We’re all biased toward the power and sexiness of the conscious mind, and so, we consistently underrate and underutilize the power of the unconscious mind.Ĭreativity needs quiet every bit as much as it needs noise. We have to step away from the comfort of noisy distractions and stimulations. If we want more revelations-more insights or breakthroughs or new, big ideas-we have to create more room for them.
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What follows is a collection of my favorite quotes and passages from the book along with some brief thoughts of my own. Throughout the book, he interweaves profiles of people from Leonardo da Vinci to Dorothy Day and Tiger Woods, with fragments of ancient wisdom from philosophers like Epicurus, Marcus Aurelius, and the Buddha, all in an attempt to show how that both great achievement and profound happiness rest on one nearly invisible virtue largely ignored in modern life: If the quiet moments are the best moments, and if so many wise, virtuous people have sung their praises, why are they so rare? Who has the power to stop? Who has time to think? Is there anyone not affected by the din and dysfunction of our time?
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Overstimulated, overscheduled, and lonely.
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The grind of work wears us down and seems to never stop. The news bombards us with one crisis after another on every screen we own-of which there are many. This lyrical and inspiring book expands on a new idea, offering a way forward for all those feeling affected by the frenetic pace of our modern world.In his latest book, Stillness Is the Key, Ryan Holiday takes on perhaps the most pressing question of our time: In 2013, Pico Iyer gave a blockbuster TED Talk. Ultimately, Iyer shows that, in this age of constant movement and connectedness, perhaps staying in one place is a more exciting prospect, and a greater necessity than ever before. The Art of Stillness paints a picture of why so many-from Marcel Proust to Mahatma Gandhi to Emily Dickinson-have found richness in stillness. Growing trends like observing an “Internet Sabbath”-turning off online connections from Friday night to Monday morning-highlight how increasingly desperate many of us are to unplug and bring stillness into our lives. These aren't New Age fads so much as ways to rediscover the wisdom of an earlier age. He reflects that this is perhaps the reason why many people-even those with no religious commitment-seem to be turning to yoga, or meditation, or seeking silent retreats. Iyer also draws on his own experiences as a travel writer to explore why advances in technology are making us more likely to retreat. In The Art of Stillness-a TED Books release-Iyer investigate the lives of people who have made a life seeking stillness: from Matthieu Ricard, a Frenchman with a PhD in molecular biology who left a promising scientific career to become a Tibetan monk, to revered singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen, who traded the pleasures of the senses for several years of living the near-silent life of meditation as a Zen monk. There’s never been a greater need to slow down, tune out and give ourselves permission to be still. Why might a lifelong traveler like Pico Iyer, who has journeyed from Easter Island to Ethiopia, Cuba to Kathmandu, think that sitting quietly in a room might be the ultimate adventure? Because in our madly accelerating world, our lives are crowded, chaotic and noisy. A follow up to Pico Iyer’s essay “The Joy of Quiet,” The Art of Stillness considers the unexpected adventure of staying put and reveals a counterintuitive truth: The more ways we have to connect, the more we seem desperate to unplug.