Tidal Wave

Let yourself recede
Deeply into the blue lull
Embrace the chaos of your displacement
For you are just in the process of nascence

You’re a force of nature
Bridging your transition
Towards a great transformation

Let yourself retreat
Quietly into the deep blue
Embrace the chaos of your homecoming
For you are only becoming

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A post shared by Jenny Hsu (@ihsuyou)

Thank You

I am only here
because of where life has led me.
I’ve been blessed with many teachers
and the lessons they have taught me.

I don’t blame you for running away
when things got complicated.

I don’t blame you for cheating
when you were still healing
from your childhood trauma.

I don’t blame you for lying
because I couldn’t stick to my own boundaries.

I don’t blame you for the manipulation
because that was the only way 
we knew to survive.

I don’t blame you for my depression
because I ignored all the red flags.

Thank you for teaching me
the role I played in all of this mess.
Thank you for showing me
all the colours that I am.
Thank you for helping me break
the cycle of my own generational mess.

Thank you for being the best version
of yourself that you could be, 
and for making me grow
into the best version that I can be.

Thank you for showing me
my true inner strength,
and for being my greatest teacher
in this beautiful journey called life.

To all my greatest teachers,
I will always cherish
our moments spent together.

Belonging

Attachment is just a need to belong.
When we strip away the layers of our conditioning,
like peeling away the layers of an onion,
we reveal the nature of our true Self.
So therein lies the problem itself,
the grasping of the delusional mind—
a collection of patterns and limiting beliefs
in the physical form of the avatar that is us.
When we detach from the sense of our false Self, 
we reach the core essence of our true being,
our being as nature,
where we have always belonged.

Slow down to speed up

The only constant is change, and sometimes, we need to slow down to focus on our growth as individuals. The more we try to rush through the process, the messier our road to transformation and the more we may need to course-correct our path. 

Major changes that happen within ourselves require us to step off the gas pedal and create space for awareness and attention to rise to our inner world in order for us to process internal transformation and external actualisation. Turning inward to fully embody our most authentic expression to gain clarity on what we genuinely seek allows us to move forward into what we are being called upon to manifest.

The story of the tortoise and hare illustrates the kind of success that comes to those with relentless dedication and steady pacing rather than those with quick and careless strokes. It’s so easy to get caught up in expectations and temporary pleasures that we’re spiralling towards self-destruction. We’re just chasing money, power and success, and frenzied over this addiction to faster living and instant gratification that we have forgotten the important lessons woven into our classic bedtime stories. Moving fast can cause us to suffer, along with our sense of self, well-being and happiness. 

Sometimes we need to pace the speed of our work and slow down for moments of deeper dialogue and understanding before speeding up. When we set our intention towards the outcomes we want to emerge, we will have greater control and focus over our work as a whole because that’s the law of attention - where attention goes, energy flows.

How often have you heard a trainer say, "Stop rushing through the exercises?". How many encouraged you to slow down and break apart each movement until you understood and practised the sequence to perfection?

Clarity comes from our willingness to slow down to look at what’s happening and listen to what’s truly important. It’s the gift of time that allows us to reconnect with ourselves, figure out our goals, embrace the moment to try new things, learn a new skill and evolve our identity. Through presence and awareness, our capacity grows in abundance.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” - Lao Tzu

The art of letting go

Change requires us to venture into unknown territory that usually comes with doubt, fear and uncertainty. But if we allow ourselves to surrender, we open up space to be more present, bringing a peace of mind and clarity that helps us navigate through the dark and bloom into the light. 

I wanted to take a stroll down memory lane as a way to remind myself how liberating it is to let go and empower myself to release the last few strands that I’ve been clinging onto. I hope this resonates with those who are also feeling stuck and serves as an inspiration for us to live more freely.

My first meeting with Death

Two years ago, I blissfully drifted out to the South China Sea. A yacht that sped past abruptly stopped and coursed its way back. The crew and guests onboard worried I was adrift and needed help. Completely oblivious to the changing weather, I dismissed their help and insisted on paddling myself back to the distant land where I had set camp. They reluctantly left, and at that moment, I woke up to my reality: a storm was coming through. I started to paddle.

No matter how fast or slow I went, I couldn’t compete with the moving currents. I abandoned my floaty and tried to swim only to exhaust myself after swallowing mouthfuls of the ocean. I retreated to my float realising that I was adrift (and likely to reach the Philippines in seven days if the currents continued moving in the same direction).

