it or not) and in order to re-turn we’re to make loving choices. The more Loving choices, the more Love is offered. And the less Power the separate spirit has. Because in the end, the part that separated from Soul is deeply longing for it’s counterpart, the Soul. But it is utterly arrogant and ignorant to accept the choices that made it separate from Soul in the first place. Through applying honesty and Love, we’ll find our way back. One by one! All together.
Thank you Joseph, this is such a clear presentation between the spirit and the soul, one creates havoc by abusing the body and making it just about self and the other impulses us to live in harmony with the all and to make loving choices for the body for it is through our bodies and movements that we connect to the divine.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me” … and what glorious moments these are indeed Joseph. It is unfathomable that we ever give in to the drives of the spirit over the wisdom of our soul, and yet we do. Time and time again we override our soulful impulses, which never compare in quality. Time and time again we will continue to do so until a), we know that we have a choice and b), we keep practicing until soulfulness is our way. Thanks to Serge Benhayon I now know the difference and thanks to Universal Medicine I am inspired and supported to keep practicing.
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” Great question Joseph, and one that can be answered once we know that there is a difference between Soul and Spirit and the way in which each works or moves.
The more we appreciate and accept the essence of who we are we the easier it is to surrender to what is divine.
Hello Joseph and congrats for getting out your phone and getting out this blog. I love that we have started to talk more clearly about what true surrender means, “Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” What you are saying throughout your blog makes a lot of sense, thank you.
I went through life accumulating these responsibilities “Mortgages, kids, cars and houses, relationships, families and physical exercise, the responsibility list soon grows.” and thought I was doing pretty well in the responsibility stakes, yet it is only now I’m understanding what responsibility means. The redefinition, thanks to the presentations by Serge and universal Medicine has let me see how responsibility is for every fellow being, that it is a responsible way to live knowing that each choice has an imprint and a ripple effect that holds the truth of who they are or perpetuates the lie.
This is gold Joseph, I love the simplicity you bring to this irrefutable fact, the fact of the every communicating soul and our choice to choose to listen to this or to listen to our ever whispering spirit that is denying the fact that we are Divine. It is about surrender, and it is the choice to live from our soul, knowing that it is not from us but comes through us.
An amazing blog – love it and so glad you chose to write it because it is so important what you are sharing. In life there are so many unexplainable behaviours that we have – why on earth would a doctor, who knows anatomy inside out and understands how smoking is killing the body, still be able to choose to smoke? It doesn’t make sense and yet it is but one example of the many examples of seemingly ridiculous and or inexplicable choices we make that are in fact not us making them – they are an impulse from the reckless and irresponsible driver, the spirit.
Such a simple and profound understanding of surrender Joseph, thank you.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’ Our connection to our inner knowing is connection with our soul and as you share feels very different in the body than the directions coming from spirit whose motive is all about self.
‘What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?’ I can feel the truth and the love of this line because I can feel my soul. My spirit feels like a child rushing about wanting attention in anyway possible; wanting highs or lows, stimulation or stagnation but refusing to accept the energy it expresses isn’t who it is. The soul is there waiting until our spirits realise this and choose to return home.
While reading this I could feel where I have surrendered and where there is still work to be done. But there is a surrender in that as well, there is always a deeper place for us to develop to and surrendering to that journey feels very different to the self bashing that I will often use on myself because I am not where I think I should be. Thank you for presenting this so clearly.
This blog puts a completely new spin on what we consider to be true surrender and responsibility. I can feel how I had fallen for the ideal of surrender being almost like a giving up, similar to what Joseph mentioned about it being ‘floppy’. But it really is more of an acceptance or allowing of our natural expression that is being fed by our souls. I can see how many things can get in the way of this as modern society rewards the ones with the most ‘drive’ and ‘force’ that is used to get things done in business, academia, and elsewhere, instead of the people who may be listening to their bodies and not allowing themselves to push past a point that could lead to disharmony or harm to the body. Serge Benhayon has presented us all a different way that is more in line with the soul’s impulses, and the level of responsibility we all have to listen and act on these impulses. Obviously the horrendous situation the world is in now with massive levels of disease, war, exhaustion, etc. is a sign that the forceful way of the spirit has not worked for us.
