The Artwork of Stillness – Safal Niveshak

I’ve began this new weekly e-newsletter – The Almanack of Good Life – to share all that I’m studying and reflecting upon about residing a great life. It’s a brand new try, however I hope to take this far. On this age of fixed data overload, I’ve discovered immense worth in taking time to pause and replicate upon significant insights about life. This article is my means of sharing that journey with you.

Every week, I’ll curate a number of thought-provoking concepts, inspiring quotes, and sensible knowledge I’ve encountered in my readings and private reflections. My objective is to create an area for us to discover collectively what it means to stay with goal, kindness, and fulfilment. I sit up for your sort assist.

What I’m Studying

Don’t simply do one thing. Sit there.

It’s 5 AM as I write this, completely quiet throughout, and I’m studying Pico Iyer on the artwork of stillness in his lovely ebook of the identical title. Pico writes –

In an age of velocity, nothing might be extra invigorating than going gradual. In an age of distraction, nothing can really feel extra luxurious than paying consideration. And in an age of fixed motion, nothing is extra pressing than sitting nonetheless.

You may go on trip … and also you’ll have an incredible time, I’m certain. However if you wish to come again feeling new — alive and stuffed with contemporary hope and in love with the world — I feel the place to go to could also be Nowhere.

…It’s solely by taking myself away from litter and distraction that I can start to listen to one thing out of earshot and recall that listening is way more invigorating than giving voice to all of the ideas and prejudices that anyway preserve me firm twenty-four hours a day.

And it’s solely by going nowhere—by sitting nonetheless or letting my thoughts loosen up—that I discover that the ideas that come to me unbidden are far more energizing and extra imaginative than those I consciously hunt down.

Pico’s phrases hit house, don’t they?

We stay in a always plugged-in existence, and amidst chasing the subsequent notification or speeding to the subsequent assembly, the concept of simply… stopping… feels nearly revolutionary.

However give it some thought – when was the final time you simply sat and let your thoughts wander? No cellphone, no TV, no distractions. Simply you and your ideas.

I do know it’s scary at first. In any case, our brains are so used to fixed enter that silence can really feel deafening.

However the factor is that it’s in that quiet that we are able to course of our experiences, provide you with our greatest concepts, and reconnect with what actually issues to us. It’s like clearing out all of the junk that’s collected in our psychological attics. And it’s not nearly being extra productive or artistic. It’s about rediscovering a way of awe.

Once we’re at all times speeding, we miss the little miracles round us – the way in which daylight passes by the curtains, the scent of rain on the footpath, a baby’s laughter, the easy pleasure of a deep breath. Ah!

However like Pico writes, possibly the important thing to wandering by our chaotic world is to not transfer sooner or do extra, however to decelerate, to carve out moments of stillness, and to recollect the way to simply be.

Sure, simply be. Tough. However invigorating.

Attempt it.

By the way in which, do take heed to Pico’s TED speak on the artwork of stillness, and his interview with William Inexperienced.

Additionally, learn The Artwork of Stillness.

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You’re rich. However are you wholesome?

Cornelius Vanderbilt, who was then the world’s richest man, died on January 4, 1887. His fortune, largely constructed from his railroad enterprises, totalled $105 million by the top of his life.

When Vanderbilt handed away, he bequeathed $95 million to his eldest son, William, an quantity that supposedly surpassed all the holdings of the U.S. Treasury at the moment. And if that was not sufficiently big, William doubled this inheritance to just about $200 million inside a decade.

Nevertheless, regardless of his huge wealth, William discovered no solace in cash. In response to Fortune’s Youngsters: The Fall of the Home of Vanderbilt, he as soon as spoke to his good friend about his neighbour –

He isn’t price a hundredth half as a lot as I’m, however he has extra of the actual pleasures of life than I’ve. His home is as comfy as mine, even when it didn’t value a lot; his staff is about pretty much as good as mine; his opera field is subsequent to mine; his well being is healthier than mine, and he’ll in all probability outlive me. And he can belief his pals.”

William additionally believed that his well being had been damaged by the burden of managing his father’s empire. He instructed his docs –

I really feel fairly nicely, however I can’t rely on myself.