I’ve been practising equanimity, knowing any attempt to cling onto life (i.e. to hold onto our attachments) would only lead to anxiety and suffering. So I slowed my breath, accepting death with each exhalation and easing into my "Cast Away” experience with each inhalation. Then, in the moment of acceptance, out of the blue, a local fishing boat appeared and I wavered my arms and screamed for all the hope in my lungs. After what felt like an eternity, a woman emerged out of the ship’s quarters and caught sight of my desperate call. Her husband retrieved me out of the ocean and they took me back to the beach from where I came. 

Surrendering the body

During a recent breath retreat in Costa Rica, I experienced an unforgettable out-of-body encounter where I felt my spirit leaving the body. There was no clock or timer, just my breath calibrating the mind, body and soul into the frequency of the music guiding us through our breathwork. It happened to be quite an emotional journey where I could feel a lot of deep-rooted pain and suffering rise up and out—it felt so liberating.

I felt so light like a feather drifting upwards towards the clouds. I felt my entire physical existence evaporate into the universe when “Hymn To The Soul” came on and it was in this liberated space where I managed to hold my breath for the entirety of the song (5 minutes and 39 seconds), breaking the longest breath retention record I’ve ever held. I have been practising breathwork for the past two years but I’ve never been able to push past a two-minute breath hold; it was the act of surrendering that allowed me to become unbounded and untethered to the physical body in this three-dimensional world and experience the transcendental state of pure consciousness.

The power of letting go

The art of surrendering is an active process of leaning into our fears. A true master of the art knows to let go of attachments (an idea, identity, belief, feeling and object) that keep a person held back. It is in that space where we surrender, something beautiful happens. A gentle force awakens that allows us to tune into the natural rhythm of the universe and thrive with more peace and happiness. We become liberated to make conscious choices that bring us closer to the things that align with our true inner compass.

With those thoughts, I leave you to ponder further with Alan Watts’ “Falling Into Love”:

Well now really when we go back into falling in love. And say, it's crazy. Falling. You see? We don't say "rising into love". There is in it, the idea of the fall. And it goes back, as a matter of fact, to extremely fundamental things. That there is always a curious tie at some point between the fall and the creation. Taking this ghastly risk is the condition of there being life. You see, for all life is an act of faith and an act of gamble.

The moment you take a step, you do so on an act of faith because you don't really know that the floor's not going to give under your feet. The moment you take a journey, what an act of faith. The moment that you enter into any kind of human undertaking in relationship, what an act of faith. See, you've given yourself up. But this is the most powerful thing that can be done: surrender. 

See. And love is an act of surrender to another person. Total abandonment. I give myself to you. Take me. Do anything you like with me. See. So, that's quite mad because you see, it's letting things get out of control. All sensible people keep things in control. Watch it, watch it, watch it. Security? Vigilance Watch it. Police? Watch it. Guards? Watch it. Who's going to watch the guards? So, actually, therefore, the course of wisdom, what is really sensible, is to let go, is to commit oneself, to give oneself up and that's quite mad. So we come to the strange conclusion that in madness lies sanity.

---

The album from my Cast Away experience

Me on my float roughly 20 minutes before the yacht passed and I realised I was adrift.

Roughly where I drifted.

Are you happy?

Being yourself is the greatest gift you can give to the world. You only get one life so make every moment count. And if it’s not making you happy then it’s keeping you stuck.

We live in a world that moves so fast, and often to the rhythm of other people’s beats. We are rarely encouraged to slow down, feel and process - especially in the workplace. Some of us will even drink from the firehose that gladly keeps pumping while it reaps the benefits from those who keep chugging. Because we’re always chugging, we don’t have the time to slow down and ask ourselves the important questions that matter:

1. What is happening in your life right now?

2. How do you feel about it?

Think about these questions one at a time before you jump to a response, one at a time. Find a quiet space where you are alone and take a few mindful breaths. Reflect deeply through the process of writing, and be honest because you only need to answer to yourself.

Honesty takes courage, even if the truth is painful. Choose courage over comfort and lean into the fear because that is where you’ll find yourself. So find the courage to go within and embrace the journey. Trust the process because things are about to get magical. ✨

📷 @lesliedwight