go with the flow

Clini Lê
Clini Lê
Aug 23, 2017 · 2 min read

if there’s one thing i truly learned this year is the cliche “go with the flow and see how things go”. before, this phrase would just be something i’d throw messily as a facade to make me seem like a “cool” and “chill” person or whatnot without fully understanding what it GENUINELY means. it’s so easy to just toss it around just because it seems or feels appropriate in the situation. and it’s only when i sit down with my own thoughts that i realised how hypocritical and ignorant i was. when hardship comes, go with the flow doesn’t mean accept and then avoid the problem. seems obvious but it’s hard when our brain can unconsciously trick you into thinking that avoiding is equivalent to solving the issue. especially when you’re so deeply submerged in your own ignorance that you successfully fooled yourself. but go with the flow here means embrace your suffering. embrace the pain that it brings. but don’t dare alleviating it by false console or dare aggravating it through self-inflected pain. decipher how this pain feels, what it means to you and what it is teaching you. no adding, no subtracting, embrace for what it truly is. pain is only bad if you allow yourself to think it’s bad. it’s the fear of pain and your attachment to avoid pain that is bad, not the pain itself. fear and attachment, it is. and same goes for joy. don’t magnify it, let it be what it be. your, or at least my attachment to find happiness is what prevents me from finding happiness. when you so desperately want the happiness you are experiencing to live up to your own expectations of what happiness is supposed to be, the lies you’re telling yourself will never set you free. no matter how hard you try to conceal that it wasn’t a lie, your mind will never be at peace, knowing deep down you’re chasing after disappointments. don’t romanticise pain or happiness but also don’t demean the value of sadness or happiness. just let they be what they are meant to be – free of your own presuppositions, of your own assumptions, of your own expectations. embrace it. deeply. so that it immerses within you, until it becomes you. or at least a part of you.

Objectively Subjective

A series of short stories that documents the biography of fundamental human experiences

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Clini Lê

Written by

Clini Lê

stumbler

Objectively Subjective

A series of short stories that documents the biography of fundamental human experiences

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