Thanks for the beautiful explanation of surrender Joseph. A great reminder of the loving, supportive communication we are constantly receiving from our Soul and the choice we have in each and every moment, of which energy coming through our body we surrender to.
I love it Joseph, surrender in the true meaning of the word ‘ lives inside every moment of our life’. When we do not surrender we play a very well known game, the game of the spirit. It tries to get us in the drive, the anxiousness, in comparing with others, jealousy, to be bored to name but a few, and thus living irresponsibly.
Joseph, I am inspired by your words and appreciate your honouring to write them. I loved reading them. Great examples of what surrender is and is not. Thank you.
A great blog Joseph that very simply describes the differences between the spirit and the soul, thank you… and particularly, … “So it can seem like it is good and ticking boxes in life, but ultimately it’s still the reckless driver in charge of the body and its choices…” There is quite a difference in the quality of action between spirit and soul.
If I chose spirit, it immediately just puts more complication, more distraction, more ‘white noise’ in front of me. If I chose Soul then that’s all I have to do, because after that choice, everything is there for me. All I have to do is take the steps. Simple, simple soul.
WOW!! So magnificently, simply and brilliantly laid out. Such powerful simplicity. Amazing writing Joseph. Delayed or not – you have delivered gold! And gosh, yes, this is so very much my game. But I love the way you describe soul – the patience and simplicity. Because no matter what carrots the spirit is dangling in front of me, the soul will always be there, waiting with it’s simple alternate choice. And it is my responsibility to see that choice and then…decide. It really is that simple. If I making it more complicated, then I have already chosen to follow my spirit.
“What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?” This is a game changer Joseph, we are a product of the energy which we choose!
It is so ‘normal’ to want to rebel when we go out of our parental homes, no more chores and tasks… but in the end it is something that needs to be done, like taking out the rubbish, being free to not do it won’t make the rubbish go away by itself! So this is then probably an endless game until you bring in that we have a spirit and soul and can be influenced by either of them. This changes the story from rebelling to parents, school or society to living in line with the spirit and its indulgences in drama in life or, in line with what the soul impulses which is love.
A gorgeous blog Joseph, offering multiple pearls. One of the statements I can relate to and that I deeply appreciate is this – ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’
We can really get ourselves into trouble when we follow the spirits self satisfying ways rather than listen and follow the souls impulses. I agree that much of our exhaustion is because we are overriding and living against our natural rhythms.
Love it Joseph! Such a healing blog with so much wisdom. Learning the differences between Spirit and Soul is great for life! Love how you describe the Soul like an ever-loving parent. It doesn’t tell us what to do, but sure is the most loving impulse we receive.
Beautiful sharing Joseph on soul and spirit – I love how my body feels once I surrender.
Beautiful article Joseph. Spirit, Soul and Surrender. The 3 S’s that completely transform our lives when we understand and live aligned to their true meaning. Thank you for sharing so simply how there is a different energetic quality between spirit and soul and how you/we can clearly feel the difference in our bodies.
It is odd how we grow up encouraged at times to ‘have fun while you can’ before you leave school and have ‘responsibilities’. So we grow up thinking responsibility is serious, no fun and full of burdens. I was a classic rebel in my early twenties. I partied and worked in hospitality and partied.. until I felt it was time to get more responsible and commit to life. I started to make moves to work in the career I had always felt to. I started to value that we each have something special to contribute to the world and hence I had a responsibility to play my part. 9 years later and I am blown away by the relationships I have and how much I enjoy my career. This joy is not me feeling amazing or on cloud 9 every single day. Some days are tough, others are not. The joy is feeling myself getting more involved with life, my friends, my partner, my clients and colleagues and discovering that something special I am here to bring along the way. My point in short is responsibility is not a dirty word, embracing it is restoring my trust in every way.
Stunning blog Joseph. You have me pondering why I choose the things I choose and who is really doing the choosing. When the spirit gets its way things snowball very quickly, however, the snowball can be halted by the soul if we accept responsibility.
Great description of what surrender is all about. Allow things to happen instead of forcing them is my challenge! Thank you Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for showing me a way that works!
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” This line is so beautifully poignant Joseph and so very true. Surrendering to all in which is within us takes the complication out of life and returns us to the simplicity of our connection. The expansion we have available to us always, is the soul’s ever present voice, which in turn will heed the spirits call.
