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Headspace Studios. Hi, friends.
It's Rosie here. Welcome to Radio Headspace and to Tuesday.
Over the last few years, I've added some much -needed structure to my mornings.
And not like in a super intense TikTok influencer ice bath kind of way, but a light structure that works for me and keeps my dogs fed on time.
And recently, I've added in a trip to the gym.
And to no surprise, it's amazing.
But to stay on that routine, I have to be really diligent.
So when it's time to go to the gym, I go.
Because if I don't, then it seems like the rest of my day starts to fall apart.
Now there's a coffee shop I like to stop at on the way to the gym.
And I've started to make a friend there.
And we're in that sort of friendship courting stage, seeing if we'll make it official.
Anyway, yesterday, I was on my way to the gym.
I stopped for a matcha latte and ran into my new friend.
And I could tell she wanted to chat.
And at first, I kept thinking in the back of my mind, you've only got an hour.
You aren't gonna work out.
The day is ruined. But as the conversation went on, it just flowed.
It was funny, intellectually stimulating.
And finally, I just gave in.
And we sat and talked.
Eventually, she had to go.
And when she stood up, she thanked me for the conversation.
I checked my watch.
Yup, I didn't have time for the gym.
But I thought to myself, that was the workout.
That conversation will give me the endorphins and stimulation I need for work.
Flowing downstream that morning made me think about something called wu wei.
So wu wei is a Chinese philosophy that loosely translates to action without force.
To put it simply, it means go with the flow.
Now, I don't think this is the case all the time.
But I think if we have an ability to recognize which way the stream is flowing, this is for all my Texan friends.
Sometimes, it makes so much sense to just throw our tube on and ride down.
When I was younger, I got really interested in independent and foreign movies, but AMC or the big theaters didn't show them.
So I did a little investigation and found a cool little independent cinema not far from our house and convinced my mom to take me there.
This became a small ritual.
It was just the two of us.
We saw movies like The Fifth Element, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and I was introduced to one of my absolute favorite directors, Miyazaki.
If you aren't familiar, Miyazaki is an iconic Japanese animator, writer, and director.
He's made movies like Spirited Away or Princess Mononoke.
Compared to what I'd seen in theaters, Miyazaki's films were structured very differently.
They made me feel different.
His movies felt like there wasn't a super intense structure.
They just flowed. And that's actually the case.
Sometimes, Miyazaki doesn't even have a full script by the time he's animating.
As he's making the movie, he just feels it out.
He has a plan, he has characters, he's working towards an objective, but he will change it on the fly.
And that doesn't mean he wallows in a space of artistic self -indulgence.
He takes action, but action that flows with what's happening in the moment while he's creating.
And to me, that's Wu Wei in practice.
Remember, it's action without force, so he doesn't force it.
He works, but he lets it unfold naturally.
And subsequently he makes beautiful films that feel like their mind from someone's heart.
So I'm not saying that we should do what we want all the time, but I think being mindful of the flow of things can feel really good.
For example, if you wanna go to the gym more, but a friend lets you know about a rec sports league and you really enjoy the game and you only have time for one, maybe let it flow and join the team.
If you're at your job and you're finding yourself wanting to spend all of your time on one thing, try to make that a bigger part of your day.
And the same thing goes with relationships, which I think are the most tangible examples of this.
Relationships are work, but the ones that have worked the best for me have been when it seems to just flow from the first date, the conversation, the needs, and most importantly, where we're at at that moment in time.
Anyway, look up Wu Wei and watch some Miyazaki films.
That's your homework.
I'd start with Spirited Away or Porco Rosso.
That's it for me today.
If you enjoyed this episode, please share your thoughts with me on Instagram at Rosie Acosta.
Thanks so much for listening.
I'll see you back here soon.
Bye.
