Be Like Water

“Be like water.” Be like water. Be like water. This is the message I’ve been reminding myself each day. During times when I feel myself tensing up, getting stressed or overwhelmed, “Be like water.” Bruce Lee discusses his learning of this concept when his teacher challenged him to learn about detachment. Lee learned that it was important to “be like water.” “In order to control myself I must first accept myself by going with and not against my nature.” What does this mean?

Lee was referring to the Taoist philosophy of wu wei. (If you are interested, Donna Quesada, professor at Santa Monica College, provides a great explanation in her video lecture series. This is the start of the part where she starts discussing wu wei. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAmBZxukdTU.) Wu wei can be described as effortless action, gentleness, minimal resistance. Huston Smith describes it as “creative quietude.” It is all about allowing movement, flow and shifting. When we resist we block the flow. When we block the flow we expend more energy. When we let go and stop resisting, we allow the energy, or whatever it is, to pass through.

Have you ever noticed how you resist doing something, like paying your bills, and you get all worked up and think about how much you don’t want to do it? You spend more time putting it off, resisting doing it and thinking about resisting doing it than it actually takes. Consider how much time and energy was spent on avoiding it that could have been used for something else.

Quesada talks about wu wei being efficient. Watch any video on Bruce Lee and you’ll notice he does not use any extra movements, only what he needs to get the desired results. Think of a child learning to walk. When they are first walking, each movement is exaggerated as they are learning to control each of their muscles to get them working together. The brain is also developing the pathways to make the foot pick up and move to another location while balancing the weight on the other foot. The pathways eventually develop shortcuts so the movement becomes more efficient. As adults we’ve mastered efficient walking. Remember how difficult it is to walk with a sprained ankle or wearing high heels on soil? It takes longer to get around and we tire more quickly. Our movements are not as efficient as they usually are and we notice. It’s hard to appreciate until you experience the opposite.

How can you start to integrate these concepts in your everyday life? What can you do differently? In what ways will it change your life? 

More on this topic in the near future 🙂 

I would love to hear your experience with this. What are you feeling? What are you thinking?

And if you enjoyed this article and it’s giving you some concepts to think about, please share with others. We’re all on a journey and we never know when we can provide a little insight to someone else. 

Until next time!