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