When life keeps making withdrawals and we fail to make deposits, something in us goes overdrawn. Wouldn’t it be helpful if our psyche sent us an email alert: “Your internal account is low”?
This condition of overdrawn-ness - and the related overwhelm and anxiety - arises when external stresses and demands exceed our internal resources.
Our inner resources function much like a bank account. Nurturing silence is a deposit. A slow walk in nature is a deposit. Reading words that feed the soul, sharing a deep conversation, listening to music that softens the heart, experiencing loving connection with a partner or pet - are all deposits. There are a thousand small ways to replenish what the world steadily draws from us.
But the deepest deposits are not simply activities. They are ways of being.
The Tao Te Ching is a manual for balanced living that supports sacred being. Here are some ways the Tao suggests we nurture and expand our inner resources.
Ground in the present moment. When we bring our awareness and presence to the here and now - simply noticing bodily sensations and our emotional state - we refuel at a level beyond circumstance. The Tao reminds us that soulful life is tuned to the present moment. Life is always unfolding here and now, not in yesterday’s regret or tomorrow’s anxiety.
Find the still point. One of my favorite passages says this: “When the chatter of our mind quiets down, we find the still point around which all of life revolves.” Centered in stillness, we remember that we are not the storm and the waves; we are the ocean that contains them.
Practice acceptance. William Martin defines acceptance as “courageous attention turned toward things as they truly are, not as we wish them to be.” Such attention allows our natural wisdom and energy to work effectively with circumstances. We avoid both denial and frantic overexertion. Acceptance frees us to participate in life with clarity and strength, "as patient as a still pond, powerful as a rushing river.”
Grow by letting go. Much of our depletion comes from gripping - trying to control outcomes or force solutions. Letting go is not passivity; it is wisely discerning what is and is not ours to control. And it trusts that there are forces at work beyond our knowing. When we loosen our grasp, energy returns. Reality itself begins to guide us more wisely than our striving ever could.
Strengthen through flexibility. The Tao praises what bends without breaking. Mental and emotional rigidity exhausts us; flexibility restores us. When we soften our stance, we conserve strength and move with life rather than bracing against it. As Eckart Tolle says: “There is great power in cooperating with the movement of life.”
Effort less. Effortless effort (Wu Wei) does not mean doing nothing. It means acting in alignment with life’s deeper current. Instead of forcing, we respond. Instead of striving, we participate. Action arises naturally from stillness, like a branch swaying with the wind rather than snapping in resistance.
In these days of intense anxiety and overwhelm, choosing presence is a revolutionary act. When we become still, accepting, flexible, and aligned with the deeper current of the Divine, we become a calm presence in a frenetic world. Our groundedness steadies others. Our presence transmits connection and trust.
I invite you to pause today and return to the sacred now. May you release what no longer needs holding. May you bend without breaking. May each moment of presence become a fresh deposit into your inner account, and may you live in harmony with this inner wisdom.