In recent weeks, a very close friend of mine has gone through a series of abrupt changes. Before these changes, she was in a place of security but lacked fulfillment in her work life. Now, she’s taking a leap of faith and foregoing the security she desires to start a new career in what she loves. In the last two months, she and I have had a series of conversations on these changes and divine timing. I’ve consistently reiterated to her how proud I am of her and I have full faith everything will work out for her highest good. This is someone who practices a lot of the same beliefs as I do. And when roles were reversed, she reiterated the same sentiments to me. But she brought up something recently that, over the last two years of my life, I have thought to myself over and over again.

“I know it will work out, but how long do I have to wait?”

Her and I are the same in our desire to control our lives and the outcomes. So when it comes to our timelines and not knowing the “when,” we have a lot of difficulty relinquishing control. But we know we can’t have all of the answers. And unfortunately, one of the answers we most commonly lack is the “when?” When will I get promoted? When will I move? Or when will I find my person?—when, when, when?

I assured my friend I had been in those shoes only a few months (even weeks) ago. We both agreed it would feel so much easier if some magical being approached us and said, “only x amount of days, and then you’re free and moving on.” But unfortunately, we both understand that that magical being doesn’t exist, and we simply have to surrender to our own Divine timing.

Surrendering to Divine Timing

If you live by certain beliefs— manifestation, Universal Power, intentional living—then you also believe in the power of divine timing. Every decision that we have ever made or will make has a domino effect on the rest of our lives. This leaves us available to a multi-verse where each decision we make opens us to up to hundreds of different realities. In each of those realities, divine timing will exist. Every opportunity or decision we face enters our life at a precise moment in our timeline to have a domino effect. And by being open to divine timing, you surrender control and open yourself to even greater possibilities. The Universal power beyond our understanding orchestrates the timeline of our lives to coincide with our soul contract. So how do we surrender to this timing and open ourselves up to the possibility that something better is coming?

Surrender control & heal the present moment

Just as I noted in this week’s podcast, I want to make this very clear here as well. So often, when we’re consuming content of this genre, we hear people saying surrender. But more often than not, the people saying surrender are the ones “post-surrendering” and have now reached a moment in their higher timeline. It can be frustrating for someone going through a difficult period to hear someone happy say, “just surrender to the present.” But the harsh truth is that we must surrender to the moment we’re in now to move beyond it. We have to get comfortable with the discomfort when we lack control, stability, and security. We have to heal the fear, anger, and sadness, internally to change the external. When we turn within and both acknowledge and heal these emotions, our subconscious beliefs begin to change as well.

For example, someone who is very angry with their life may subconsciously believe they are a “naturally angry” person. They may hate their job and their boss, hate their home or where they live. And a subconscious belief they likely carry is that they have somehow attracted these circumstances to hate into their life. In order to change the external factors they don’t like, they have to address the anger within. When I personally was going through this phase of healing, a part of me was terrified to admit these emotions to myself. It made me feel ungrateful and resentful. But I realized that to change my life, I had to change what I believed about myself and what I could and could not attract.

Your External is a mirror to your internal

The belief behind the power of Divine timing is the knowledge that your life can change at any moment. But if you want to attract positive change, you have to believe internally that you can. We have all experienced those days in which one thing goes wrong in the morning, and it somehow dominoes into a horrible day. It feels as though everything that could go wrong, did. This is not a natural phenomenon that occurs just because one bad thing happens in the morning. There is no law of the Universe that sates if you start the day badly, it will continue throughout the entire day. We attract this continuous pattern when we believe it will happen. We simply have to change our internal beliefs for the external environment to shift.

Over the weekend, I had the same conversation with my friend. I reiterated to her that the best action she could take right now was to surrender to the discomfort. I told her to stop being so hard on herself, stop judging herself, and stop comparing. You are always on your highest timeline. And for us to realize we’re on this timeline, duality must exist. We cannot know joy and bliss without heartache and sadness. We must surrender to Divine timing. And in the moments that feel the most difficult, are the moments it is most important to surrender. It is in the discomfort that we learn the most valuable lessons. And it is in the moments when we face adversity that teach how truly valuable moments of happiness and triumph are.