How to Escape a Labyrinth

It's finally time to go to bed. You've already taken a shower to unwind, drank a glass of warm milk, and jotted down your worries in a small notebook on your nightstand. Your room is dark, slightly cool, and peaceful. Your flannel pajama is extremely comfortable, not because it's light and breathable, but because after three years of nonstop use, it's as loose as it can be. You climb into bed, first resting your buttocks on the expensive Swedish mattress you recently purchased, then turning 90 degrees to insert yourself beneath a synthetic-filled duvet that traps heat without weighing you down. Finally, you close your eyes and place your head on your flexible polyurethane foam pillow, which, as you can attest, offers amazing support and airflow.

You once heard that it takes an average person more than an hour to enter the sleep stage where the most vivid dreams occur. But not you; it appears that you have the ability to have the most bizarre hallucinations right away. Today is no different. You suddenly find yourself in a labyrinth made of sharp rocks and large boulders. There are several passageways in front of you that are only dimly lit. But instead of being still, they're moving up and down, left and right, and are constantly replaced by new corridors that are just as dark and gloomy as the ones that have moved out of sight. You’re scared, anxious, and insecure. You realize you have two choices: wait for the exit to appear in front of you or go in and hope you find your way out of that creepy place.

So, you take a step into the void. You’re immediately submerged in a neon-bright purple liquid that is as thick as lava but as cold as ice. You frantically kick your legs and push your arms in an attempt to catch some air. As you approach the surface, you notice an old lighthouse in the distance. You begin swimming in its direction, only to discover that you are trying to move against the current. You try to pick up speed, but the agitated streams push you further away. You’re aware that tides are not permanent; they change. But instead of waiting, you continue to swim. You begin to feel desperate, helpless, and powerless.

Almost immediately, you're back in front of the moving corridors. Your options remain the same: do nothing and wait for things to improve, or act regardless of the risk. You choose option number two once more. This time, you're in a candy forest, where trees made of marshmallows, chocolate, and caramel popcorn grow from the sky. You’re irritated, angry, and frustrated. If you could only control how they grow and plant them on the ground, you could climb them and see where you should be going.

All of a sudden, you find yourself staring at the moving passageways again. You can either stay put and let things happen naturally, or you can make a move and try to force change. The uncertainty of waiting for the exit is too much for you, so you decide to go back in. As you step into the unknown, you wonder if you're doing something wrong. Could it be that the more you try to escape the labyrinth, the less likely you are to succeed? Is it better to let things run their course and only act when the conditions are right?

The Tao Te Ching, a philosophical and spiritual text written in China over two thousand years ago, proposes a way of life that seeks to restore balance, harmony, and serenity. It envisions a dynamic universe that is always shifting and flowing, a natural order of things that, if it’s not disrupted, will lead to a state of thriving. However, humans frequently interfere with it, attempting to control and influence it. Here’s where the concept of "Wu Wei" comes into play. It is, in essence, the method of following the Tao. In the Chinese language, "wu" means nothing, and "wei" means action thus, Wu Wei has been incorrectly translated as "non-action" in other languages. However, Wu Wei doesn’t simply mean doing nothing; rather, it’s the practice of not acting when it goes against the natural course of the universe. Let’s go over this in more detail.

According to the video Wu Wei - The Art of Letting Things Happen, for Lao Tzu, the founder of the philosophical system Taoism, forcing the flow of nature always leads to unanticipated problems. The world cannot be governed because it’s completely beyond our control, and any attempt to do so is always futile. No matter how much people applaud us for engaging in such an endeavor, spending our lives fighting against nature is a waste of time. This is especially true when we recognize that when we don't force or intervene, situations often resolve themselves. Things get done naturally when we let them happen. Instead of wasting our lives trying to control, govern, and change the natural course of events, we should accept what is and navigate through it like water flowing through a rocky surface towards the ocean.

Make no mistake: Wu Wei's philosophy is far from passive. According to the BBC, it doesn’t prevent us from leading active lives. It simply means that our actions must be completely detached and disinterested in order to fit into the natural pattern of the universe. Certainly, pure Taoism requires us to live on the assumption that the world is in order and that we shouldn’t interfere with it. However, it also recognizes that hard work and action are sometimes required. "Perfect activity leaves no trace behind it," says the Tao Te Ching, and this can only be achieved by working with the flow rather than against it. Using water as an analogy, English author Alan Watts once stated, "Wu Wei is the art of sailing rather than the art of rowing."

Aldous Huxley, another English author who addressed the issue, coined the term "Law of Reversed Effort." The video, The Harder You Try, The Worse It Gets, demonstrates that, in many situations, putting in work only pushes us further away from our goals. In other words, there are moments when the more we strive, the worse it gets. The more we look for happiness, success, or wealth, the less happy, successful, and wealthy we become. In fact, many times the opposite is true: the less we try, the better it gets. As a result, achieving our goals needs more than just hard work; occasionally, we must also refrain from acting. So, whether Wu Wei or the Law of Reversed Effort, Huxley believed that we needed to find a balance between action and non-action, activity and relaxation, conscious effort and letting nature flow.

Knowing how not to act, or, more accurately, acting only when it’s in accordance with nature's flow, requires a specific skill set, which begins with acknowledging the impermanence of everything that is and exists. When we face adversity, whether at home or at work, we feel compelled to act to restore stability to our lives. But resisting reality only adds to our misery. Being able to face these situations knowing that nothing is permanent will immediately reduce the internal pressure to take action. The second skill to learn is how to recognize when things are beyond our control. According to PsychCentral, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can help us with this. It entails learning to be in the present moment, distancing ourselves from our thoughts, accepting the painful things we have gone through, stepping back and simply observing without involving our thoughts, beliefs, and memories, and identifying our true values, that is, what we want to stand for, what truly matters to us. Dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), an evidence-based practice that teaches a skill called radical acceptance, is another tool at our disposal for identifying situations we cannot change. Rather than ignoring, avoiding, or wishing the situation were different, fully acknowledging things as they are can be a critical step in moving through a difficult experience.

Tolerating uncertainty is the final skill we should develop. Many times, we feel compelled to act not so much to reclaim control of our lives as to avoid the stress, anxiety, and worry that comes with a lack of it. Psychology Today offers six strategies for increasing tolerance for uncertainty, three of which I will highlight. First and foremost, we must expand our knowledge. Understanding how anxiety works can help us cope with uncertainty. Second, cultivating a healthy relationship with danger. This entails using our rational mind, rather than our anxious one, to assess the likelihood of an event occurring. Third, we must improve our flexible thinking. This means changing our thinking based on new information and letting it have a positive effect on how we act.

Your alarm clock beeps as you’re about to get sucked into the third passageway. You slowly open your eyes, trying to figure out where you are. “Ufff…it was all a dream," you think to yourself. You reach for your phone, which has been charging next to your bed and tap on your morning meditation app. It welcomes you with the following Lao Tzu quote: "Rushing into action, you fail. Trying to grasp things, you lose them. Forcing a project to completion, you ruin what was almost ripe. Therefore, the Master takes action by letting things take their course."

Author: Esteban Polidura, CFA. February 25, 2023.

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