How Surrender and Optimism Saved Me from Dying in a Lonely Well

How surrender and optimism saved me from dying in lonely well.

This blog post how surrender and optimism saved me is about how Surrendering to the Universe and going through life with optimism helped me overcome some of my toughest moments.

Surrender is the ability to let go of your worries, fears and concerns to a power greater than you and giving permission to help you because you have reached your wit end. Optimism is infusing your being with positive thinking in the face of the obvious.

I struggled, kicked and was anxious as well as full of anxiety. I wanted to force the universe to do my bidding.  But the universe would not.

Read: What is surrender according to Ryan Holiday 

I was going to go homeless, as my rent had expired. And my Landlord was threatening fire and brimstone if I don’t pay up.

After kicking and trying to force things to happen my way, my worst fears happened. The universe didn’t care whether I go homeless or not. I was only a small speck of atom in its vast creation.

I rushed to finish a book I was writing before the date of my eviction and uploaded it on Amazon.

(Please support my hustle use the link below to get my book ” You can be Extraordinary, but will you?”)

The book sold only a few copies not enough to avert my imminent homelessness. I was sad and cried a few times begging the universe and the force to save me from this disaster.

However, when I couldn’t pay up my muddled mind suggested I moved to my bush village in rural Cross River State, South-South Nigeria.

And so I did. Initially life was cool in my rural village, at least I was closer to nature. However, after a few months I soon got tired and bored of village life.

I felt like I was wasting away. Everyday I would wake up with no challenges and goals to meet. I would sleep, wake up, walk around the village and drink palm wine (a local wine in Nigeria) with folks.

With no goals and nothing to do, life became drab and tiresome. One day I packed my bags and returned to the city to meet my self and the challenges I was running away from.

The only way out is through Surrender

In the city I came faced to faced with my worst fears as I had to survived under the worst debilitating conditions in a mosquito infested slum with an old high school mate.

Prior to this time, a year ago I had shuttered my Laboratory chemical supply business. The business failed to gain traction and so I struggled and could not cater for my basic needs.

And to make matters worst I was fighting and struggling with the universe.
So many things can happen to you when you fight and struggled with the universe. You can get burned out and exhausted.

I was always sick, have constant headaches and always jittery, while complaining became my trademark.

In a wrestling match between the universe and I, the universe would always win anyway. I failed to realized this until I have been badly wounded and bruised emotionally.

But beauty, peace and calm can be our lot in life if we let the universe heals and bestows its peace and abundance on us.

How to Learn Surrender to a Higher Power.

However, I discovered a little too late that I could have saved my self the wear and tear if I had done the following:

• Let Go and Let God

Why did I allow myself suffer and be beaten by the vicissitudes of life before remembering that the only way out is through letting go of my fears.

I could have just let go and let God help me. Instead of using my strength and power to fight and resist change and the natural rhythm and flow of life?

Read: 35 Power of Now excerpts 

When you relinquish your hold and concerns about your worries and fears, you immediately become relaxed from tension, this allows God or Infinite Intelligence to step in and work miracles in your life.

• Change your attitude

Life is just fine the way it is. Everything is at their rightful place. The problems and challenges are to make us sturdy and firm.

But the mind which is regarded as a good servant but a bad master will always play tricks on us. Most times our attitude is the defining factor of our station in life.

A good attitude helps you see things in the right perspective, and the way you see life determines the way you live it. Similarly, a bad attitude colors your vision and perspectives making you live a floored life. And as humans we always gravitate toward the wrong attitude that’s why we are quick to see challenges as stumbling blocks.

The right attitude can help us increase and tap into our creative powers as well as build confidence to meet life exigencies.

• Count your Blessings

Why not make it a habit to count the many blessings in your life everyday, instead of counting the lack and becoming angry for what we envisaged to come our way, but didn’t.

The gifts of life, consciousness, good health, friendship and so many more are better than things and possessions. When you count your blessings and be grateful to life, more good things will come into your life.

Read: 4 Amazing Real Life Examples of Surrendering to God 

• Put your Attention on the Infinite Abundance of the Universe

Energy flows where attention goes, and you dwell and have you being where your attention is. Learn to put your attention on what you want in your life, discard thoughts of fear and lack and beauty will happen all around you.