Then, he instructed his nephew –

What’s the use, Sam, of getting all this cash in the event you can’t get pleasure from it? My wealth is not any consolation to me if I’ve not good well being behind it.

All the cash on this planet doesn’t matter in the event you don’t have the time or the well being to get pleasure from it. Give it some thought.

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How you can recover from your anxieties and regrets

Eckhart Tolle has the reply in his good ebook The Energy of Now –

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A measure of actual success in life

In his ebook Schooling of a Worth Investor, Man Spier quotes Warren Buffett as saying this to varsity college students…

If you get to my age, you’ll actually measure your success in life by how lots of the folks you wish to have love you truly love you. I do know individuals who have some huge cash, and so they get testimonial dinners and so they get hospital wings named after them. However the reality is that no person on this planet loves them. For those who get to my age in life and no person thinks nicely of you, I don’t care how large your checking account is, your life is a catastrophe. That’s the final word take a look at of how you will have lived your life.

He continues –

The difficulty with love is that you may’t purchase it. You should buy intercourse. You should buy testimonial dinners. You should buy pamphlets that say how fantastic you might be. However the one strategy to get love is to be lovable. It’s very irritating if in case you have some huge cash. You’d wish to suppose you would write a test: I’ll purchase 1,000,000 {dollars}’ price of affection. Nevertheless it doesn’t work that means. The extra you give love away, the extra you get.” Of all the teachings that Warren has taught me, maybe that is a very powerful.

The Sketchbook of Knowledge: A Hand-Crafted Guide on the Pursuit of Wealth and Good Life.

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This can be a masterpiece.

– Morgan Housel, Writer, The Psychology of Cash

What I’m Considering

Our actions ripple outward, affecting numerous lives in methods we might by no means totally grasp. By striving to be sort and compassionate in our each day interactions, we are able to create optimistic change that extends far past ourselves.

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True wealth lies not in materials possessions, however in wealthy experiences, deep relationships, and private development. Investing time and vitality into these areas usually yields the deepest and most lasting satisfaction.

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If you embrace discomfort and challenges, you broaden your capabilities and understanding. If you push past your consolation zone, you usually uncover untapped potential and new views that may enrich your life.

E book Suggestion

Man’s Seek for That means is among the most life-changing books I’ve ever learn. The ebook is a chronicle by Viktor Frankl of his experiences as a German Nazi focus camp inmate throughout World Struggle II. On this ebook, Frankl describes his psychotherapeutic technique, which concerned figuring out a goal in life to really feel positively about, after which immersively imagining that final result.

The central theme of Frankl’s ebook is ‘survival.’ Though he witnessed and skilled horror, the ebook focuses much less on the main points of his personal expertise and extra on how his time underneath Nazi rule confirmed him the human capacity to outlive and endure towards all odds.

As Frankl wrote, he noticed the bottom elements of humanity whereas within the camps. He noticed fellow prisoners promoted to be in-camp guards turning on their fellow prisoners. He watched as they beat their lifeless, malnourished campmates. He watched sadistic guards treating them as in the event that they had been decrease than animals. However he additionally noticed people rising up like saints above all of it.

The half that impacted me essentially the most from the ebook was this –

We who lived in focus camps can bear in mind the lads who walked by the huts comforting others, gifting away their final piece of bread. They might have been few in quantity, however they provide ample proof that all the things will be taken from a person however one factor: the final of human freedoms – to decide on one’s perspective in any given set of circumstances, to decide on one’s means.

I extremely suggest Man’s Seek for That means.

Quotes I’m Reflecting On

Knowledge is figuring out I’m nothing, Love is figuring out I’m all the things, and between the 2 my life strikes.

– Nisargadatta Maharaj

Don’t go the place the trail might lead, go as a substitute the place there isn’t a path and go away a path.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Simply as all of the water will circulate out of a barrel if there’s a lot as one little gap in it, so all the enjoyment of affection will drain out of your soul if in your soul there may be enmity towards a lot as a single individual.

– Leo Tostoy

That’s all from me for right this moment.

Let me know your ideas on this difficulty of The Almanack of Good Life e-newsletter, and methods I can enhance it. Additionally, if in case you have concepts or assets you suppose I can share in future letters, please e-mail them to me at vishal[at]safalniveshak[dot]com.

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Thanks to your time and a focus.

~ Vishal