We are so busy. We think we’re supposed to be. We think that’s how we get better. We think that moving is the only way to move forward. 

You might think that Marcus Aurelius could relate. After all, he headed an entire empire! He had books to read, writing to do, laws to pass, cases to hear, troops to lead. So yes, he was a busy man. He, like us, was pulled in many directions. He had ambitions, worries, hopes, and dreams. 

Yet when he speaks most beautifully, it’s of moments of quiet and calm. “If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind,” he said, “free of the future and the past—can make yourself, as Empedocles says, ‘a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness.’” Have you ever had a moment like that? If you have, you know how special it is. You know what kind of insights you were able to access, what kind of happiness crept in, what kind of peace you were able to feel. Marcus wrote that having that stillness allows us to “concentrate on living what can be lived (the present moment).” Only then, he said, “can you spend the time you have left in tranquility. And in kindness. And at peace with the spirit within you.”

You deserve moments like that. Moments where you watch the snow fall. Moments where you sit quietly with a book. Moments where you look out the train window, not on a conference call, not checking email, not wondering how long until you arrive in the city, but a moment to check in with yourself, to think about your life and what you want to do with it. Moments with loved ones. Moments where you are grateful, connected, happy, creative, in the zone—doing whatever it is that you do best. 

When the Stoics talk about stillness, they aren’t talking about some abstract notion. They are talking about maybe the most important thing you can be doing in your life. They are saying that all the “work” you are doing, all the thoughts you’re expending trying to get ahead, trying to force a breakthrough, are pointless.

The real way to charge ahead is to slow down. To clear your mind. To rejoice in perfect stillness, free of the future and the past, fully present and locked in. You can do it. You deserve that.

P.S. This was originally sent on April 23, 2021. Sign up today for the Daily Stoic’s email and get our popular free 7-day course on Stoicism.