This is beautiful Joseph, how amazing that each of us carries inside our very own ever loving parent, our Soul, forever present forever offering with quiet honest delivery all we ever need to live the full potential of love that our soul carries. Truly pondered this is beyond measure as to how supported every person in the world truly is. We are all then left with the choice you present, to surrender to this quiet honest, often revealing voice, or to over ride and ignore it. The sensation of solid loving strength that I feel in surrendering is by far the most beautiful way to live, that I continue to choose it more and more in my life.
It is actually so easy to be everything that this blog describes. We are constantly getting little messages all day long on what is the best path to take. These messages aren’t being dictated to us but rather warm hints that gentle guide us through life. In the end it’s about making the choice of how you want to be.
I absolutely loved this Joseph. This whole blog to read was incredible. It really highlighted all the times I put off or didn’t do something that my body was calling me to do.
“But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life.” So true, and I love what follows after this. You’ve broken this whole blog down so easily for anyone to understand. Thank you Joseph. Truly awesome.
This is such a clear account of the behavioural differences between spirit and soul. When it is understood like this we can clearly see how we delay and slow our evolution. Surrender sounds impassive but it actually calls us to action in deep care of ourselves.
Nice one Joseph, what a great expose of how we the spirit and soul both play out in a kind of battle of will versus free will . Learning to surrender is an amazing way for us to allow the soul to impulse us, thanks for a great sharing.
This is an absolute gem to live our lives by Joseph, ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me’ to connect to our purpose in life. It’s our choice to do this or not, our simple choice to take.
I adore what you have written here about surrender Joseph, I adore this whole blog! Having come to an understanding and lived experience of the difference between spirit and soul in my own body, through the teachings of Universal Medicine, there is no turning back. Though the spirit may try to ‘buck the system’ at times the love of the soul is always there to guide and support us. We are offered the choice of each in every moment.
There is nothing more pure than the love that comes when one is completely surrendered – true, clear, no pretense, just all of who we truly are. How simple really and so beautiful is that. It makes me wonder about the resistance and the pure stubbornness of the spirit that does not want to let go. Thanks Joseph for putting your soul into the driver’s seat.
When I finished my studies, I had this feeling that finally I could do whatever I wanted. I started travelling, spending money, going out and I drank alcohol and took drugs. I felt that I did not have to take any responsibility at all and when something came up, I blamed my parents. What an illusion I was living in (and a waste of time…). Would be great if we teach children at a young age what it truly means to take responsibility and what it means in daily life.
It really is that simple, just two qualities of energy with one or the other running through us at any point in time. And we have the opportunity to choose which quality we wish to align to and live from.
‘The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body’ the problem that many of us have found with this is that the spirit is a darn good impostor, so it can induce feelings in the body of being incredibly relaxed, chilled out, blissed out, super comfy all round and yet these feelings that we gravitate to can be purely impulsed by the spirit, hence the trap that many of us have fallen into lifetime after lifetime. Beware the spirit is a conniving manipulator.
Beautifully put Joseph. The Soul moves in a way that leaves no one behind whereas the spirit takes things and runs, regardless of the impact this has on others.
And Joseph I love this line too: ‘But what I see today is that true surrender is not restricted to a session or a workshop day but actually lives inside every moment of our life’. I love it because I have come to feel that each unfolding moment contains either surrender or fight, and just to clarify surrender is not found in watching the telly, this is a moment of fight because watching the telly does not bring connection to self, it tends to bring disconnection, and disconnection of any kind is fight.
In order to truly surrender, we must first admit that we are engaged in a fight. Like an unruly teenager it is our spirit that resists the eternal and consistent pull back to God where our true self lies.
Joseph, the simplicity and clarity of this line ‘The more I experience life, the more I can see that each impulse comes from either my Soul or Spirit’ is very powerful indeed. It feels that we have over complicated life and made it very foggy indeed and yet when we bring it back to any one thing, either being soulful or not, then it really strips every-thing back to its truthful bare bones. If it continues to feel complicated then that in itself indicates that it’s not soulful.
Joseph thanks for bringing up such a significant topic and one I have been exploring recently. ‘Surrender’ sounds so easy, it sounds like you could simply fall back into the river of life and let the tide take you and yet………..and yet there is so much that our spirit throws in our path that greatly inhibits our ability to surrender. I have found it hugely supportive to get up close and personal to the things that I am able to identify that prevent me from surrendering.
