Stutz — excerpts & ideas 🎥
The overview
In the film made by Jonah Hill about his therapist Phil Stutz, many insightful ideas were shared by both.
This article aims to capture the quotes and the concepts that stood out to the viewers (first I gathered those I noted while watching myself; later I’ve been adding those suggested by others).
If there is anything you’d like me to add to the list, I would appreciate your input! Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
Quotes, Concepts, and Tools
- Life Force
- “The Life Force is the only part of you that is actually capable of guiding you when you’re lost”
From bottom to top:
- Your relationship with your Body (exercise, diet, sleep)
- Your relationship with People (relationships/touchpoints with others)
- Your relationship with Yourself (connection with your unconscious — writing, journaling)
2. Part X is the voice of impossibility
- Your inner critic
3. 3 aspects of reality:
- Pain
- Uncertainty
- Constant Work
4. String of Pearls
- “I am the person who puts the next pearl on the string”
- Every action, no matter big or small, has the same value
- “True confidence is living in uncertainty… And moving forward”
- “The winner is not the one who makes the best decisions or looks the best, the winner is the one who works that cycle: who’s willing to take the risk, willing to act with some degree of faith, and faces the consequences — if the consequences are bad then you gotta work the cycle again. That’s as good as it gets”
5. Shadow
- The version of yourself you want to hide from the world the most
- “And it […]’ll be hard for the rest of your life”
- “The only being whose attention to the Shadow matters is you”
- The snapshot (AKA The realm of illusion)
6. The Maze
- “The quest for fairness puts your life on hold”
7. Active Love
8. “I have the same disease, which is avoid emotion by making jokes” — JH
9. “Take action, no matter how frightened you are”
10. Radical Acceptance
- No negativity towards self
- “Squeeze the juice out of the lemon”
- “You need to look at all events as having value — then you’re in the zone of tremendous opportunity”
11. Dark Cloud
- “I was no longer judging the nature of reality by my experience in the last 5 minutes” (about getting above the clouds on a plane and seeing the sun)
- “The sun is always up there, the cloud is always over here — blocking the sun”
- “If you can’t break through the cloud you think it’s a very bad day; in fact, you’re gonna think it’s a very bad life”
- “Every thought you have is gonna affect your mood. Every thought you have is either positive or negative”
12. Grateful Flow
- “ — How do you penetrate the cloud? — With gratefulness”
13. About the loss of Jonah’s brother
- On the photo from that day there is a strangely serene look on his face
- “Because it [ ] demolished everything that didn’t matter” — JH
- “It demolished everything you thought you needed but you didn’t” — PS
- “This is a picture of someone who went through hell and came out on the other side” — PS
- “That’s a picture of victory even though it may not look like it” — PS
14. Loss Processing
15. “Potency on non-attachment”
- “You’re just one sunbeam among other sunbeams”
Thanks for reading!
If you haven’t seen the movie or wish to revisit it, it’s right here:
