How to surrender and allow: a lesson in the woods

This past week, I spent 4 days backpacking up north in Minnesota.

I’m talking about the carry everything on your back and walk for 10 miles a day type of backpacking. 

And it was really hard.  Harder than I expected.  Harder than I was prepared for.

Which had me thinking.  So often, we hope we can get to the good parts of things without going deep into the struggle.  Without allowing things to be hard first.  We just want to hop over to the great parts and exist there.  Struggling can be too hard and we don’t want that.

That first day of walking, I wanted so badly to be done.  We were in mud up to our ankles, I itched mosquito bites raw, and the humidity was horrendous.  I wanted to quit.  I didn’t want to be present for the struggle.

But we pushed through anyway.  We saw pumpkin-colored leaves, amazing vistas, and serene forests.

And it felt amazing.  Despite wanting to quit, despite wanting to jump ship the moment things got hard, I allowed myself to stay in the discomfort.  Stay in the moment where I knew I was being called to experience something.  I allowed the shifts to occur.


What would it look like for you to embrace the struggle?  To allow yourself to be exactly where you are right now? 

Now let me get something straight.  I’m not talking about settling.  Not. At. Alll.

I’m talking about surrendering to where you are right now.  Accepting the life you are currently living.  Embracing the struggle you are currently in.

We can’t go through life numbing ourselves every time things get hard, right?  I’ve tried that.  It truly doesn’t work.

The only way to move through things (even the hard things), is to be all in.  

  • Feel everything going on.
  • Feel the emotions washing over you.  Allow them to be.
  • Feel the mud on your feet, the itch from a bug bite, and the mugginess of a humid day.   Feel it all.  Be all in.

Life on the trail and life in the everyday world are really not that different.  We are given opportunities to take a step back and recognize what’s really going on.  Allow ourselves space and time we need to be all in.

This week, start thinking about how you can be all in.

  • How you can embrace where you are right now.
  • How you can accept the struggle, be present where you are, but not completely absorbed in it.

Feelings, challenges, and life demand to be felt.  You can’t numb the negative and expect to feel all the highs. 

Just like I wouldn’t have seen the prettiest Autumn leaves in MN without struggling to get there.

We have to accept the struggle and embrace it to move forward.

What are you struggling with this season?  How can you surrender and allow instead of push and resist?


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