In late 2022, I decided I needed to take a MASSIVE LEAP into the unknown and be nomadic for 3 months.
At the time, I didn’t really know what I was doing- on the outside it looked like I’d lost my mind. I was going to pack up my entire apartment and leave everything I was familiar with (including my partner) to go on some ‘eat pray love’ experiment? Yeah, nuts.
I’d never travelled solo for this long, I had zero plans, minimal income and knew nobody in the countries I was visiting. Although I had no clue where this would take me, I just knew I had to do it.
After building what looked like a successful business on the outside, moving into the apartment on my vision board and buying a brand new car… I soon realised that my definition of “success” did not look like this. Or at least only part of it did.
By western society’s standards, I was supposed to be fulfilled- to a degree I had “made it”. Female solopreneur, boss girl, making moves.
Yet deep down, I felt unfulfilled. As the yearning inside me to travel, wander and be nomadic (as the younger me used to dream)- the dissatisfaction grew. The longer I delayed giving myself the permission to “try out” a nomadic lifestyle, the more I felt the ache of my soul.
I felt myself longing to be uprooted from this rigid, urban life. I craved deeper connections, I wanted to tap into my intuition, I wanted to express myself in ways that my current environment just could not allow for.
You see, everybody around me was so fixated on “settling down” meanwhile I just wanted to go out and explore the world and have experiences.
So despite all the resistance my mind and logic offered me, I knew I had to do it. One small step at a time- browsing for flights, daydreaming about the lifestyle, watching YouTube vlogs and tiktok videos of others who’d done it too… I finally decided to take the leap.
I booked my flight and stepped into my next era of Surrender. *Enter the Surrender Experiment*.
What is the Surrender Experiment?
The Surrender Experiment is a challenge, in the form of an invitation to surrender to the invitation from ones soul- the silent but deep whisper that believes 'there has got to be more."
This desire comes from the innermost part of your soul that knows that you cannot possibly find your true self if you stay exactly where you are.
Something has to change.
You must take a leap.
You must get uncomfortable.
You must become undone- stripped of everything you think you believe about yourself & know about life.
You must dive headfirst into the unknown.
... otherwise you might never truly know who you are and what you are here for.
Whether it comes to you in the form of a silent whisper or a moment of grand awakening- the call of surrender is timely. And it is one that cannot be ignored. It is gentle but persistent and it you know its 'feels right' to follow... even when on the outside, it doesn't seem to make any sense.
Why 'Surrender'?
To surrender is to relinquish all control. To detach ones identity from all the labels. To be uprooted from familiarity. To be open to all possibilities.
When you yield to the soul, you make room for new possibilities. You get out of your own way and you allow things to unfold as they will, trusting that all things are always going to work out. You don't try to plan or control and you allow things to take their course because you don't seek anything from them.
The mark of true surrender is being able to feel peace and security from within. When you get to a place where you no longer need to seek anything from anyone or any circumstance in order to feel peace, purpose, joy... that is when you have truly embodied surrender.
What embarking on a Surrender Experiment will teach you is a WAY OF LIFE. A way of co-existing with divinity and partnering with your soul instead of constantly operating with your mind, being driven by your fears or by the expectations imposed on you.
This way of life believes there is no one-size-fits all approach to life and that your true peace, joy & path to success is found through living in alignment to yourself and your soul. Surrendered living lives fluid and always open to change, never judging what is 'good' or 'bad,' open to any possibility and embracing of all circumstances and events as a gift to learn and grow from.
Through becoming uprooted from ones comfort zone and learning to become deeply in tune with oneself, the Surrender Experiment invites us to find our true nature and lead authentic soul-led lives of true peace, joy and freedom from the inside out.
[Read more: www.nicoleconcepcion.co/thesurrenderexperiment-about]
So I took the plunge. What happened next?
As I explain in this Youtube video this was NOT just a 3 month holiday. This was a DECLARATION. It was an intentional decision to be transformed.
Prior to this point I was the routine girly, fixated on her checklists, timelines and deadlines. Money ruled my life and my business ranked the most important thing to me. I was so out of alignment to the things I said I valued: freedom, slowness & wonder.
I needed to shake things up. In fact, I needed to be completely uprooted and plucked out of everything I knew…
If there’s one thing I know for sure- it’s that we humans, are creatures of habit. We become our environment and we adapt to what is familiar and safe as a way to survive… and unless we disrupt the familiarity, we will continue to cycle through the same patterns, realities and problems.
Seeing my life and this “success” I had created yet feeling deeply misaligned to it. I recognised that the only way to access the other parts of me that I’d buried (the creative, adventurous, curious, spiritual, feminine and expressive), I needed to get uncomfortable again.
I needed space to reconnect to myself
I needed the challenge of the unknown to reconnect to what I truly valued most.
I needed to retreat in order to get direction for an aligned future.
Although some of my loved ones convinced themselves this was “just a phase” I knew what I was really stepping into was a lifestyle of surrender and giving myself permission to follow my heart.
Booking that plane ticket changed the course of my life in so many ways.
My entire business, social life, relationship with money, spirituality, family life, personal growth, romantic relationship (basically everything) was affected.
My entire identity shifted.
From once being constantly stressed about money, anxious about the future, obsessed with controlling outcomes and unable to rest without feeling guilt, I learnt how to truly live and embody my values. My life did a full 180 turn.
All because I said “yes” to surrender.
So in summary, what is the Surrender Experiment?
It’s relinquishing control and willingly being released into the unknown. It’s trusting the intelligence that goes beyond your human comprehension and finding yourself in the grace of the mysterious and marvellous divine.
It’s the stripping away of all labels and letting go of all identities you’ve been clinging on to. It’s allowing yourself the permission to rediscover your true nature and in essence, to come back home to your own self.
For the western woman, particularly those who are ambitious, high functioning & passionate- this is the common story. And because of the insurmountable pressure we place on ourselves to be perfect, proper & always moving the needle forward.. responding to the call to surrender seems irrational, crazy & unhinged,
Yet it’s exactly what we need.
It’s what our souls crave.
Yet we wait until we’ve hit the wall and are flat out exhausted to give it to ourselves.
“I just want a break”
“I need to get away from here and just be with myself”
“I don't even know who I am anymore”
“What do I even want anyway?”
“This is not the life I wanted for myself”
I just want to be free”
… are just some of the things you’re telling yourself
All of which are found in the surrender.
What does the Surrender experiment look like?
It may start as a big leap to an unknown place, following the call of your intuition (which we all have by the way)… And maybe it evolves as something bigger.
Maybe it’s a trip you take once a year or once every half year. A trip with no plans, a time to unplug from all obligations and responsibilities and a time to just take care of yourself. From there, it eventually becomes a way of life.
For me it started as one trip… and has evolved into a state of being.
Surrender is an identity I embody, as much as possible as often as possible.
It’s a surrender in the sense that there are always ‘clues’ pointing us toward our path and intuitive calls we can respond to. It’s knowing that “no matter what, I am exactly where I need to be” and leaning back into the wonder of every moment.
Since returning home, I live life a little less tightly round, less fixated on timelines, rules or problems. I can dance with the ebbs and flows of life and not lose myself when chaos strikes. Surrender is not just something you do, it’s something you can embody.
And that my friend, is how surrender changed my life.
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