This book was sitting in our large communal to-be-read pile on the dining room table for months before I picked it up; Dan and I both thought the other person had ordered it (so if this is a gift from someone, thanks, and we didn’t get the memo). According to the book jacket, Ryan Holiday is “one of the world’s foremost thinkers and writers on ancient philosophy and its place in everyday life”, which while impressive, makes me feel a little bit skeptical.
That said, I found the text to be interesting and occasionally insightful. Holiday is not the best writer, but he does a sound job of providing interesting examples of contemporary and historic (though it should be noted mostly male and white) figures who have or haven’t embraced stillness to guide their choices and how that impacted their life’s path. He also gives the reader practical, tangible, and realistic ways (organized as chapter headings) to consider their mind, spirit, and body, and how to honor and nourish the needs of each of those components of your lived experience. The narrative on ritual and the healing power of the outdoors resonated in particular with me, as did his words regarding our inherent connection with all other lives: “No one is alone, in suffering or in joy. Down the street, across the ocean, in another language, someone else is experiencing nearly the exact same thing. It has always been and always be thus” (160).
If you are looking for a tool to help you check-in on your priorities, this one may be a good starting point. The chapters are short, making it easy to pick up and put down within the busy rhythm of your life, and if you are of the journaling sort, I think it would lend itself to prompting exploratory writing.
