Finding Your Place in the Flow: The Taoist Art of Belonging Without the Burnout


It didn’t feel like failure.

It felt like motion—disguising disconnection.

I was running at full tilt—meetings, goals, expansion, momentum.

From the outside, it looked like growth.

But inside, something was fraying.

The harder I pushed, the more life pushed back.

Conversations tangled. Plans crumbled.

A subtle offness hung over everything—unnamed, but insistent.

So I did what feels almost sacrilegious in a world addicted to effort:

I stopped. I watched. I waited.

And slowly, something surfaced not an idea, but a reorientation.

A knowing not from thought, but from sensation:

I wasn’t in the wrong race.

I was simply standing in the wrong current.

The  unseen power of position

In Taoism, strategy doesn’t begin with action.

It begins with placement.

“Human follows Earth.

Earth follows Heaven.

Heaven follows the Tao.

The Tao follows what is natural to itself.”

—Tao Te Ching, Verse 25
(explored in Chapter 10: “Find Your Place in the Flow” in The Strategy of No Strategy)

The Tao doesn’t command you to grind.

It invites you to sense where you are and whether the current is carrying or resisting you.

Because here’s the truth:

Even the strongest swimmer will drown if they’re in the wrong river.

WHY hustle isn’t the answer

You’ve been conditioned to believe that effort equals progress.

That friction means you’re “growing.” That exhaustion is proof of worth.

But alignment isn’t about pushing harder.

It’s about recognising where your energy belongs.

How many times have you:

Pushed for a role, a relationship, or a result that drained you?
Forced a plan that kept collapsing no matter how smart it seemed?
Mistaken misalignment for personal failure?

You weren’t broken.

You were out of place. And the Tao was trying to tell you.

the leaf on the wind: when I let go and found my flow

There was a project I gave everything to.

Time. Energy. Reputation. Heart.

But it resisted me at every turn.

One day, I stood from my desk, defeated.

At the window, I saw a leaf caught by the wind; spinning gently, moving effortlessly.

It wasn’t pushing. It wasn’t clinging. It simply rode the current.

And in that moment, the Tao whispered—not to my mind, but to my bones:

“You are trying to control what must be sensed.

You are forcing what wants to be released.

You are misplacing your strength by fighting what’s meant to carry you.”

I stepped back. I let go. I shifted.

And then, without strain, everything began to click.

It wasn’t magic. It was correct positioning.

And I realized…maybe strategy was never about control.
Maybe it was always about listening.

WHAT flow actually feels like

When you align with the Tao:

Meetings shorten and deepen.
Decisions emerge without angst.
Conversations move from performance to connection.
✹ Energy renews itself instead of draining you.
✹ You no longer feel the need to justify your presence.

 It speaks for itself.

This isn’t about ease. It’s about belonging to the rhythm again.

try this today: PRACTICES for reorienting the flow

  1. Pause Where You’re Pushing

    Identify one area of friction. Ask: “Is this misalignment? Am I resisting natural timing?”

  2. Let the Terrain Shape the Plan

    Before acting, ask: “What is this moment asking for?” Not what did I plan? But what does this moment reveal?

  3. Consult the Body’s Compass

    Close your eyes. Breathe. Scan for openness vs. constriction.

    Your body knows where you belong before your mind does.

  4. Say This to Yourself:

    “I don’t need to fight to prove I matter.
    My place is waiting.
    I just need to find the current and move.”

ready to stop pushing and start moving with power?

Read The Strategy of No Strategy ; your Taoist field guide to unshakeable clarity, right timing, and effortless movement in a world that confuses force with effectiveness.

Inside, you’ll find:

Personal stories of misalignment, resistance, and graceful reorientation
Taoist tools to move with rhythm instead of reaction
✹ A toolkit for sensing not just what’s “next” but what’s yours
The radical idea that power begins not with pressure but with placement

 

Find the Flow That Already Wants to Carry You

Know someone exhausted from swimming upstream?

Share this. Tag them softly.

Remind them:

You don’t need to fight so hard to belong.
You were never meant to swim upstream forever.
The current has always been there—waiting for you to listen.

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When Logic Fails: Trusting Your Gut in a World Addicted to Absolute Certainty