This is a review on the book The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and the movie that eventually spawned from it, but as usual the book is far better than the movie so this review will focus more on the book, but will have a Peaceful Warrior movie trailer at the end.
I got The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior TWOTPW by Dan Millman as a gift from a co-worker during a Christmas gift exchange swap, and it started my own a quest for self improvement and awareness that I didn’t know existed in me.
I recommend this book for a lot of reasons, but first allow me to delve into some details on what the book is about without giving away anything:
The protagonist in the book was a college athlete who was running through life in a hard core manner, drinking like a college student, vain about his great body and good looks, and destined to become an Olympic athlete (gymnast).
One night he can’t sleep and wakes up to go down to local SERVICE station (gas station) for whatever reason….
There he meets “Socrates” the service attendant there, and this is where HIS quest for self-awareness and improvement begins.
Socrates does some things to challenge our “hero”, and he meets with frustration when challenged by Socrates, and like any achiever/athlete he has a desire and need to prove himself to himself and to others.
The book isn’t like Good Will hunting where the teacher/mentor learns as much about him/herself and the person they’re helping. In this story the teacher Socrates pretty much has his shit together, and nailed down tight.
I could write endlessly about this book and all the other books that spawned from it, but that would ruin the enjoyment you might glean from this book should you decide to get it.
Instead, I want to focus more of my review of this book and some points you should get from it.
Why is it called the The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior?
Because the REAL struggles most of us face aren’t physical, but mental…
Have you ever tried
- to change how you think,
- to become a more positive person,
- to be more patient,
- to be more understanding,
- to be more empathetic,
- to be a more productive person,
- or lose weight,
- or quit smoking,
- or make any other type of change within yourself?
It’s hard isn’t it? And that’s why we focus on PEACEFUL WARRIORS here when we want to try and get something out of this book. The REAL struggles with self-improvement, awareness and self-acceptance come start and end from within yourself, your mind, your psyche, your attitude, etc….
Some points I hope you get form this book should you decide to get it:
NOTE: I realize that some of this stuff may sound new-agey to some people so if you’re a fundamentalist (insert religion here) then I hope you’re open minded enough to try and see the wisdom points and tie them into your own core of set beliefs should you have any.
Stop and smell the flowers… Ever hear that expression?
Well, in The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior Socrates explains how we miss so much of what’s going on around us all the time because we’re so busy hustling to and form one thing after another, busy doing things that fill up our minds with noise that overcomes and overshadows the real stuff we should be paying attention to if we really wanna experience life to the fullest.
Example: In my yoga classes we do a meditation exercise whereby we sit still in comfortable position and try to focus on all our body parts, every inch just to become aware of ourselves more and to also cause a deep relaxation by also focusing on anything but our daily mindset hustle and bustle. The end result is two-fold
#1- We create a mind-body awareness that may not have existed before, but if that connection did exist before, well a deeper focus leads to a more connected sense of self.
#2- When we focus on things within, or things we’re missing due to a noisy brain, we tend to relax a little bit more, we slow our heart rates, we end up relaxed…
So, one of the points to this book is related to that age old maxim, stop and smell the flowers” because when we focus on the present instead of the past or future, then we become more aware, and when we become more aware, we tend to see beauty we never noticed before, we will see things that were always there but never really entered our mind. Why is any of this missing stuff important though? Because it means we’re blocking things out of the forefront of our consciousness and that we’re missing out on things in life.
Way of the Peaceful Warrior Book – Dan Millman speaks in the video below
The Way Of The Peaceful Warrior Movie Review and Trailer
The movie was good, focused a bit more on the character Joy than I though tit would, but it’s hollywood, and you gotta play up the romance angle to put asses in seats I guess. The book didn’t emphasive the Joy/Dan relationship that much but movie did so whatever…it is what is.
The movie did a great job emphasizing Dan’s mental anguish, car accident, explosiveness of emotions, dealing with those emotions, and did a REALLY good job of emphasizing a point I made earlier in the book review part of this post, which is that if you stop to “slow your roll” you will see just how much you’re missing and overlooking and that you should focus on the present to experience more out of life.
The movie was good, entertaining and helped reinforce some points made in the book, but this movie is more for TWOTPW book fans than it is for mainstream movie goers.
Click Play Below to watch the trailer, but buy the book or all his books first… since books are always better than movies
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