Let Go, Let Miracles Happen: The Art of Spiritual Surrender

Kathy Cordova (Editor)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"An accessible primer for the integration of spiritual understanding into our everyday lives." -- Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., Director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Project and author of

"Cordova helps us understand that surrendering is giving up the negative--sadness, fear, anger--but not giving up the challenge." -- Jackie Waldman, author of the

"Cordova shows us how the "ordinary" stories of our lives possess extraordinary opportunites for our growth. I truly enjoyed it!" -- Beverly Hutchinson McNeff, President of the Miracle Distribution Center

"If you take this book to heart, it will change your life." -- Ame Mahler Beanland, co-author of

"This powerful book reveals how "letting go" can be more effective than pushing and forcing our way in the world." -- M.J. Ryan, author of

An accessible primer for the integration of spiritual understanding into our everyday lives. -- Frederic Luskin, Ph.D., Director of Stanford University's Forgiveness Project

Cordova shows us how the "ordinary" stories of our lives possess extraordinary opportunites for our growth. I truly enjoyed it! -- Beverly Hutchinson McNeff, President of the Miracle Distribution Network

Product Description

Attractive, intelligent, and ambitious Kathy Cordova grew up living by the mantra that she was "not enough." Not thin enough, not smart enough, not pretty enough, not rich enough. Constantly struggling to prove herself, Cordova became a successful, but stressed-out sales executive who continued a pattern of overwork that left her feeling depleted and dissatisfied.

After the birth of her first child, a colicky baby who went through a number of nannies, Cordova finally figured out the Universe was giving her a message – to give it up. She quit her job, letting go of her grand ambitions and the logic of her head to follow her heart and stay home with her daughter. As she adjusted to her new life, Cordova learned that there is no magic formula for happiness. Instead of working so hard to find her bliss, she learned to relax, go with the flow, tune into her intuition, and experience a sense of purpose and harmony by practicing spiritual surrender. In Part I, the author recounts her personal experiences, revealing how spiritual surrender can be much more powerful—and effective—than constant striving, or toughing it out at all costs. Based on wisdom drawn from the Bible and contemporary books such as A Course in Miracles, Cordova dispels common misperceptions about surrender (it’s not a defeat or an escape for the lazy) and outlines a three-step process to experience the peace of surrender in any situation. She shows how "what we resist persists," and how to give up beliefs that hold us back, like struggle, fear, ego, and competition. By clarifying the differences between intentions, goals, and results, Cordova explains how to "keep your dreams, and lose your expectations." While hard to believe in our go-go culture, Cordova affirms how giving up our need for control, fully and deeply accepting circumstances, and acting with love and intuition is often the wisest course of "action."

In Let Go, Let Miracles Happen, Cordova illustrates the four different types of spiritual surrender and how, when faced with adversity, we can grow and heal, and experience miracles:

1. Letting Go of what is not working in our lives. Anger, fear, resentment, perfectionism, struggle, ego, and the need for approval are just some of the emotions and beliefs that don't serve us. We may also need to let go of an abusive relationship, a dead-end job, or our preconceived ideas of how situations and people should be. Releasing the negative in our lives makes room for the positive - like love, serendipity, and abundance.

2. Surrendering a Problem to God/A Higher Power/The Universe. This is the type of surrender that many of us have experienced. After all, if we're in a painful situation, and just don't have the will to fight any longer, what have we got to lose if we give up the whole mess up to a Higher Power? If we can ask for help, surrender our will, have faith, and listen for the answer, we can experience miracles.

3. Going with the Flow means giving up our belief in the struggle and learning to swim with the current in our lives and the Divine guidance of our intuition. We usually hear about this type of surrender when someone faces some terrible adversity that leads them to change their path and listen to their heart. Like the person whose successful, but unfulfilling, life is transformed by a serious illness that finally compels her to give up her frantic pace, rediscover the value of her family and spiritual life, and pursue a life-long passion.

4. Surrendering to Love. Love is not always the easiest or the most popular path. We get angry, we feel hurt, and sometimes it seems safer to shut down or to attack than to love. The path of least resistance is often going along with the crowd, and the crowd might not have the most loving mindset. There are times we've held back our love, out of fear of being vulnerable. Life is transformed when we choose love over fear and anger.

