Book SummaryStillness Is the Key, by Ryan Holiday

1-Page Summary1-Page Book Summary of Stillness Is the Key

In his 2019 book, Stillness Is the Key, Ryan Holiday takes us through the dimensions of the mind, soul, and body, explaining how to cultivate stillness in each area. He explains that stillness is a state of being that can enrich our lives, guide us to make better decisions, and encourage a sense of connectedness to everything around us.

Holiday asserts that the concept of stillness is not “new age nonsense,” as some may assume. It’s a real applicable skill you can use in your life—something that’s been sought and recognized as valuable throughout all of history and across many belief systems. And he says it’s accessible to everyone, because the...

Stillness Is the Key Summary What Is Stillness?

Stillness isn’t the literal absence of physical motion. Rather, Holiday explains that it’s a perceptible state of mind that exists in the absence of physical, mental, or emotional chaos. Stillness is a state of clarity, contentment, peace, awe, love, fulfillment, and brilliance. He likens it to the Buddhist concept of “satori,” an experience of deep insight and awakening, or a state of enlightenment.

(Shortform note: According to Buddhists the state of satori is actually our original, natural state, to which we can return through the practice of meditation. Buddhists believe that of all living creatures, only humans have strayed from this original enlightened state of being.)

Additionally, stillness is a state of being that gives you strength and courage to deal with adversity and difficulty. For example, Holiday says stillness was the quality that allowed Anne Frank to endure the horrific experience of persecution in Nazi Germany with such grace and peace of mind.

(Shortform note: Perhaps the most remarkable quality Anne Frank possessed was her ability to maintain optimism in the face of unimaginable horror....

Stillness Is the Key Summary Stilling the Mind

According to Holiday, cultivating stillness in your life begins with learning to consciously control your thoughts—in other words, your mind—so that you’re thinking more clearly, rationally, and wisely. So, stilling your mind involves directing your mental energy in a more intentional way. This means you need to stop wasting energy on the wrong things, such as fear and negativity, and free up that energy for developing positive mental habits and qualities.

Conserve Your Mental Energy

Prepare your mind for stillness by eliminating the amount of mental energy you waste. This will give you more energy to devote toward strengthening your mind with confidence and wisdom. Holiday explains how limiting your mental consumption, prioritizing your daily tasks, and making space for silence all reduce mental energy and create the right conditions for stillness.

First, he says our mental states are affected by the news and other information we consume. Anything you read or listen to will influence your mind, often in detrimental ways. So one thing he advises is that you should limit your exposure to the news and don’t consume it in real time. Instead, give it a few...

Stillness Is the Key Summary Stilling the Soul

A clear, calm, and strong state of mind works in unison with a healthy and virtuous spiritual state. Cultivating stillness in the domain of the soul involves working on the deepest parts of yourself. You must confront and heal your spiritual wounds, cultivate virtue, and connect to something beyond yourself. Holiday says doing this soul work is the key to happiness and contentment, which are at the core of stillness.

Heal Your Soul From Toxicity

Cultivating stillness in the mind first requires addressing the negative inputs there. Similarly, to grow spiritually, you should first address the negativity you hold in your soul, such as childhood trauma, anger, desire, and dissatisfaction.

Holiday says that everyone has residual pain from childhood experiences and that you should learn to recognize and heal that pain through self-reflection, self-love, and therapy. We often react to life’s situations from this wounded place, so understanding the roots of our childhood pain will help us avoid that. One way to think about breaking generational patterns of trauma, Holiday suggests, is to think about what you didn’t get as a child, and commit to giving more of...

Stillness Is the Key Summary Stilling the Body

Finally, Holiday says if you don’t take care of your body, what you do with your mind and spirit won’t matter. Your body carries you through this world, so you can’t get your mind and soul into shape without using your body to do it. For example, appreciating nature requires physically taking yourself out there. Practicing stillness in your body involves optimizing your physical space, practicing healthy habits, and using your body to pursue the right kinds of activities.

Create Order to Optimize Your Space

According to Holiday, the first step in preparing your body for stillness is creating order in the space you inhabit. He says you should start with building a daily routine and following it. Ritualistic behavior enriches your life experience, he says. Ritual isn’t about “superstition,” it’s about the psychological effects it has on us. When you have a general routine, you free your mind from having to make choices every day about what to do, eat, wear, and so on, at any given time. Limit the amount of decisions you have to make every day by making your life orderly and predictable.

Next, Holiday says you should declutter your physical space. Hoarding...

Shortform Exercise: Define Your Values

Holiday says cultivating virtue in yourself must begin with intentionally defining your values. Take some time to contemplate what’s truly important to you.

What makes life worth living, for you? List as many things as you can think of.