Another of you shared, “Crossword puzzles. The experience might not be the same, but you still get some insight about yourself and the things that matter,” wrote one of you. Some of you noted truly tranquil things as helping you find stillness: “Staring at the sky on a starry night, reminded of how small I am.” “Walking and stopping to observe the colors of nature.” “Being by water, be it a lake, a sound or ocean.” “I always fit in a nice hot bath with a favorite beverage and good music, even if it’s just for fifteen minutes.”īut several of you shared that you say that you find stillness in moments that don’t sound relaxing at all. 16.16% say meditation is your favored way to find stillness, and reading also got high marks for 14.06% of you. For you, nature is the ultimate relaxer: 19.02% of you prefer to find stillness while sitting outdoors or watching a sunset, and an additional 16.25% say that stillness is most easily found while hiking, canoeing or otherwise being active outdoors. More than half of you take time for reflection on the regular-51.81% of 608 respondents said they take it daily and 33.88% says that they take it weekly. 5.58% of you say that finding time for stillness is “not too important,” and 2.25% say that it is “not important at all.” One of you sums it up beautifully: “There is too much I want to experience.” For me stillness is the space from which everything starts to flow again.”īut a slim minority are with Rosling and Goldacre. And another: “The busier and more stressed I am, the more important even short moments of stillness become.
“I’ve realised that greater productivity comes from moments of stillness,” one of you shared. Others of you painted a direct correlation between finding time for stillness and accomplishment. “I have fibromyalgia, and I’ve found that meditation is the best thing for managing my daily pain and chronic symptoms.” “For me, stillness is the key to health,” one respondent wrote. The majority of you say that finding time for stillness is a priority-53.87% of the 878 people who answered the question called it “very important” and 37.7% said that it was “important.” This got us curious: what do YOU think? So we asked you to take a poll to let us know how stillness fits into your life. I want more data, more facts, more fun, and more life.” Before proper technology, I read books while walking down the street.
“I wash up wearing a bluetooth headset for podcasts. “I fight stillness every step of the way,” he says. Hans Rosling ( who has given 10 TED Talks) says, “I don´t bring stillness to my life, because there will be plenty of time for stillness after death, when there is nothing else to do.”īen Goldacre ( watch his TED Talk about bad science) agrees. It’s a meditation I do everyday.”Īnd then there’s another camp of TED community members who simply aren’t that fond of stillness at all. I find it incredibly calming and inspiring.
The morning street cleaners with their brooms people walking dogs parents attending to their children’s busy hands in line at the coffee shop. “I like to go out to the park or walk down the street when people are opening up shops, and watch people engaging in rituals of caring for people or places or objects. ‘Poetry and friendship are the two greatest sources of sweetness,’ says an ancient Sanskrit proverb.”Īnd for Kelly McGonigal ( watch her TED Talk on making stress your friend), yoga and meditation help, but she has another strategy too. I also listen to boleros from Latin America and Western songs with good lyrics. “These songs take me back to the days of hopes and dreams and poetry. “Mostly Hindi and Odia songs from the days I was growing up in India,” he says. When I have my camera in my hand I slow way down and pay attention to small things.”įor Dilip Ratha ( watch his TED Talk which stole our hearts at TEDGlobal), it’s listening to music. I know that I’m moving so fast that I blow past extraordinary beauty everyday. It’s quiet and I’m completely unavailable,” she said. It’s exercise, meditation, and therapy in one. “One of the most important practices in my life is swimming. Walk a little, dream a little.”īrené Brown ( watch her TED Talk on the power of vulnerability) has a similar approach. “Water, pine trees, cliffs, meadows… doesn’t matter. “I hike,” said our curator Chris Anderson. This got us curious: how do members of the TED community find time for stillness and reflection? Turns out that people had very different answers.
To Iyer, it’s this time for quiet, inward, still reflection that snaps all of our experiences into focus.
In his TED Book, The Art of Stillness, Pico Iyer posits a bold idea: that in our chaotic time, the greatest luxury is actually the ability to go nowhere and do nothing. We all lead lives that move 1,000 miles per minute.