There was a time when I was so broke I had to live in a van.

I wasn’t completely opposed to the idea. Thinking about being more mobile and with no rent costs, other than gas, sounded pretty nice, at first.

It would have been awesome… had it not been for what I believed it meant about me.

I had no job, no income, and no home other than my van, and at the time, I felt like I was a failure.

There were lots of highs and lows during that time. But for the most part, lots of lows. A lot of feeling like Life had abandoned me, I was alone, and not clear about what I should do, if anything.

That’s around the time I started to take my own personal development more seriously. I started reading about success, discipline, making things happen, abundance, and more.

The common message, however, was one of urging the reader/listener to muster up more motivation and plan, plan, plan and push, push, push.

So I did it.

I quickly found out, however, that it wasn’t sustainable. I don’t doubt that it might be for others. But for me, I felt stressed, pressured, and had an ongoing subtle pain inside because I was constantly reminded of not being where I really wanted to be in my life. Which, of course, fed the idea that I should do more, plan more, etc.

Perhaps you’ve noticed the same thing in your experience? Well, around this time I ran into a few books that had a completely different vision and understanding of how to create the life you really want.

Contrary to what 99% of all personal development and success teachers were saying, these teachers were sharing that the way to true happiness, success and fulfillment was in letting go and surrender.

So what’s letting go & surrender all about?

The summary of the teaching was that through the process of surrendering all the inner blocks to what you truly desire – like fear, guilt, doubt, scarcity and everything that’s keeping you small and holding you back – your life would effortlessly rise to a whole new level of happiness, joy, abundance and true fulfillment.

Goals become easier to achieve because there’s no resistance to them…and life becomes more enjoyable because you’re not fearful of the future or regretful/guilty of the past.

When I learned all this, something about it rang more true to me than everything else I had read up to that point. Everything else, of course, was subtly and not so subtly saying that the way to true happiness and fulfillment was by forcing Life to meet your demands.

This never really rang true for me.

The thought of surrendering and letting go felt soothing, nurturing, healing and loving. Even the thought of letting go gave me a certain amount of relief. So I began right away.

It became the primary focus of every day. I devoted myself to mastering the art and science of letting go and proving to myself, through experience not just theory, that this was a way to the life I had always known was possible.

Fast forward into the future…here’s a tiny, tiny, tiny snapshot of what happened as I started to release and let go of everything that wasn’t in alignment with happiness, joy, love, abundance and freedom:

#1 – I started getting a rush of new ideas about how to use my gifts to serve people and generate income – which led me to the local department of education who ran a community education program and having a meeting with the director who wanted me to have multiple guitar-teaching classes (at the time that was my specialty) for the community. These classes took off! Even the director was impressed because they were the most popular/attended classes in the community!

#2 – I moved out of a van into…tada!…a trailer out in the woods (in the middle of a cold and snowy winter – with little to no heating – which wasn’t great but felt like a baby step out of the van)

#3 – In just a couple months, a close friend let me know of a room-mating opportunity in town where I’d be able to live in a real house – with real heating! – and by that time I had enough money to say “HELL YES!”

#4 – As I continued to surrender, my life-path/career appeared to me in the form of COACHING. I released all my inner doubts about this and soon afterward, a close family member offered to pay for my whole coach training tuition, including the flights and hotels to and from New York City (which at the time, wasn’t a small thing as I lived in the NW!)

#5 – As I continued to surrender even more, my girlfriend and I (now my beautiful wife), started to vacation regularly in Maui, Hawaii and had an idea of ‘Why don’t we just live here?” After releasing all the doubts as to whether we could afford this or not, a surge of clients, opportunities and more income than I’ve ever made – ever – landed on my lap and paved the way for us to move to hawaii.

6) As the releasing deepened even more, and the level of our lives kept increasing to higher and higher levels of fun and fulfillment, something peculiar started to happen.

I started to have glimpses of what seemed like an alternate reality that we were all inhabiting but not seeing – one that was perfect, whole and lacked nothing.

These moments were so sweet that it motivated my efforts to surrender even more. The more I did, the more I started to become aware of ‘this moment, minus my thoughts about it.’

Things began to get so clear, so sweet, so light, so beautiful…it felt as if I was being carried in the arms of a Higher Power, a deeper intelligence that permeated everything.

7) As the releasing continued, one night I became painfully aware of how I was blocking my true nature – out of fear – and the moment this was released, it felt like everything I thought I knew about myself and the world, dissolved.

All that was left was a clear, aware, and all-knowing Presence. The surge of unconditional love, peace, bliss and joy were almost too much to handle. Surrendering had become such a habitual response by that time that all the blocks to this peace were surrendered on the spot. Love saturated every cell of my being.

For two weeks after that experience, I was pretty non-functional. Basically, I just sat on the couch, drunk on love. My sense of identity shifted from being a little thought/story/image in my head to including All That Is.

It took about a year to feel like I could re-engage with business, people and the world. During that time, I went in and out of deep, blissful states, that revealed more and more about the true nature of every human being, reality and life.

After all of this, my whole way of coaching and understanding about the human experience went through a profound shift.

And as my clients started to embrace the releasing, the letting go and surrender, they too started to see similar things in their lives:

• ‘broken’ relationships found their way back to love
• past traumas were healed
• new careers and abundance started to flow
• impossible dreams became reality in ways previously unimaginable
• and so much more!

This is why the art and science of surrender has become one of the main pillars to all the work I do and offer to my clients and the world.

Surrendering and letting go has been one of the greatest blessings in my life and I have seen it create miracles for everyone that engages deeply with the process.

At some point in the journey, we discover that everything that we’ve ever truly wanted is actually already available, we just can’t see it because of the blocks in our minds.

But as we release and heal all the blocks within us, we find that our true nature, happiness and inner peace reveal themselves, by themselves, much like the sun reveals itself when the clouds part.

The sun was always there. It’s always shining. The only reason you don’t feel its warmth and light is simply because of the clouds that are covering it over.

When this is seen to be the only cause for any unhappiness or lack in the moment, all other ‘coping mechanisms’ are recognized to be useless. Because you finally realize that the only thing blocking out the light of Presence/Happiness/Peace…are the clouds of your own thinking. And to the degree that these clouds are surrendered and let go of is the degree to which you feel the warm and loving light of Spirit.

Surrendering and letting go have been trememduosly useful and healing for my journey and those whom I’ve had the pleasure and blessing of serving.

All the answers you are seeking, and all the power to realize all your dreams and callings, are within you. It simply needs to be uncovered.

Hope that some of this helps you on your journey in some way.

For me, just being aware that the option of surrender and letting go is available, and that others have experienced miracles through it, is it’s own blessing.

If you’d like to engage in the healing practice of surrender and take your life to a whole new level of wellbeing, clarity and freedom, please make sure to check out our new program The Way of Surrender: A Journey In Letting Go.