#PIKO AIR THE ART OF STILLNESS HOW TO#

In the age of constant movement, nothing is so urgent as sitting still. I find that the best way I could develop more attentive and more appreciative eyes was, oddly to go nowhere вЂ¦ just by sitting still. One of the first things you learn when you travel is that nowhere is magical unless you can bring the right eyes to it. ItвЂ™s only by stepping back and holding still, that we can begin to see what the canvass means. Many of us have the sensation that we are standing about two inches away from a huge canvass. We all know that in our undermined lives, one of the things most undermined is ourselves.

The bookвЂ™s promo includes excerpts from IyerвЂ™s talk: Pico Iyer and his family lives in a modest home in the countryside near Kyoto without internet, television, mobile phones, or even cars. Iyer makes a persuasive argument for the startling pleasures of вЂњsitting still as a way of falling in love with the world and everything in it.вЂќ Stillness: вЂњClarity and Sanity and the Joys that EndureвЂќД¬elebrated globetrotter and travel writer Pico IyerвЂ™s вЂњThe Art of Stillness,вЂќ an expansion of his TED talk, is an inspiring analysis of the need to escape the persistent distractibility of the mundane. When we remain still, we are struck by the realization that our noisy outer world is nothing but a reflection of our cluttered inner world. To counter all of our exhilarating movement, we must balance it with an escape.

#PIKO AIR THE ART OF STILLNESS HOW TO#

The French scientist and Christian philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote in Pensees, вЂњDistraction is the only thing that consoles us for our miseries, and yet it is itself the greatest of our miseriesвЂќ and added that вЂњthe sole cause of manвЂ™s unhappiness is that he does not know how to stay quietly in his room.вЂќ We hardly ever pause to contemplate our experiences or reflect on the life weвЂ™ve been missing in a world overwhelmed by distractions.Дistractions disrupt our peace. We cannot afford some space to think and just be. Often, our identities are defined by mere вЂdoing,вЂ™ not вЂbeing.вЂ™ Many of us struggle to find a few minutes to just sit quietly and clear our heads. We have an incessant need to be occupied.

Piko air the art of stillness