All my life the strong will of my spirit has pushed me to the limit of physical and mental exhaustion as I would so often bite off more than I could chew, constantly doing what I felt I must do to be seen as good enough. With the help of Serge Benhayon and The Way of The Livingness I have gradually altered my way of being and am now able to recognise the huge difference in the energy behind my driving relentless spirit and my gentle patient loving heart full soul. And dear Joseph I cannot imagine such a gentle-man as you are now ever throwing a tantrum. Thank you for your wonderful blog.
Your wonderful blog is so very timely Joseph as my spirit is at present letting me know that is it not happy about a direction I am taking, and is pulling out all the old and worn out distractions to deter me from this venture. The energy I feel when these distractions try to sneak in is horrible and gives their presence away, so I simply acknowledge them, come back to me and confirm my commitment to something that feels so very true, and then surrender to this truth.
Love the examples of surrender you have given Joseph. This is not necessarily what we have grown up associating surrender with but from the perspective of soul and spirit, and how revealing to look at things this way, it makes so much
Thank you so much for this blog Joseph, this very subject has been really in my face lately. The way you have described the difference between Spirit and Soul I can completely relate to. Both energies can preform the movements required in human life and the body is the marker, our reference point as to the quality of which of the two we are using.
Allowing the spirit to affect or make our choices is living the thought processes of a squirrel on the road, and we know the eventual outcome of those decisions when we jump too quickly without feeling where we are going.
What occurred to me while reading this Joseph is that the Spirit is about defiance and complexity whereas the Soul is all about love, truth and simplicity.
Becoming aware of how controlled we are by this well ingrained thought of just putting off feeling the impulses of our soul is key to becoming aware of the illusion that binds us so tightly within itself.
“So when my Soul offers what I am to do, do I listen and honour this to the hilt; do I follow it with grace and style and deliver it in full? Or do I say ‘not right now’ and find something else I think I might like to do?”
Great article Joseph as it very clearly describes the two energies we have running in and through us constantly and the difference between picking one over the other – one will drive us ragged to the expense of the body and the other will gently guide us and allow us to expand if we so choose.
Beautiful description of the all encompassing nature of true surrender, getting self out of the way so as to be available to deeply surrender to all our Soul communicates with us.
Joseph, you bring a very clear understanding of the spirit and soul and how life is either governed by the reckless spirit or surrendered to in alignment with our soul. We always have a choice as to which energy we are choosing – the birthing of true responsibility as we choose to return to love.
Great explanation Joseph, love how simple it is when we just surrender. We surrender to our soul, and It shows us the way. It is becoming more and more easy to reignite for me, when my spirit tries to take over, my body becomes very racy,
I love how you have brought surrender back to the simplicity that it is Joseph. “What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?”… I imagine it would be like heaven on earth.
Oh yes the quality in the body is key to discerning where an impulse comes from, as my steadiness has grown I have become much more aware of how often I have lived in a forceful and rushed drive that tries to drown out any other impulses and is totally exhausting. Taking responsibility for my life and surrendering to my purpose has released so much of the tension that drained me and allowed for the potential of harmony and joy.
What a profound and very healing blog Joseph, there is much to be felt and explore here. These three words just ‘lit up’ my chest as I read and felt the truth and beauty in this – ‘The Soul’s living way”.
Yes, there is much to appreciate with these teachings presented by Serge Benhayon, they are life changing by choice.
“With appreciation for Serge Benhayon, Esoteric Healing practitioners and students, and everyone I meet every day – who teach me constantly about the Soul’s living way”.
“What will our day be like if we surrender to what our Soul communicates to us?” Thank you Joseph for a clear explanation of the difference between spirit and soul and a question I am going to take into my day 🙂
There is a feeling of completeness and content in surrender. It’s not something we have to try or aim to be, it is inside us naturally, we just need to give ourselves permission to let it out in full.
Joseph, I love this article, you have written about the difference between spirit and soul and surrender so clearly and practically, I had always thought of surrender to be like relaxing and lying down or sitting down, what you have written here feels much more true, ‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.’
For me, surrender is being myself.
As we listen to the soul’s impulse and follow it, the spirit begins to lose its long-standing reign over us. The more we listen and are guided by our soul, there will come a time when the spirit will tow behind the soul, rather than it lead the way. When we live like this, we are living as the Sons of God here on earth and the amazing thing is that this is available for each and every person equally.
