Trying Not To Try

Trying Not To Try explores ancient, Chinese philosophy to break down the art of being spontaneous, which will help you unite your mind and body, reach a state of flow, and breeze through life like a leaf in a river.

Have you ever experienced flow? It might have been during a video game, a sports event or even at work. In this state, you feel effortless. You don’t notice time passing. You’re completely in sync with whatever you’re doing. Your mind and body flow as one entity.

This concept has been investigated by psychologists since the 1980s, but the idea has been around for way, way longer. Ancient Chinese philosophers call it wu-wei (pronounced ooo-way) and it can be translated as “effortless acting.”

Wu-wei was one of the highest goals in these old philosophies, as it united the body and the mind. Usually, we treat these two as separate entities, but during wu-wei, your mind doesn’t consider your body as a separate part of you. This lets you act completely in the moment, naturally choosing the right next step.

For example, there is a story in Taoism, which explains how a woodcarver creates beautifully crafted bell stands: He fasts for seven days, until his mind doesn’t even notice his body. Then he goes into the woods and quickly sees which tree will get the best result, so he can then get to work.

This isn’t a coincidence: a typical symptom of being in wu-wei is forgetting to eat!

Have you seen or read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince? At one point, Harry drinks a special potion, which briefly turns him into the “luckiest person in the world.” For the next few hours, it seems like Harry can do absolutely nothing wrong, completely deciding in the moment, yet somehow making the perfect decision each time. In this situation, the Chinese would consider Harry to be on “The Way,” which is their concept of heaven: it’s not about the afterlife, but about becoming the best human you can possibly be while you’re on earth. The Way is the result of wu-wei combined with something else: de. De is an automatic consequence, a side effect, of wu-wei and resembles power, virtue and charisma. Because you spontaneously know exactly what to do through wu-wei, you confidently follow through on your decisions and seem to charmingly implement them to the outside world. This is because you’re connected with your unconscious mind: you act based on your true values, not some rationally conceived plan. The result is someone who acts decisively, with charm and integrity. No wonder the Chinese encourage trying to reach this state as much as possible! There’s one difference to our Western…