BodyLogos Blog

Doing Nothing Can Change Everything

Our bags backed, goodbyes made, we wait for our ride to the airport home bound. Anthony says, “so much has changed since we got here!” I reply, “but we’ve done nothing?”

One week of not having to do the things that shape our daily lives and satisfy our ambitions. One week to relax and recline. It was an intellectual vacation filled with experiential bliss.

In reflection, I realize we didn’t do nothing we experienced non-doing. The Tao concept of Wu Wei—to align with the natural flow of life.

The primary difference between doing nothing and non-doing is, non-doing does not fall into laziness or apathy. But instead, elevates you into a state of open-mindedness and receptivity to a new reality.

The only mental activity we engaged in was choosing a restaurant for a dinner reservation. Everything else we engaged in happened for us: watching the birds, listening to the sea, tasting the salt air, feeling the breeze tickle our sun drenched skin, and seeing each other enjoy the sensually of living.

Our minds rested from our constant demands and our bodies rose to frolic in its newfound freedom.

Spontaneous happenings, orgasmic stillness, and nature’s embrace guided our days. No one or no thing directed us beyond the current of our environment. We lived life as an Active Meditation.

So much had changed…

We were transported into a state of trust. A trust, that the Universe is for us to enjoy and engage in so totally that we feel encouraged to loose our minds. No books to loose ourselves into. No expectations to satisfy a sense of value. We simply lost ourselves in living.

Letting your mind’s constant chatter stop influencing your state of being is a gift that keeps on giving. It leads you to your senses instead of your emotions. Senses that connect you to each moment as you pass through them.

Upon our return home, I find myself slowing down to sense my reality. I see the places I judge, race and push myself––away from my senses––away from being happy. Places that I can transform into a more pleasant presence that feels good.

Presence creates positive change—a flow of goodness that is under the surface of what our minds think is important, but isn’t.

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Redefining Strength

I want to change our perception of strength. Strength is the ability to meet resistance and influence an outcome without compromising ourselves. And we already have it.

Strength is not an attribute; it’s a state of being. Gladiators, bodybuilders, and football players demonstrate strength through brute force, sheer willpower, muscle mass, and relentless pursuit. But we’re also quick to identify dancers and martial artists as strong. Their medium taps into a sense of vulnerability, balance, alignment, controlled power, and grace—but no one can deny their strength. Strength may look different on each of us, but it is an inherent part of who we are.

You are not weak by nature; you are stronger than you think. Your strength is not something you need to kill yourself to gain—it is already within you, waiting to be excavated. The key is to stop chasing something you already have and tap into it, so you can manifest that strength in your everyday life.

Because we don’t think we’re strong, we approach resistance with the idea that we’re not enough. We throw everything we have at it and push past our physical, mental, and emotional limitations. We see strength as domination, but it’s not.

When you learn to listen to your body’s divine wisdom, you cultivate a sense of where your body is developing tension instead of standing in its strength. You end the vicious cycle of unrealistic expectations, injury, and self-criticism and learn how to consciously embrace responsible growth. You stop compartmentalizing your strength into emotional, physical, and mental pieces and operate from the strength of your being at all times.

You learn how to align yourself with gravity—instead of working against it—so you can channel your strength to meet life’s resistance. As you meet resistance with equal parts power and alignment, you transform tension into strength

As in the sword dance above, the power lies in bringing just the right amount of force—not too little and not too much. By meeting the sword’s weight, I meet gravity. I am tapped into a larger source of energy, free of tension, and discover a strength that is wholly and uniquely mine.

About Tammy Wise

Tammy Wise is a widely respected mind-body fitness expert based out of New York City, owner of BodyLogos, Inc. author of The Art of Strength: Sculpt the Body ~ Train the Mind. A former Broadway dancer turned Tao minister, Tammy was voted the Best of Fitness by Time Out New York and has appeared in Martha Stewart’s Whole Living magazine, New York Magazine, Natural Health, Shape, and Thrive Global. She’s a Transformational Authors Contest Winner and regular contributor to Honeysuckle magazine and Medium. Visit her at bodylogos.com.