My husband and I love to watch a good documentary at night and recently we have been watching Pole to Pole with Will Smith (National Geographic.) It is absolutely an amazing tour of the extremes of our world from the South Pole to the North Pole! In the 4th episode, called The Secret of Happiness, Will visits the Kingdom of Bhutan in the Himalayas, a country that has a national focus on happiness that is measured by something called GNH – Gross National Happiness. In this episode he is guided by a happiness expert to see what makes this country happy and what that might mean to the rest of us, and it really got me thinking! People are getting richer and living longer but our sense of well-being is going down. So how do we get that happiness back into our lives?
How can I be happy? How can we be happy together? These questions become clear to me when I surrender. And when I talk about surrender, it is not as a sign of defeat, but as an act of trust. There’s a “wisdom” in loosening our grip on the things we can’t control and just allowing life to unfold.
When you stop forcing every outcome, life often carries you to places far better than the ones you tried to push your way into. There’s a grace in letting life lead. When we insist on steering ourselves down a path that isn’t meant for us, we create friction. But when we surrender, we create flow.
Surrender is where real happiness begins. It’s the moment we stop wrestling with life and instead start dancing. It’s the shift from “Why isn’t this working?” to “What is life trying to show me?” When we truly surrender, we become more open, more present, and more connected—to ourselves and to each other.
When we release the weight of expectations and the pressure to be perfect, we make space for joy to enter. Letting go doesn’t mean giving up—it means choosing what truly matters and allowing the rest to fall away. It’s an invitation to breathe again.
Happiness grows when we stop clinging and start trusting. When we allow ourselves to be guided. When we let the unnecessary melt away. Surrender becomes a way of honoring the beauty of each moment. When we let go, we don’t lose control—we gain clarity. We gain peace. We gain joy!
