Stillness Is the Key by Ryan Holiday

his swimming. Saint Teresa of Ávila loved to dance, and so did Mae
Carol Jemison, the first African American woman in space. Simón
Bolívar too found dancing a helpful tool in balancing the affairs of
state and the burdens of revolution. The writer David Sedaris likes to
walk the back roads of his neighborhood in the English countryside
and pick up garbage, often for hours at a time. John Graves poured
himself into carving out his ranch from the Texas Hill Country, fixing
fences, raising cattle, and cultivating the land. Herbert Hoover loved
fishing so much, he wrote a book about it. The title: Fishing for Fun:
And to Wash Your Soul.
The swordsman Musashi, whose work was aggressively and
violently physical, took up painting late in life, and observed that
each form of art enriched the other. Indeed, flower arranging,
calligraphy, and poetry have long been popular with Japanese
generals and warriors, a wonderful pairing of opposites—strength
and gentleness, stillness and aggression. Hakuin, the Zen master,
excelled at painting and calligraphy, producing thousands of works
in his lifetime. NBA champion Chris Bosh taught himself how to
code. Einstein had his violin, Pythagoras has his lyre. William Osler,
the founder of Johns Hopkins University, told aspiring medical
students that when chemistry or anatomy distressed their soul, “seek
peace in the great pacifier, Shakespeare.”
Reading. Boxing. Collecting stamps. Whatever. Let it relax you
and give you peace.
In his essay on leisure, Josef Pieper wrote that “the ability to be
‘at leisure’ is one of the basic powers of the human soul.” But that’s
what’s so interesting about it. It’s a physical state—a physical action
—that somehow replenishes and strengthens the soul. Leisure is not
the absence of activity, it is activity. What is absent is any external
justification—you can’t do leisure for pay, you can’t do it to impress
people.
You have to do it for you.
But the good news is that leisure can be anything. It can be
cutting down trees, or learning another language. Camping or
restoring old cars. Writing poetry or knitting. Running marathons,
riding horses, or walking the beach with a metal detector. It can be,
as it was for Churchill, painting or bricklaying.