Tag: Water

Wisdom from the past: “Be like water”

Posted on by Karac Avalron

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Bruce Lee

The above is a famous quote from an interview from the 60’s. He was asked to encapsulate his philosophy etc. and of course that’s nearly impossible for anyone to do in a 40s sound bite. Its important to understand the context here as well, Bruce Lee was a martial artist (perhaps the most famous one) and an actor.

What can we glean from this bit of wisdom from the past?

Water has the ability to adapt to nearly any situation. As Lee says, “put it in a cup, it becomes the cup”. For those of us with anxiety this might not make a whole lot of sense. It requires a mind set and personal mental flexibility to allow yourself to “fit” into any situation. For us, again, those with anxiety I think the key take away here is we are both the water and the cup.

Many of us are struggling to be comfortable in our own skin, in multiple situations. Its far more important to be comfortable with yourself then with everything else around you, that comes later. You are the water and the cup, you have anxiety, you have to acknowledge and accept it. You have to forgive yourself for feeling the way you do, you have to accept yourself as you are and understand you are not deficient.

Once you accept yourself, you will more easily be able to employ this wisdom from the past and be like water. You will be able to navigate social situation, you will be able to function out there in the world with other people with all the mental exercises that go with it.

You are doing great, one day at a time.

Thank you for coming by and supporting my blog I really appreciate it. Want to see another post like this one? Click here.

Ways to manage anxiety (insert eye roll here).

Posted on by Karac Avalron

So I found an article here that was decent… Many of the articles you see online are mostly click bait and rehashes of things we already know. I understand that’s cynical, but it is what it is. This article was a bit of click bait as well “3 best ways to manage anxiety”

Right like there are 3 magic steps we can take and that’s it, game over we win. Anxiety is like water, just when you think it has it contained it seeps in from another location. Its not always an overwhelming flood, sometimes it’s the slow trickle that inevitably wears you down.

That said the article had one pearl that I though was worth sharing. From the article: When you notice you’re worried about something bad happening today, think about how likely that outcome really is. Has it happened many times in the past? Is it the most likely outcome? Are there other things that could happen instead? Most of the time, the things we worry about never end up happening, so the anxiety we experience causes us unnecessary suffering. Redirect your energy instead toward the things around you that are in your control. 

This is a great articulation of something I have been working on for literally years. I succumb to worry bordering on panic often (like many of us I am sure) but I work diligently to consider “is this really going to happen?”. So often it’s the case that nothing remotely as bad as I thought was going to happen does.

I think this is an extremely important concept to remember for those of us who suffer from anxiety, and this article does a good job of reinforcing it. The scenarios we create in our minds are often the worse case scenarios, as it would apply to us. As an example, I recently gave notice at my job, prior I had a whirlwind in my head of all sorts of scenarios that would play out from being sued to people begging me to stay.

It consumed me, and I was unable to sleep the night before and was riddled with anxiety. None of my mental forecasts came true. It was for all intent and purposes a standard run of the mill process with no surprises. For those of us with anxiety though, that’s daily life.

Like water, sometimes it’s a flood, sometimes it’s a small drip but either way you get wet, just to what degree? Now I’m waxing poetic and should probably stop, LOL.

You’re doing great, one day at a time.

Wisdom from the past: “Be like water”

Posted on by Karac Avalron

“Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless – like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup, you put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle, you put it in a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow, or it can crash. Be water, my friend.” Bruce Lee

The above is a famous quote from an interview from the 60’s. He was asked to encapsulate his philosophy etc. and of course that’s nearly impossible for anyone to do in a 40s sound bite. Its important to understand the context here as well, Bruce Lee was a martial artist (perhaps the most famous one) and an actor.

What can we glean from this bit of wisdom from the past?

Water has the ability to adapt to nearly any situation. As Lee says, “put it in a cup, it becomes the cup”. For those of us with anxiety this might not make a whole lot of sense. It requires a mind set and personal mental flexibility to allow yourself to “fit” into any situation. For us, again, those with anxiety I think the key take away here is we are both the water and the cup.

Many of us are struggling to be comfortable in our own skin, in multiple situations. Its far more important to be comfortable with yourself then with everything else around you, that comes later. You are the water and the cup, you have anxiety, you have to acknowledge and accept it. You have to forgive yourself for feeling the way you do, you have to accept yourself as you are and understand you are not deficient.

Once you accept yourself, you will more easily be able to employ this wisdom from the past and be like water. You will be able to navigate social situation, you will be able to function out there in the world with other people with all the mental exercises that go with it.

You are doing great, one day at a time.