September Review
🪨 The Obstacle Is the Way:
Ryan Holiday’s “The Obstacle is the Way” is about identifying the obstacles that are stopping us from achieving our goals and turning them upside down. Most of the problems we face are born from our reactions to obstacles instead of the obstacles themselves. The book focuses on understanding what this reaction is and then doing the smallest possible thing you can to move forward. This is the essence of Stoicism, chipping away at our obstacles by doing one small thing at a time.
The first step is always looking at an obstacle as an opportunity instead of some chore that we think we must do. After that, we can take some actions to progress little by little. The last step in the process is to let the attachment to the results go. If it goes our way, great. If it does not, we learn from it and move on. We also need to be wary of our successes. Most of the time, when we taste success, we stop doing the things that got us there. Our past successes can also act as obstacles.
Judgment, then action, and then acceptance is all we need.
🧊 Wintering:
The word wintering here is used as a verb; it is something to do. Weather is a fantastic metaphor for life, and winter represents stressful and depressing times. We all go through many personal winters in our lifetimes. This book is a personal account of Katherine May going through the winters of her life.
Life is like a sin curve (or cosine curve), it goes up and down with time. The more winters you go through the better you become in handling their challenges. Katherine encourages taking time off and resting during hard times. There is power in active resistance; not doing anything on purpose and taking time to yourself. This idea is different than the one we hear the most which are about always actively doing things. Sometimes the best thing to do is nothing. We can let time pass and watch as our emotions change, and soon we will be ready for what we need to do. We do not have to indulge in or pay heed to every thought that pops up in our minds.
Just like the Frogs store up fat just before winter and hibernate until the spring, we can retreat into things that nurture us. For me, it is things like hiking, reading, and playing tennis. It does not have to be consumption. Most of the time we feel insecure comes out of overstimulation. Spending hours on Instagram or youtube will not help our winter. it could be a skill you have always wanted to learn; like chess, a dance move, or swimming. It could also be something you create; like artwork or a short story inspired by your personal experiences.
Learning new skills, creating something, and experiencing new things can help while wintering.
