The more the better?
If you only work hard enough, if you only do as much as possible all the time at any time- will it bring success, love, happiness, money, inner peace?
Or might it stress and burn you out instead? Leaving you frustrated, depressed, demotivated, tired, hopeless?
I do encounter very busy people. People who are chasing achievements all the time, busy working, busy socially, busy running, busy optimizing everything around them, yet never taking a break, never taking a breath and never being content, not to mention happy.
A garden at the end of winter doesn't necessarily look at its best. There are things a gardener will have to do to let the garden shine in time. He will have to fertilize, cut back bushes, clean the dirt, clear out the weed, plant the seeds, to water the soil. Yet he cannot do it all the time or at any given time. Too much fertilizer can ruin the soil, and plants can rot. Cutting back too much or at the wrong time can prevent plants from blossoming and growing. Too much water.....you get the picture.
So he will have to wait for the right time to act in order to make a healthy and beautiful garden happen. He has a plan, a strategy, knowledge, and intuition. He has the patience and the wisdom to let nature happen, without having to be blindly active 24/7. He cannot pull out the flowers to make them grow faster and bigger anyway, can he? They do it in their own time. Knowing that he can just lean back and watch it happen, enjoying the beauty in front of his eyes unfolding. He has done his part of the deal.
Wu Wei - "non-action", "non-doing", letting something happen naturally and effortlessly, without force is how I understand that principle from Chinese Taoism. Allowing something to become, being in a flow, just being.
How often do you take time to be consciously inactive? No social media, no TV, no courses, no work, no anything? Only silence and you? And if you do, how long can you do it without becoming nervous or feeling guilty?
I admit it is not easy for me to just be, either. I catch myself often enough feeling I need to do something because I think I have to. No one sets that pressure, but me. Yet it doesn't necessarily make me feel better if I do something in order to force something else. It won't work.
Sometimes it is healthier to just wait and see, to just let things develop naturally and in their own time, without force or pressure.
Just take some time to practice every day and notice how you begin to feel, when you pause and just be, for 5 minutes in a row. Be comfortable, turn off all devices, and do nothing.
What happens?
What do you experience?
Do not judge incoming thoughts or anything else. Just let it happen.
Do you get nervous? Ok, so be it.
Do you begin to think too much? Ok, so be it.
It might be difficult, but so be it. It will get easier with time. You recharge, you relax, you are aware, you are. Certain things happen in their own time, not necessarily when you want to, just allow it to happen effortlessly.
Comments