How Surrender and Optimism Saved me from Dying in a Lonely Well

Being an optimistic person made the difference and kept me alive when I fell into a deep lonely well, for me optimism became the only way out through my ordeal.

As I was in that Well the greatest thing I wished for was for the Almighty to give me a second shot at life.

I stared at death eyeball to eyeball as I said my last prayer and waited for Mr Death to lead me on safely to the other side, and without any hope of my body ever being found.

But somehow I cheated death and lived to tell the story. Thereby confirming to me that the only way out is through optimism. Having an optimistic disposition saved my life.

I grew up in the twin city of Warri, South-South Nigeria, at a time when many part of the city were undergoing massive development.

We resided in Effurun somewhere between the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Effurun GRA and the old Ovie Palace road.

I had gone in search for a particular species of plant to be used for a Junior Secondary Agricultural Science practical.

Those days in Warri, the major source of water is Well water and because development was springing up in various part of the city, most housing projects used this source of water for building purposes.

Read: Does the Power of Visualization Work 

And when the builders exhausted their budget, they just abandoned the projects leaving the open Well behind until such a time they are ready to begin work again.

It was one of such abandoned building sites over grown with weeds that I had gone into to look for the plant.

As I entered the premises which was about 30 meters off the adjoining street, I took the first, second, third, fourth and at the fifth step, I suddenly found myself in a different environment and world.

Behold, I was deep down in a Well full of water. Life stood still for me in that Well. I saw how easily I could have died with no hope of getting out alive.

Trusting in God will Make a Difference

Although, I could hear the footsteps and voices of passers-by some 30 meters away in the street, they could not hear me shouting for help down in the Well.

Whereas time stood still for me, I could sense that except a miracle happens I was running out of time and running out of time I was.

Somehow I survived; at least that’s why you are reading this. Spirits do not write blog post, do they? For some reason while I was deep down in the Well, and after much struggled, fretting and fear, I suddenly resolved to surrender to God and let go of all the negative emotions and I became relaxed as I hung on to life on top of the water, resting my back on the side wall of the Well while supporting myself with my almost paralysed legs to the other wall.

I was optimistic that the Force, God, Infinite Intelligence or whatever you believe in would get me out of the hole. You know what, a miracle happened and I got out.

My relaxed state that comes from surrendering to God, as well as  optimism caused series of Ideas to flood my mind that got me out.

Read: 40 Inspiring Paula White Twitter posts

However, you would agree with me that becoming an optimistic person is an uphill task, especially if you live in Africa at large and Nigeria in particular. Where there are no jobs and poverty has forced many to loss their dignity as humans.

We have many angry people walking the streets. Anger, tension, doubt and fear are really the causes of hardship and pain in life.

These negative emotions form a negative magnetic field around the person who allows and furnishes them in their being. The old Law of Physics says likes attracts, so these negative vices go out into the ethers and attracts more conditions that bring more pain and hardships into the life of the person.

Nevertheless, despite the pain, doubts and hardship, the person can bring harmony, peace and abundance into his/her life. By living the optimistic life and becoming an optimistic person thereby attracting good into their lives.

Therefore, you can live the optimistic life, but will you?

How to  Become An Optimistic person.

 

• LEARN THE ART OF GRATTUDE

A grateful heart really abhors hate, anger, fear and doubt. You would think that base on my experience above I would always have a grateful heart. Not on your life.

The human mind forgets and tends toward ungratefulness. In spite of the gift of life and the opportunity to live again, I make the effort to practice gratitude every day.

Years later after I survived from that Well, I followed a building contractor to an abandoned building site,  such as the one I had gone into.

Work was about to begin in the abandoned building site and the surrounding bushes being cleared.

Someone drew my attention to a nearby Well. This was similar to the one I had fallen into and asked me to have a look into the Well. When I did, what I saw till date gives me goose pimples. Inside the Well were colonies of Snakes numbering about 25. I was dazed and almost fainted. And several unanswered questions ran through my mind.

Why was the Well I fell into with much dense bushes free from a single reptile? Did a giant hand moved all the reptiles before I landed in that Well? Till date I get goose bump when I remember this.