What a gorgeous description of the two completely different energies of the ‘Soul’ and the ‘spirit’ that in each moment impulse us in two very different ways. Everyone has examples of an inner knowing , choosing to go against it, and regretting it afterwards. But rarely is there an awareness that it is two specific impulses being fed to us from two different sources and we are just picking which source we will align with. The Soul always presents the steady powerful impulse for us to live and express as the Son of God that we are, and the spirit has millions of ways to do anything but that. A profound question here is what is free choice? Choosing which of the million ways of the spirit we go for? Or is it actually choosing whether it is our Soul or the spirit fueling our choice.
Thank you, Joseph. What a beautiful summary of the difference between spirit and soul, that leaves us with no question about the moment to moment choice we have to live connected to love, or the countless distractions and avoidances of love. I’m feeling to share this blog with my extended family, as I feel it will make a lot of sense to them.
‘responsibility’ has been made into a dirty word, instead of the true joy, freedom and commitment it brings.
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” One or the other? We always have a choice, spirit or Soul, which are we surrendering to. The more we surrender to our Soul the more Soul we are offered.
‘When we grow up and leave home there’s a sense that we say “At last now I can do things my way.’ Could this be because we grow up getting told what to do and our feelings dismissed, rather than being nurtured to be all that we are and honour all we feel and bring?
Joseph, what a great blog sharing the difference between sprit and soul and what that looks like in everyday situations and life. “The greatest way I have found to discern the difference between Spirit and Soul is by the quality in my body.” I have found my body to be the most amazing marker that reflects which of the two I am choosing. I am still amazed at how much I still choose to go into the rush, drive and emotion rather than feeling the warmth of connection.
How often have I overridden the impulse of my soul for the recklessness of the spirit, and only in hindsight seen my choice to do this. Our Soul is like a silent friend that waits patiently in the back ground for us to connect and listen to. I love the use of the word surrender Joseph because it asks us to let go of all the ideals and beliefs of doing and being a certain way. When we listen to the soul life just flows from one impulse to the next there is no need to force or make things happen.”So what if we do actually know exactly what we need to do in life? What if, like a constant ever-loving parent, our Soul is constantly communicating to us the perfect, loving thing to do?”
“Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me.” Beautifully expressed Joseph. Knowing that there are two qualities of energy coming through my body was mind-blowing initially – as I thought it was me doing the thinking! When I become still I can truly feel – and surrender to – my soul and its impulses.
This is a very powerful way of sharing what surrender is to you – and what it is in your body. Not the common association of defeat, but the letting go of what is not us. The soul, as you say, can share so much if we simply stop and listen.
“What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body? What if we surrendered to the fact that although our physical frame had to cop the consequences, that all those choices, movements and plans we made, were actually not ours at all?” What you are presenting in these two sentences is absolutely massive and if lived it would change everything about life as we know it. I first learned about the difference between soul and spirit from Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine and it has changed my life dramatically. When we let ourselves feel what goes on for us we can actually feel the two energies at play within us very well. It is often just a matter of not wanting to know what we know because we do not want to be responsible for our choices.
Absolutely Elizabeth, underneath the issues and illness we say we have, we do know the true difference in the energy. It seems to be just a matter of how long we are willing to play out what is not true before our body brings us back to square one. Wow – really our body is our most constant and loving friend.
What a beautifully gorgeous and simple presentation of the difference between Spirit and Soul!
Thank you Joseph and that is quite a revelation to realise that surrender is not about becoming weak and floppy, but responding to our Soul’s directives as opposed to our Spirit’s will. Quite a challenge for us all seeing as we have given our Spirit’s free reign for so long. It is a real eye opener meeting Serge Benhayon and the Esoteric Healing Modalities. Suddenly we are given option to get to recognise and befriend our Soul and attempt to align more and more to its immensely wise, tender and caring impulses. Being able to feel the difference between the Spirit and Soul within us is very empowering and our choice then is which one do we want as our boss?
Joseph, this is a very supportive sharing to understand that we are vessels of energy and receive impulses all of the time. Often we override them and then more and more loose our natural rythm and our connection.
