You Must Let the Mind Go Lax

"People think they are too important, the stakes of their work are too high, that there is not a minute to lose. So they never relax. They never shut off their minds. They never check out, or let go. And far too often they end up losing it."Ryan describes the importance of getting calmness and relaxation in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  You must let the mind go lax. Musonius Rufus, like a lot of the Stoics, was a strict man. He was strict with himself. He was strict with his students. He believed in hard work. He did not ease up just because other people did, or because he'd been successful. A friend would describe one evening when in Athens, they were enjoying the Saturnalia, quite pleasantly, in fact. "We did not, however, let our minds go lax," he wrote, "for Musonius says to let one's mind go lax is, in effect, to lose it." Unfortunately, this is a common belief, not just among the Stoics. People think they are too important, the stakes of their work are too high, and that there

• 1:11Ryan Holiday?

  is not a minute to lose. So they never relax. They never shut off their minds. They never check out or let go, and far too often, they end up losing it. "The mind must be given relaxation," Seneca said. "It will rise improved and sharper after a good break. Just as rich fields must not be forced, so constant work on the anvil will fracture the force of the mind. All muscles need rest, and the brain is no exception. Fields must be alternated. Computers must be occasionally shut down or rebooted. To not do this is to risk injury, poor yields, or damage." Do not forget that. And if you're looking for a way to let your mind go lax, check out my book, Stillness is the Key, which is all about this. Stillness

• 1:56Ryan Holiday?

  is not just meditation. It's a way of living. It's a way of thinking. It's something the Stoics talk about a ton. Marcus Rilius uses that word stillness close to a dozen times in meditations. So I wrote this book to fuse eastern and western. Western philosophy to help you do the most important thing, which is have stillness, which is have focus, which is have peace and clarity in your mind. You can check that out. Stillness debuted at number one on the New York Times Bestseller list, and it is available everywhere books are sold.