Lazy but Aligned: The Joy of Doing Less (on Purpose)

[An excerpt from our newsletter]

There is one interesting theme that kept recurring in my recent conversations with different friends. It was about the art of "Being in the flow". You might know it by different names such as "wuwei", "wabi-sabi", "amor fati", or "non-attachment", etc. Personally I find that this practice is very profound and not easily expressed with a clear cut definition or a specific number of bullet points.

To be present with the flow of life is to soften our grip on the idea that things must go a certain way for us to feel safe, successful, or happy.As we float on the river of life, if we try to stay comfy away from the unknown waters by swimming back upstream, or building a dam to stop the flow, there will be quite a bit of work with not much break. If we humbly acknowledge that we won’t know every twist and turn, and let the river show us as we go, we'd get to actually enjoy the ride and work with the flow rather than attempting to control it. Might have time to decorate our paddles too!  

In the modern society, productivity and efficiency are often measured by KPIs, multitasking wizardry, and/or achievements; so much that time to relax and do "nothing" becomes a luxury! Studies have found that we often operate more on the stress response nowadays as our nervous system is usually tense, adrenaline and cortisol are usually jacked. We'd often time travel — replaying the past or fast-forwarding to our endless to-do lists — and we miss the only moment that’s actually real: the present.

Being in the flow is quite cool - we get to be purposefully lazy. When we acknowledge that the universe and us are cosmic dance partners, we can take a step back from trying to take full control of everything just to feel safe and jolly. Stay intentional with our life-long aspirations. Do what we need to do without getting attached to the fruit of actions. No need to try to rearrange the universe before breakfast!