Everyday living can get pretty fraught sometimes. We rush through life without really being present, we strive too hard to achieve our goals, we eat and drink the wrong things, we don’t sleep enough, and we are addicted to our phones and being interconnected 24/7. In the long run this creates dis-ease and stress – the number one health concern in the western world. There is a healing simplicity to be learned from the Chinese philosophy of Taoism and the ancient text the Tao te Ching. The word Tao means “The Way”, referring to the underlying substance and pattern of existence.
Taoism teaches the wisdom of getting back to basics and living simply in harmony with universal rhythms of life. There is wisdom in balancing different energies, such as striving and non-striving, action and inaction (or wei wu wei). So, rather than forcing things to happen, or fighting against them, sometimes we need to practice inaction, step back, and create space to allow things to unfold naturally. When you don’t know what to do, it is often better to do nothing, and allow things to reveal themselves. Check out the Tao de Ching for more ancient Chinese wisdom.
