Drink Water and Flow Forward

We’ve all heard the famous Bruce Lee line: “Be water, my friend.” But what does it actually mean to “be water?” Let’s dive into it.

When you think about it, our entire existence consists very much of water. From our bodies to the whole planet, it seems that water makes up most of it, and I believe this is one of the secrets of the universe in regards to how we should be living our lives, much like a divine message. Here are 5 different ways that the concept of “being like water” can make your life flow forward:

#1 Drink Water

With about 60% of our human bodies comprising water, we are designed to function at our best when we constantly hydrate ourselves, much like watering a plant. The most important parts of the body, your vital organs that keep you alive, such as your brain and heart, are made up of 73% water each. The list of key body parts that are mostly comprised of water goes on and on, and you’ll soon realise the incredible water-based ecosystem that is your body. The simple act of drinking water is literally the solution to so many of our problems. Once you realise that mental problems are often caused by physical complications, you’ll take extra care to make sure your inner motors and generators are working properly.

When the brain is not working properly, you struggle to solve problems in your life. When your heart is not working properly, your blood flow is out of whack. When your blood flow is out of whack, you are likely to fall into depressions or develop other mental and physical complications. One thing is connected to another, and our bodies run like an ecosystem. If your plant was losing its colour, do you try to paint its leaves green or do you give it some water? In a similar way, if you are lacking hydration, does it make sense to be taking medicine, or drinking water? Like how the rain keeps the forests alive and beautiful, we need to drink water to do the same for ourselves.

#2 Think Water

Our state of mind affects so much of our lives, as we eventually become what we think of ourselves. This can be good or bad in some cases, as someone who thinks highly of themselves is bound to do great things, while someone who thinks low of themselves may never amount to anything. On the other hand, someone who thinks highly of themselves may become ignorant and selfish, and hence disliked by others, while someone who thinks low of themselves may become humble and selfless, and hence liked by others.

The idea of thinking like water is in many ways transcending this notion of high and low, good and bad, so on and so forth. It is simply being in the present moment, not trying to reach certain states of mind by having the knowledge that such mental states are anything but permanent. Thinking like water means not becoming attached to the idea that you are super-confident or super-humble or anything in between, but rather accepting all of your feelings at once and accepting how the world at large sees you. Your parents may see you as a humble person but your kids may see you as highly confident, so getting attached to any one of these notions about your mental state is bound to be incorrect, or at least, not completely true.

#3 Act Water

As the great Bruce Lee says, “thinking is not enough, we must do. Willing is not enough, we must apply.” So you’ve got your hydration going and you’re starting to think in a more flowing, undisturbed manner, but how do you take this inner peace and exert it outwards? It all comes down to moderation, that is, not becoming overly obsessed with acting or not acting. The reason for that is many times when we feel obliged to act, our feelings are misplaced, and we don’t realise we are acting for the wrong reasons.

Keeping someone safe from the dangers of yourself is just as noble as taking action to save someone from a burning building. As such, we must not mistake the peaceful old man for not doing anything or being lazy, as in many cases he is taking plenty of action against himself, his own whims, to keep himself at bay from saying or doing the wrong thing.

On a more day-to-day level, acting as water means embracing all the highs and lows of your day by taking action with a clear mind. This means not obsessing over problems you cannot fix right away, but also not obsessing over the major and minor victories of your day. Acting in a flow-like manner is what keeps you moving along calmly but firmly, not giving way to obstacles but also not trying to conquer your problems directly. Like a river stream flowing through some stones, sometimes you will sway around your obstacles, other times you will splash against them. Regardless of how you meet your obstacles, whether your initial approach was right or wrong, the river continues to flow through, and so will you.

#4 Feel Water

Once you are drinking water, thinking it, and acting it, you’ll progressively feel more and more like water itself, cool, calm, and present. This is where you start to get closer to expressing your true and authentic self, as the barriers of the mind and body begin to fade. Once you start to see people and things for what they are, the toxicity in your life and relationships begins to cast aside, much like how the water clears away the dirt when you wash your hands.

When you are not functioning at your peak physical, mental, and spiritual states, your mind, body, and soul go into an unnecessary “survival mode,” in which it takes everything that other people say or do and turn it into a threat against themselves that they must defend themselves against in order to survive.

For example, someone insults you and you react by insulting them back in an act of defence, a very normal situation here, but one that yields no results. He who has reached a state of being which is in free-flow would react to that insult by not reacting in the way that halts his flow, much like how a flowing river stream does not turn-tail when faced with a large rock before it. As such, depending on the situation, he who is like water will know in that instant whether replying with words, actions, or nothing at all is the way to go.

#5 Be Water

Bringing it all together by drinking, thinking, acting, and feeling water, you will finally “be water.” Of course, this doesn’t mean transforming from a human into a river, but rather it is taking on all the properties of water and expressing it in human form. Drinking water leads to mental clarity. Mental clarity leads to free-flowing action. Free-flowing action leads to feeling like water. Feeling like water means becoming water. Once your life has taken the form of water, everything will start flowing upstream. My final message to you wonderful readers is this: Drink water, think it, act it, feel it, then watch your life flow forward as you “Be water, my friend.”