“Stillness is the Key” by Ryan Holiday is a great book if you’re looking to find some clarity in your life.
2020 was a rough year for me, as I’m sure it was for many of you.
It was filled with uncertainty and misinformation, which only fueled my anxiety and paranoia. I didn’t know where society was going and where it was going to end up.
I was also isolated a lot too and didn’t have many people to interact with. Luckily for me, however, I’m an introvert and had an outlet. I was able to blog and journal, which helped me cope with my feelings.
Additionally, I’m fortunate enough to own an e-reader. This allowed me to escape reality for a moment each day. It was also a tool that helped me deal (or change my views) with all that was going on in the world.
And a book that helped me do that was Stillness is the Key by Ryan Holiday.
This book by Holiday talks about how achieving stillness (to be calm, collected, and focused) can help you be content.
He draws on the lessons and experiences of great philosophers, politicians, and athletes to show you how stillness can be achieved and what it can do for you.
How This Book Helped Me
For me, Stillness helped me clear up the negativity that was running in my mind.
The pandemic played a lot of tricks on me. As I said earlier, it made me anxious and paranoid. But I was only feeling these emotions because I wasn’t still. I was letting the noise from news outlets and social media dictate my thoughts.
I was constantly thinking about the future instead of thinking about the present moment. My mind wasn’t dedicated to what I could do now to deal with the current problem but rather, it was focused on what the current problem was going to do to me later on.
But as I read Holiday’s book, I began to reel back and forced myself to be in the current moment.
Instead of thinking about how the pandemic was going to slap me back and forth, I zoned in on what I could do to alleviate the losses that were to come. I also focused on developing things that would prevent a potential pandemic in the future from kicking my ass like this one is.
I will admit, however, that I am not a hundred percent sure if this is what being still is. But I will say that my approach to it helped me feel less negative and be more optimistic. It pulled me get out of a rut and helped me be productive.
My Favorite Quotes from Stillness is the Key
Anywhoo, here are 11 of my favourite quotes from the book:
“To achieve stillness, we’ll need to focus on three domains, the timeless trinity of mind, body, soul—the head, the heart, the flesh.”
“Instead, calm and rational leadership had prevailed over rasher, reckless voices. The crisis was resolved thanks to a mastery of his own thinking, and the thinking of those underneath him—and it was these traits that America would need to call on repeatedly in the years to come. The lesson was one not of force but of the power of patience, alternating confidence and humility, foresight and presence, empathy and unbending conviction, restraint and toughness, and quiet solitude combined with wise counsel.”
“The less energy we waste regretting the past or worrying about the future, the more energy we will have for what’s in front of us.”
“In his Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says, ‘Ask yourself at every moment, ‘Is this necessary?’’ Knowing what not to think about. What to ignore and not to do. It’s your first and most important job.”
“The world is like muddy water. To see through it, we have to let things settle. We can’t be disturbed by initial appearances, and if we are patient and still, the truth will be revealed to us.”
READ MORE: What is sociology?
“Journaling is a way to ask tough questions: Where am I standing in my own way? What’s the smallest step I can take toward a big thing today? Why am I so worked up about this? What blessings can I count right now? Why do I care so much about impressing people? What is the harder choice I’m avoiding? Do I rule my fears, or do they rule me? How will today’s difficulties reveal my character?”
“Find people you admire and ask how they got where they are. Seek book recommendations. Isn’t that what Socrates would do? Add experience and experimentation on top of this. Put yourself in tough situations. Accept challenges.”
“Each of us must cultivate a moral code, a higher standard that we love almost more than life itself. Each of us must sit down and ask: What’s important to me? What would I rather die for than betray? How am I going to live and why?”
“This should be a relief: The source of our anxiety and worry, the frustrations that seem to suddenly pop out in inappropriate situations, the reason we have trouble staying in relationships or ignoring criticism—it isn’t us. Well, it is us, just not adult us. It’s the seven-year-old living inside us.”
“The point isn’t to simply fill the hours or distract the mind. Rather, it’s to engage a pursuit that simultaneously challenges and relaxes us. Students observed that in his leisure moments, Confucius was ‘composed and yet fully at ease.’ (He was also said to be very skilled at ‘menial’ tasks.) That’s the idea. It’s an opportunity to practice and embody stillness but in another context.”
“The problem is that you can’t flee despair. You can’t escape, with your body, problems that exist in your mind and soul. You can’t run away from your choices—you can only fix them with better choices.”
Conclusion
If you’re interested in reading this book (which I suggest you do), you can grab a copy of Stillness is the Key from Amazon here.
FYI, this is an affiliate link. What this means is if you use the link to buy something, I will get a small commission, at no extra cost to you.