Beautiful article Joseph! When I stop to feel, there is usually a huge difference to what is coming from my Soul or Spirit, as it just seems my Spirit is out to destroy me and my Soul is waiting patiently, lovingly to pick up the pieces no matter how many life times it will take to totally render my spirit naught.
What a beautiful way of being surrendering to our soul brings to our lives and how different to the force needed to everyday living in the world as we are offered and taught by society currently today. This can be felt so simply by this loving presentation of truth as shared by Serge Benhayon and Universal medicine of our souls living way . This feels so natural and beautiful and allows us the communication with our soul built into everything we are and every movement and hence thought coming through us from our soul and not from our spirit and its force and exhaustive behaviour and heavy energy of ideals beliefs and separation lived . A very powerful blog thank you Joseph.
‘Not right now’. This is something we have been saying for lives and lives to others, to ourselves and to our Souls.
‘Agreed Eduardo. ‘Not right now….. because I have too much to do’ and this keeps us permanently away from being and because it is in being that we remember who we are, the cycle repeats and repeats and repeats. We’re all too busy to be the love we already are. How cunning.
The spirit fights responsibility because going for it will lead sooner or later to put on the spot its own responsibility for life being what it is.
Eduardo you’re making my spirit squirm!
Responsibility should not be equated as burden. Yet to be responsible is our responsibility.
To learn from the Ageless teachings that there are spirit and Soul has been one of the most important truth I learned. It is very empowering to live with this vessel of energy knowing that it is a vessel that holds the all and is the connection to our divine expression, but at the same time is nothing more than this, a temporary vessel, that can be owned and controlled by the spirit or surrender to the Soul.
Joseph thanks for a great explanation about what what Surrender is and how the picture we can hold of surrender is not as expansive as what true surrender is. It’s also really interesting how we grow up always fighting responsibility, I remember waiting to get out of school so I would be “free”.
Our freedom to react to someone does not turn our action into a free act. If it is in reaction there is no freedom.
When we live as who we truly are, vessels of energy, we realize how irresponsible we have been and how harming it is to live against our nature. There is no “me” there is only energy and and the “me” its just the “gatekeeper”.
As we grew up , our way to become irresponsible is to be selectively responsible, while singing ‘My Way’.
Joseph what you have shared is beautiful in its simplicity and honesty I relate well and can even smile at the games spirit plays to keep us from the depth and stillness of the soul. ‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body?’ A profound question, perhaps getting ‘me’ out of the way is the first step to connecting to soul.
Kehinde reading that fantastic quote of Joseph’s again ‘What would our life be like if we surrendered to the fact that there really is no ‘me’ at all, but just two qualities of energy coming through our body? brought to mind the image of the spirit running around in an absolute flap, squawking ‘what no me, no me, that’s preposterous!’ because the ‘me’ that we invest in is what the spirit has devoted it’s time in creating. It is our spirit that feeds us all of the flavours of the different me’s to choose from. Hmmm what will I chose this lifetime? maybe I’ll be poor in Rio or wealthy on the Costa Del Sol, the spirit doesn’t care, as long as we identify with the ‘me’ the spirit is happy but as Joseph alludes, there actually is no me, at the end of the day we all merge back with the All.
‘Surrender is any moment I listen to, and honour in full, this communication inside of me’. It is re-assuring to know soul is forever with us inviting us to simply surrender to its call.
Love it and live it Joseph, how simple life can be when we just surrender and let the love we are emanate and fill us with joy.
‘…however nice or good, it does it in a rush, a forceful, relentless, determined drive.’ This is exactly my observation, I can seemingly ‘do the right’ things but if there is any push or force it always betrays where the energy has come from. For me I am learning to be more honest with myself and call this out – even though part of me actually gets off on the fact that things are getting done…
Lee it feels that the world is trapped in the relentless and never ending quest to get things done. The moments of satisfaction when we do actually manage to get something done before we launch ourselves into the next thing on the list are fleeting. I have felt so driven in the past to keep moving through my list that I have felt like I don’t have time to look left or right. Now however it feels like my to do list has all but dissolved. The drive has gone, leaving a sense of space in it’s place. I used to think that I could never do without my ‘written to do list’ and yet I haven’t looked at my current list in over a month. I am practicing letting my body decide what it wants to do and how it wants to do it, in return my body is giving me the feeling of space and the luxury of it is sublime.