Part II is an inspirational collection of stories from people who have suffered everything from addictions to terminal diseases, profound disappointments to perpetual disillusionment, and triumphed. Whether the people profiled forgave their parents, quit miserable jobs, gave up drugs, or surrendered to love during the grief of caring for a dying child, these intimate, miraculous, hopeful and inspiring tales leave the reader transformed.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (November 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573248746
• ISBN-13: 978-1573248747
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #227,528 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Let Go, Let Miracles Happen: The Art of Spiritual Surrender, November 11, 2003

By A Customer

I came across this book, "Let go, let miracles happen" at the same time that I am going through a very difficult time in my life. In August of this year, my husband said that he wanted a divorce and I was devastated. While I was feeling down and extremely depressed, I prayed to God to please show me a sign that my life could be fulfilling on my own. The next day, I received a package at work, and when I saw the title, I just about fell out of my seat. It was as though I was meant to read this book! I read it in under a week. The stories of inspiration, hope,and love really made me think about how important it is to be kind to myself and stop worrying so much about him. I neglected myself while I was married because I thought that happiness meant only taking care of him. It has been a couple of months since we have been separated, and often times the pain is so severe I feel like I'm being torn apart inside. I use this book to motivate me to go on. I would like to let you all know that the book has made a huge impact in my life. I may no longer have the love of my husband, but I am learning to love and respect myself for the first time in my life and that is a true revelation! Thank you, Kathy for coming into my life when I felt like there was no hope.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Learn to Release, May 2, 2006

By	Janet Boyer "JanetBoyer.com" (Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"Spiritual surrender is not about doing nothing. It is about releasing what's not working in our lives, asking for guidance, and opening ourselves up to the opportunities that come our way, then acting on them." - From the book

Say the word "surrender" and most people imagine a battle scenario with one side throwing in the towel, giving up in bleak despair. Because contemporary culture often thrives on competition and being "strong", individuals often equate the concept of surrender with a form of weakness.

In the book Let Go, Let Miracles Happen: The Art of Spiritual Surrender, author Kathy Cordova explains that surrender "requires faith, but it also requires paying attention to opportunities and taking action." By releasing attachments, goals, and expectations, we can surrender what is not working in our lives while at the same time opening ourselves to wider-and surprising-avenues for vibrant, peaceful lives.

Ms. Cordova stresses the importance of heeding intuition in the process of surrender, addressing several questions that often plague spiritual seekers, such as "Is it ego or intuition?" and "What if my intuition is wrong?" Drawing from A Course in Miracles, she answers the first question by describing the ego's voice as:

"...fear, doubts, attack thoughts, vulnerabilities, and general ugliness that often comes to surface of our mind...the voice of authority, telling us what we `should' do-not in the sense of moral authority, but in the sense of keeping up appearances and trying to meet other people's expectations."

Ego separates through manipulating others, striving in competition, and bragging to prove superiority. Intuition, however, is "the voice of that playful child, acting out of joy, who has a beginner's mind, believes that anything is possible, and has no fear." Moving towards love and away from fear-listening to our hearts-helps us tune into the voice of intuition.

In the first part of Let Go, Let Miracles Happen, the author discusses:

* Discovering the Art of Spiritual Surrender
* Winning Through Surrender
* What We Resist Persists
* Pray, Let Go, Listen: Three Steps to Spiritual Surrender
* The Beliefs That Hold You Back: Fear, Struggle, and Competition
* Keep Your Dreams, Lose Your Expectations: Intentions, Goals, and Results
* The Four Types of Surrender

The rest of the book chronicles the stories of dozens of individuals who faced difficult, perplexing, and painful situations, and how they made it through by surrendering. Poignant, candid, and often humorous, these stories illustrate the many avenues of surrender, whether through relationships, illness, unemployment, addiction, parenthood, and even the death of a loved one.

Let Go, Let Miracles is a book rich with incisive wisdom and sage advice. I was surprised at the similarities between Ms. Cordova's life and my own, and found her honesty refreshing. Her words ring true, and both her stories and those of the others were spiritually nourishing, encouraging, and comforting. What a relief to discover the strength in surrender-to stop banging heads against the wall and refrain from doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results! If you're tired of striving, competing, and controlling-desperate to shrug off the weight of the world on your shoulders-Let Go, Let Miracles Happen will light the way to lightness, clarity, and joy.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Letting go..., October 29, 2003

By	Heide AW Kaminski (Tecumseh, MI USA) - See all my reviews

Kathy Cordova used to be a successful sales executive. Then she discovered spirituality and learned that there was life after business success.

Among other newfound abilities and dreams Kathy decided to put a book together about spiritual surrender to share with others how letting go can pave the way to better things.
She put out a call for submissions on the Internet to invite other writers to share their experiences in opening the doors to wonderful events in their lives by having faith and following their inner guidance rather than the demands of the business world
"Let Go" is the result of Kathy's labor. She combines her own experiences with the stories from many others to show that there are endless ways to better yourself spiritually.

Her book is sprinkled generously with quotes from works such as "A Course Of Miracles", "The Seat Of The Soul", "The Talmud", "The Bible" and various Buddhist writings.

Whether you are among those who have already discovered the joy and freedom of letting go, whether you are a doubting Thomas or whether you are open to the possibility of making a change in your life, this book is sure to provide you with the inspiration needed to find what is right for you.