new essay on balancing will / agency with allowing / flow https://t.co/CwHfvoqTCP
This sense of freedom results from learning how to flow effortlessly in life.
Shannon Lee • Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee
you can experiment with what it feels like to not try to exert an iron grip on your timetable: to sometimes let the rhythms of family life and friendships and collective action take precedence over your perfect morning routine or your system for scheduling your week. You can grasp the truth that power over your time isn’t something best hoarded ent
... See moreOliver Burkeman • Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals
Ease manifests when you are fully in the moment, letting things happen on their own time, neither forcing nor rushing your process.
Brad Stulberg • The Practice of Groundedness
Too often people try to change their lives by using the will as a kind of hammer to beat their life into proper shape. The intellect identifies the goal of the programme, and the will accordingly forces the life into that shape. This way of approaching the sacredness of one’s own presence is externalist and violent. It brings you falsely outside yo
... See moreJohn O'Donohue • Anam Cara: 25th Anniversary Edition
In our everyday 3D lives, we apply force to matter and get predictable results. We unpack groceries, chop garlic, and switch on a stovetop to boil water for spaghetti. These familiar objects appear to be inert. They do what you make them do. But this model doesn’t port to inner moves. In the subtle realms of mind and emotion, applying force creates... See more
The point is a subtle one, he notes, because a resonant relationship with life depends on its being semi-controllable, not totally uncontrollable. You need to engage actively in the world – to connect to others, to make plans, and to pursue opportunities and ambitions – and people need the freedom, and the economic resources, to be able to do that.