The author seems to have drawn from
- Buddhism's mindfulness
- Taoism's natural flow/simplicity
- Stoicism's control of own's mind
- Mindfulness teachings from Jon Kabat-Zinn and/or Thich Nhaat Hanh
- Cognitive Behavioral Techniques
- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi's flow states
- Literature/poetry from Henry Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson