Welcome to the Daily Quote — I'm Andrew McGivern.
This episode is brought to you by the Great News podcast because good news should be heard. Available where all fine podcasts are found but to make it easy for you I've left a link in the show notes. Right here where you are listening right now.
Today's quote comes from Jon Kabat-Zinn — professor emeritus of medicine at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, founder of the world-renowned Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction program, and the scientist who brought ancient mindfulness practices into mainstream medicine.
He said:
”You can't stop the waves, but you can learn to surf.”
These words completely reframe the relationship most of us have with stress. Here's what most people are actually trying to do when life gets hard: stop the waves. Eliminate the stress. Fix the situation. Remove the problem. Get to the place where everything is calm and manageable and under control — and then, finally, feel okay.
But Kabat-Zinn — a molecular biologist who spent decades studying the science of the mind — is pointing at something the research makes undeniable: the waves don't stop. Stress isn't a malfunction in your life. It's a feature of it.
In 1979, Kabat-Zinn began working with chronically ill patients who weren't responding to traditional treatments — people whose waves weren't going anywhere — and what he discovered was that what transformed their experience wasn't eliminating their difficulties, but changing their relationship to them.
That's what surfing is. The surfer doesn't control the ocean. Doesn't calm the water. Doesn't wish the waves away. They develop the skill to move with the wave rather than fight against it. Kabat-Zinn describes mindfulness as moment-to-moment, non-judgemental awareness — not trying to get to some better place, but learning to be present with what's actually here.
The wave of a difficult conversation. The wave of a deadline. The wave of uncertainty. You can't make them stop. But you can learn, gradually, with practice, to ride them without being swept under. That's not resignation. That's mastery.
So here's the question: What wave are you currently trying to stop, that you might be better served learning to surf?
Because the ocean isn't going to calm itself. But you can get better on the board. One wave at a time — present, aware, and riding rather than drowning.
That's it for today. I'm Andrew McGivern — I'll see you in the next one with another Daily Quote.
