This morning I plucked The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff from my bookshelf. I first read the book (that explains the principles of Taoism through the characters and stories of Winnie the Pooh) during a humanities class in high school. I read it again, of my own volition, in college.
It’s a short read – I’m able to get halfway through the book in my first hour of reading – and it’s serving as I intended: a reminder to seek a little less knowledge for knowledge’s sake and a little more acceptance of the nature of things.
Inner Nature. Understanding the way things are. Understanding the way you are. Your own place. Your own part to play. Your own limitations. Here’s one passage I underlined:
“A saying from the area of Chinese medicine would be appropriate to mention here: ‘One disease, long life; no disease, short life.’ In other words, those who know what’s wrong with them and take care of themselves accordingly will tend to live a lot longer than those who consider themselves perfectly healthy and neglect their weaknesses. So, in that sense at least, a Weakness of some sort can do you a big favor, if you acknowledge that it’s there . . . Once you face and understand your limitations, you can work with them, instead of having them work against you and get in your way, which is what they do when you ignore them, whether you realize it or not.”
I feel like I could quote this whole book. Another term for the concept in this passage is self-awareness.
In psychology there’s a model called the Johari Window, that explains we can never know ourselves completely. There are parts of ourselves that will be unknown to us and possibly unknown to others. But it’s also a reminder to continue self-discovery, to ask for feedback, and to narrow our blind spots.
In the Leadership Development Program through my work, we spend the first week on Authentic Leadership and talk a great deal about self-awareness. We pose the question: “How do you keep yourself self-aware?”
It can be surprisingly difficult to answer. When I share with the group I talk about writing and externalizing my thoughts, meditation, and reading self-development books.
There’s another quote that stood out to me in my morning’s reading:
“We don’t need to play Abstract Philosopher, asking unnecessary questions and coming up with meaningless answers.”
Uff da. I can be guilty of this and my thought-track lately seems to be heading this way. The antidote: “What we need to do is recognize Inner Nature and work with Things As They Are.”
Work with things as they are. Work with life how it is. Work with myself how I am.
Put that way, I don’t think the answers I seek are very complicated. I’m spinning myself in circles asking questions that don’t need to be asked. At least, not right now.
If you’re in the mood for some nostalgia and inner peace, I recommend The Tao of Pooh. Our Bear of Very Little Brain has a lot to teach us.
With Love,
Natalie