Masterly Inactivity

Masterly inactivity, a well-known phrase, is another way to describe floating. It means to give up the struggle, to stop holding tensely onto yourself trying to control your fear, trying ‘to do something about it’ while subjecting yourself to constant self-analysis. It means to cease trying to navigate your way out of breakdown by meeting each obstacle as if it were a challenge that must be met before recovery is possible. It means to bypass the struggle, to go around, not over the mountain, to float and let time pass.

The average person, tense with battling, has an innate aversion to practising masterly inactivity and letting to. He vaguely thinks that were he to do this, he would lose control over the last vestige of his will-power and his house of cards would tumble. As one young man said, ‘I feel I must stand on guard. If I were to let go, I’m sure something would snap. It is absolutely necessary for me to keep control and hold myself together.’ When he was obliged to talk to strangers, he would dig his nails into his palms while he tried to control his trembling body and conceal his state of nervous tension. He would watch the clock anxiously, wondering how much longer he could keep up this masquerade without ‘cracking’.