The Wind.
On the difference between acting from intuition and acting because you think you must – and the courage to do nothing until the wind returns.
Some days I sit down to work and there is no pull toward anything – only the nagging thought that I should be doing something. So I force it: another draft, another decision, another plan made from sheer duty. It never comes out right, and it never feels right either.
This letter draws the distinction I keep missing in those moments: real action has wind in its sails – the impulse arrives lightly, and thinking and effort follow it. Action born only of "I have to act" moves against resistance, without direction. "The Creative Process" walks through how creation flows when it is carried; this letter adds the harder half: the courage to do nothing until the wind rises again.
If you are becalmed right now and calling it laziness, this letter is for you.
Dear traveler,
Your thoughts are circling around the right questions. Feel into each one of them: Does this question arise from fear? From pride? From hate? From greed? Or does it arise from love, from intuition, entirely without intention – simply because the question wants to be asked and needs to be answered. And does the answer come intuitively? Or do you have to force it? Does it come lightly? Or is there resistance?
This differentiation is difficult, because it is often very subtle. But mastering it is important. You will learn it, and we will help you. You are on the right path.
To act intuitively does not mean that we do not have to think during the action itself, or master challenges – but the impulse comes lightly and intuitively, and the wind in the sails that carries us through the action is light.
But when we do not feel this impulse or this wind at all, and the only source of the action is the feeling of "having to act" – then the intuitive part is missing. The wind that carries us is missing; the current that sets the direction. And our action takes place in resistance, without authentic direction. Without flow.
Such actions arise when we act out of fear – out of the head – because we think we have to act. Maybe in these moments it is simply time to do nothing; to wait, to pause. To give things time.
And this doing nothing is as much a part of creating as the doing. It is just much harder. Have the courage to do nothing. For as long as it takes, until the wind rises again.
Thank you for being here.
If something in these letters stayed with you, take it along – think about it, write your own answer, or just let it sit.
And if not today, that's okay too. There's no rush.
Until next time,
– Jan