I can only stay grateful for the gift of life. Today, no matter what comes up in life I always try to remain an optimistic person because I know the final outcome would be for my good.

• BELIEVE IN A HIGHER POWER AND TRUST ABSOLUTELY IN IT

There’s a soothing believe when you know that you got your back covered. I am not talking about religion or going to church here. Although, this can help boost this absolute trust in God, a higher power or Infinite Intelligence.

In my life I have learned to trust absolutely on a loving being who guides, protects and direct me to the highest good. This has given me an avowed confidence and I know I can walk through any challenges unscathed.

And I am also given the benefit to understand the causes of most problems. And when the light of understanding flashes into a situation it fades away like a burning candle in the wind.

I experienced the peace and miracle that comes in trusting on a higher power some years ago.

I visited a friend who was a paratrooper in the Nigerian Army. And resided at the 72 Airborne barracks in Makurdi, Benue State in North Central Nigeria. This was before the advent of GSM Telephone. I met and cultivated a mutual friendship with him when he served at the then 20 Amphibious battalion Warri where I spent my formative years.

This friend Bitrus joined the airborne wing of the Nigerian Army and later transferred to the Airborne barracks.

After years of not seeing each other he wrote and requested a visit from me. I gladly accepted and planned for after my upcoming Senior School Certificate Examination (SSCE).

Unbeknownst to me he had tried to reach me to stop the visit. As he was suddenly drafted to Liberia for a rescue mission. Even though he had just returned from a tour of duty in the ECOMOG peace mission three months earlier.

I got to Makurdi in the thick of the night. This was under a heavy down pour that caused flooding in the town and at the barracks. After negotiating my way through the dark and flooded barracks. I finally got to Bitrus upstairs block where I discovered he had gone to Liberia on an impromptu mission.

The news of his absence destabilised me initially. As the thought of where to put up for the night as well as where to get my transportation back to Warri stared me in the face. But, I quickly shoved the fears aside and mop up strength by surrendering my concerns to a higher power.

Soon my faith that all would be well became unwavering, but I must say the miracle I sought did not come easily.

The barrack was desolate as only a few soldiers, women and children were left. The rest had gone to either Liberia or Sierra Leon for peace keeping.

However, closer by to Bitrus apartment were three soldiers. I approached them for help. But was surprised when I saw they were high with Cannabis and could neither fathom what I was saying nor could I make sense of their gibberish.

Frustrated I left them to seek for help elsewhere. To say the least help came in droves. I suspected that my trust and absolute reliance in God or Infinite Intelligence was instrumental to my finding help in abundance that night.

I left Makurdi three days later to nearby Cross River State before going back home to Warri.

• BE A VOLUNTEER AND FIND A WAY TO SERVE LIFE

When you serve others you removed attention from your problems and put it on helping others. The welfare of those you serve becomes paramount to you.

In the Christian Bible, Jesus Christ admonishes his disciples to serve. When he said the greatest among you shall be the servant. He stoops low to wash the feets of his disciples, thereby demonstrating the humility that comes from serving others.

Serving others can help you removed your attention from your worries, cares and concerns and you immediately becomes relax and happy.

People need to purge themselves from greed and self grabbing mentality if they want to be happy. Go out do one good thing for someone every day without expecting reward.

Albeit, as a people in this part of the world we are yet to develop the art of true volunteering. Some years ago after I shuttered my business for refusing to gain traction, I bec Idle and wanted to get busy. Even if it was to work for free by volunteering my service to someone who needs it.

I was rejected in all the places I applied to work as a volunteer.  They were cynical and suspected I had an ulterior motive. Most people are use to being inundated by people for one demand or the other. So they couldn’t stomach the fact that somebody is applying to work in their establishment as a volunteer without any financial gratification.

Others simply see me as a fraud. While all I wanted was to give service. When you find a better way to become a volunteer and give off of yourself to helping others, you will develop the ability to become an optimistic person.

Because you will see good everywhere and in every situation. You will attract all you need to live a richer life.

I will like to hear your thoughts on the topic ‘how Surrender and optimism saved me from dying in a lonely well”. Please leave comments below and share your own experience on how surrender and optimism saved you in your life.

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