7 Decisive Reasons Why Stillness is a Superpower
Utilize the benefits of quiet moments
Many people underestimate the benefits of stillness.
Our world is full of noise. Professional commitments cram our days, and we fill up the remaining hours with personal projects. We seek exhilarating activities without taking the time to pause and reflect.
In short, our lives are loud, fast, and busy.
That’s where stillness comes into play.
In his 2019 bestseller Stillness is The Key, Ryan Holiday defines the concept in the following terms:
“To be steady while the world spins around you. To act without frenzy. To hear what needs to be heard. To possess quietude — exterior and interior — on command.”
Consequently, stillness is the power to remain calm by controlling what gets to you. And this capacity can bolster your productivity, reduce your anxiety, and improve your decision-making.
On this basis, here are seven decisive reasons why stillness is a superpower.
Peace cultivates inspiration and productivity
Many people consult space-age apps, productivity-furthering technology, and coaches to boost their output.
Sometimes, however, the key to finding inspiration is to retreat.
As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said:
“Silence is a source of great strength.”
Think about it. If you’re looking for external inspiration, you might overlook ideas already looming in the back of your head.
During the early days of my writing career, I tried to juggle freelance gigs with my newly launched blog. After completing client work early in the day, I spent hours searching the web for blog post ideas. I shuffled through books, listened to podcasts, and consumed countless websites. All of the research, however, didn’t yield any inspiration. I needed a different method.
As such, I started going on “thinking-walks.” I took the idea from Cal Newport’s book Deep Work. In this context, Cal’s thinking-walks consisted of the following:
“I used to practice productive meditation in at least one of my daily cross-river treks while living in Boston, and as I improved, so did my results. I ended up, for example, working out the chapter outlines for a significant portion of my last book while on foot.“
I practiced a similar ritual and went on a daily thinking-walk after lunch. The mantra was straightforward: no talking, no distractions, just stillness.
After a few weeks, these thinking-walks became my primary source of inspiration. I would ponder blog post ideas, new strategies for my business, and personal issues.
The walks safeguarded my inner peace, and this regular dose of quietude jump-started my productivity.
Stillness is the ideal antidote to anxiety and uncertainty
Much like kick-starting your productivity, stillness is also a powerful tool to quell your anxiety.
In this context, quiet moments have various benefits.
First, they will help you assess the situation you fear. As such, a lack of distractions, external voices, and other noisy inputs will put you in a better position to get to the root of your anxiety.
Secondly, stillness can help you avoid overdramatization. When you cut out all the noise, you’ll obtain a more objective view of your problems, accomplishments, and fears.
A sober assessment — without overdramatization — is the key to reducing anxiety. And stillness — through journaling, moments of quiet me-time, or meditation — will do the groundwork for that assessment.
Inner serenity will check your worst impulses
We all have negative impulses.
A coworker’s mistakes fuel our anger by forcing us to work longer hours. We want to smash the television after violently disagreeing with a politician. And personal setbacks put our world in a negative light.
In these moments of anger, discontent, or desperation, we tend to make bad decisions.
We rant online. We treat our loved ones poorly. Our anger prevents us from following effective habits that secure our success.
It’s in these periods of adversity that stillness becomes a superpower.
When our world crumbles, we need to resist the urge to react. We need to take a step back and prioritize silence.
Imagine yourself carrying a bucket of water through rough terrain. Your job is to get the water home and avoid spilling it despite a variety of obstacles. Throughout the journey, the bucket will inevitably wobble. To keep the water inside, you’ll need to stop a couple of times. When you pause, the bucket will stop jiggling, and you can continue.
These stops are moments of stillness. When you face a rough situation, take a break, and give the bucket time to stop jiggling.
Stillness will prevent overanalyzing
When we face problems — setbacks at work or unlucky stretches in our personal lives — we try the find the root.
And there is nothing wrong with that. By making a thorough assessment, we increase our chances of identifying the core reasons for our woes, and ultimately, finding solutions.
However, by letting external factors tamper with our assessments, we start to overanalyze.
In this regard, I often revisit an old Zen proverb:
“Before enlightenment, chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood, carry water.“
There are many interpretations, but the prevailing one is the following: instead of overthinking your goals, keep doing the work in silence.
Stillness can help you distinguish between high-impact activities and trivial minutiae
Mindful tranquility is a powerful way to separate purpose-driven, high-impact tasks from unimportant activities.
In the late 19th century, Italian engineer Vilfredo Pareto sat down in stillness to observe his garden. He came to a shocking conclusion. 20% of his pea pots were yielding 80% of the peas.
He gradually analyzed other phenomena — like the distribution of wealth in Italy — and theorized the now-famous “Pareto principle.“
The takeaway is the following: through a moment of quietness, Pareto came to his conclusion. That’s why you should cultivate stillness as a means to identify your most impactful activities.
Which clients provide the most revenue? Do I pursue my hobbits out of purpose or peer pressure? Which activities in my everyday life are trivial minutiae, and which ones get me closer to my goals?
Moments of serenity can help you answer these questions and direct your energy toward the right areas.
Tranquility and an empty mind are pre-requisites for a stress-free routine
Most of us suffer from stress at work.
Never-ending email floods, continuous requests, and an uncertain environment create a stress-filled atmosphere in our workplaces.
To counter these stress factors, you need moments of tranquility in everyday life.
Spend your lunch break alone on a park bench. Go for a run. Find a quiet spot in the office and take the time to empty your mind.
These short periods of stillness may not look productive on the surface, but they can work wonders when it comes to stress reduction.
In other words, try to incorporate short moments of silence and solitude into your daily routine. When you fill your entire day with noise, you’ll have limited possibilities to contain inevitable stress factors.
Stillness can help you find contentment
Finally, the most decisive reason why stillness is a superpower is that it will lead to contentment.
In this context, it’s essential to underline the difference between contentment and happiness.
According to Psychology Today:
“happiness, as it stands, is fleeting. It’s a momentary thing that lasts for a day, at most, before the everyday starts to come flooding back into the picture. Contentment, on the other hand, is the feeling of being okay with the way things stand. It’s being comfortable with life — not ecstatic happiness but also not sadness or anger.”
Consequently, contentment is a long-term state that will help you find balance. You’ll pursue your goals with long-lasting determination — not brief surges of joy — and advance in life.
Contentment is a highly desirable state, and stillness can help you achieve it.
By pausing your life, reflecting on your achievements, and accepting that sometimes, enough is enough, you’ll stop worrying about happiness. Inner peace and serenity will help you grasp the temporary nature of joy. You’ll realize that happy moments come and go.
Contentment, in contrast, will form a balanced outlook on life and secure a productive everyday routine. And this balance will accommodate brief surges of joy, but it will also prevent your inner peace from becoming a slave to them.