There is Heaven in You Now | Show, Don’t Tell

Ryan talks about the power of turning inward, and reads this week’s meditation from The Daily Stoic Journal. Get a signed copy of Ryan Holiday’s bestselling book “Stillness is The Key” at the Painted Porch. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://DailyStoic.com/emailFollow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee 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.

• 0:04Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. Each day, we bring you a meditation inspired by the ancient Stoics, illustrated with stories from history, current events, and literature to help you be better at what you do. And at the beginning of the week, we try to do a deeper dive, setting a kind of Stoic intention for the week, something to meditate on, something to think on, something to leave you with, to journal about, whatever it is you happen to be doing. So let's get into it.

• 0:38Ryan Holiday?

  "There is heaven in you now." As winter slowly releases her icy grasp as the surge of the pandemic recedes, perhaps you're starting to think of the glories of spring, of the return to the wonderful normal of your old life. Maybe you're thinking of a trip, an exotic location, or a long stay at a luxurious resort. That would be heaven, you think. Marcus Aurelius craved this too, you know, working every day in the grime and grit of Rome, surrounded by the bustle and noise of the court, overloaded by business and demands. Of course he did. "We long to get away from it all," he writes, "to the country, to the beach, to the mountains." But then he reminds himself he can get away anytime he likes,

• 1:22Ryan Holiday?

  by turning inward. "There is heaven in you now. Nowhere you can go is more peaceful," he writes, "more free of interruptions than your own soul." Hopefully, the spring is beautiful. Hopefully, the worst of the pandemic is behind us. Hopefully, you can take that much-deserved vacation. But why wait? You can experience paradise right now by closing your eyes, by retreating to the stillness and the heaven that lives inside you. This idea of stillness, finding peace and beauty and wonder amidst the craziness and ugliness of the world, that's, of course, what Stillness is the Key is about. I have it tattooed here on my right wrist as a reminder. But if you haven't checked out the book,

• 2:06Ryan Holiday?

  I do hope you... Will, it's something I'm very, very proud of. Debut at number one on the New York Times Bestseller List. But is this something I've had to, the ideas in it are something I've had to turn to a lot over the last two crazy years. And I hope you will too. You can get signed copies of Stillness is the Key in the Daily Stoic store. You can also stop by the Painted Porch, and I have signed copies here as well. And you can pick up the book anywhere books are sold as well. So Stillness is the Key. I'm wishing that you access that little bit of heaven inside you as Marcus did right now by turning inward.

• 2:44Ryan Holiday?

  Show, don't tell. And this is from this week's entry in the Daily Stoic Journal, 366 Days of Writing and Reflection on the Art of Living by yours truly and my co-writer and translator, Stephen Hanselman. I actually do this journal every single day. There's a question in the morning, a question in the afternoon. Then there's these sort of weekly meditations. As Epictetus says, every day and night, we keep thoughts like this at hand. Write them, read them aloud and talk to yourself and others about them. You can check out the Daily Stoic Journal anywhere books are sold. You can also get a signed personalized copy from me in the Daily Stoic store at store.dailystoic.com.

• 3:25Ryan Holiday?

  The art of living isn't a set of teachings or a formula we can memorize. It's a practice that requires constant work. Epictetus was constantly reminding his students not to parrot back what they learned in lecture hall or read in books, but to put that work into practice. He knew that progress you could see was better than any proclaimed. Let your journaling and thinking this week exhibit what you have done and what you are doing, not what you plan to do or think you are. Let it be a catalog of your actions, good actions. As Epictetus says, those who receive the bare theories immediately want to spew them as an upset stomach does with its food. First digest your theories and you won't throw up.

• 4:11Ryan Holiday?

  Otherwise, they will be raw, spoiled, and not nourishing. After you've digested them, show us the changes in your reasoned choices, like the shoulders of gymnasts who display their diet and training, and the craft of artisans show what they have learned. That's Epictetus's Discourses 321. First, practice not letting people know who you are. Keep your philosophy to yourself for a bit. In just the manner that fruit is produced, the seed is buried for a season, hidden, growing gradually, so it may come to full maturity. But if the grain sprouts before the stalk is fully developed, it will never ripen. That is the kind of plant you are, displaying fruit too soon, and the winter will kill you. You know, this is a theme the Stoics talk about quite a bit.

• 4:56Ryan Holiday?

  The idea of conceit being the impediment to improvement, that ego is the enemy. And, you know, when I look back, you know, I was first introduced to the Stoics now like 15 or so years ago. I look back at some of my early writings, and I'm doing exactly what Epictetus is talking about. I'm just regurgitating things that I'd heard. I mean, that exercise itself was educational, but I didn't even begin to comprehend what I was talking about. It took time, it took experience. As Plutarch says, it's not that words that give us the meaning of experiences, but experiences that give us meaning of the words. And so I wish I'd taken a bit more time. Now, this is obviously what some of these social media and blogging platforms do.

• 5:40Ryan Holiday?

  It's a way of thinking out loud. But I actually wish I'd taken more sort of quiet, reflective time to myself. And I think we do this whenever we discover something. We get some product we like, or join a movement or a cause we like, and suddenly we become this evangelist for it. And I think part of that is out of insecurity, right? We want other people to like it. We don't, we're not quite sure what we think of it ourselves. So by bringing other people on, we feel less insecure. We go, see, I'm not crazy. Other people like it too. But let's just slow down a little bit. If you're listening to this podcast for the first time, if you're new to Stoicism, let it stew a little bit, think about it a little bit, look at it critically, go read more about it, right?

• 6:21Ryan Holiday?

  Find people who love Stoicism, people who hate Stoicism, consume it in different mediums, but just explore it. You don't have to convert, you don't have to identify yet, you know, just keep thinking. Let it remain underground, let it germinate, let it solidify there. And then when it comes out, it'll be in better shape and in better form. And so as you work on your practice, you know, you don't have to put on airs. Epictetus talks about this. Don't put on airs about your self-improvement. He says, be humble about it. You know, I definitely wish there was things that I hadn't said, that I thought about longer, that I took time to think about privately more. And that's probably most of my regrets on any social media platform is I jumped, I

• 7:06Ryan Holiday?

  leapt out with my opinion instead of sitting on it, stewing on it, thinking, letting it germinate. And I think that process is just really valuable. So slow down. That's the advice of this week's meditation. Slow down, think, really mull it over, turn it over in your mind. And the plant will be stronger for it, you will be stronger for it, your wisdom will be better for it. That's what we're working on. Anyways, stay at it, keep listening. I'll talk to you again next week.

• 7:38Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please spread the word, tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything, I just wanted to say thank you.