Maltese Slowness

We are leaping thirty degrees on the temperature gauge today. It’s not due to global warming, but due to our travel. The day has finally arrived in which we’re headed to Malta, an island in the Mediterranean 288 KM from Tunisia and 93 KM south of Sicily. They’ve promised me it’s warm there. It has to be warmer than here! It snowed in Germany again. The sun is shining though!

So as we head Southeast, I am reminded that the world will keep spinning even as I do not. I hope to blog about the experience. I am told Malta has a rich history ~ pictures to follow!

The Power of Positivity

ABC’s Dan Harris interviewed Dr. Wayne Dyer recently. In the interview, they mention Wayne’s new movie, The Shift, that I have been meaning to blog about for some time. I watched it about two months ago via my Spiritual Cinema Circle membership, which allows access to four or five new uplifting movies every month. The set up is brilliant as you follow the stressed out documentary filmmaker and Zen-like Wayne meet at the intersection of spirit and inspiration.

The Shift is about the afternoon of your life, in which you shift from ego talk to spirit. For me, the Shift happened around age thirty-eight. I started to realize the full potential of the human spirit and began living according to its principles. The Power of Slow was the result.

Does it matter that no one seems to want the foreign rights to the book? No. Does it matter that it has yet to hit the best-seller list? No. What matters is the message, and I have vowed to promote its ideals the way I wrote it ~ through trust, instinct and a deep listening from within.

Many of us may be able to relate to ABC anchor Dan Harris’s attitude toward his job. In this interview, he worries that if he ‘lets go,’ he’ll lose. How many times have I thought that myself? Somewhere along the line, I thought I have nothing to lose but fear itself. Taking the plunge is something I do almost daily now.Yes, I experience those milliseconds of dread before I do the one thing that scares me so much, but the reward is the energy that gets created by the overcoming itself.

Give yourself the gift of these nine minutes and twenty seconds. They will make a difference in your day.

Oh, and please leave a comment answering the following question:

If you had the choice between all the material possessions you’ve ever wanted and a life of complete inner peace, which one would you choose and why?

Digital Addiction Detection ~ Are You Afflicted?**

What else are you doing while reading this? Shopping on Zappos? Checking your email? Tweeting? The World Wide Web is both a blessing and a curse. It has revolutionized countless aspects of our lives and makes working from anywhere in the world both intriguing and possible. The Internet can be a fun, interactive, community-building, and fascinating cosmos. It can also eat up more of your time than you realize as you ‘quickly’ surf the Internet for something, only to bounce errantly from one Web site to the next. I am guilty of it. You might be, too. We are entangled in the Web like rose tendrils on a lattice.

Love it. Hate it. It’s here to stay.

According to a recent social media addiction study by Retrevo, almost one third of those surveyed under age 35 admitted to checking their social media pages such as Twitter and Facebook more than ten times a day. Thirty-six percent of the 35 and under group stated they update their status right after having sex. It may be healthier than having a cigarette, but is it normal? Forty percent in this same age group admitted to updating their profiles while driving (which definitely isn’t safe). This isn’t to say that older generations aren’t fallen victim to Facebook syndrome. In 2009, the fastest growing demographic on Facebook was no other than the 55 and over crowd!

Post-coital tweets and obsessive Facebook checking are only the tip of the iceberg, however. As more and more adults go online (it is 80% of the US adult population at present), Internet addiction has become a more prevalent issue. According to the American Psychiatric Association, a proper diagnosis of Internet Addiction Disorder requires that three or more of the following symptoms must be present over any given twelve month period.

1. Your tolerance level increases while the level of satisfaction diminishes. You need more and more time on the Internet to get the same kick.

2.  You experience two or more withdrawal symptoms developing within days to one month after reducing or stopping your online time. These symptoms then cause distress or impair your ability to interact socially.

3.  The only way to alleviate these symptoms is to use the Internet.

4.  You use the Internet more often, and for longer, than you intended.

5.  You spend a big chunk of your day or night on Internet-related activities.

6.  You give up important social, occupational, or recreational activities to be online instead.

7.  You risk the loss of a significant relationship, job, educational or career opportunity because of your excessive Internet usage.

Like television, the Internet has a way of drawing you in and holding your attention. Other signs of a true digital addiction include severe weight loss or gain from hours of Internet surfing, nervousness, irritability and insomnia. What can we do about our digital dilemma? Certainly instant communication can alleviate our workload, but it can contribute greatly to it as well. Here are a few strategies to balance online and offline time.

1. Insert a digital-free day (DFD) into the least busy day of your week. If you’re a busy business executive, for instance, it may be best to make your DFD on a Saturday. Make use of your auto-responder or voicemail to let people know you are unavailable. If you’re a mother, perhaps your DFD day should be on a Sunday, or whichever day you do a lot of other chores such as driving the kids to practice, doing the laundry and paying bills anyway.
2. Take a cell phone sabbatical for an afternoon. Lock it in your trunk or give it to a friend for a specified time.
3. Plug into the tangible world around you every day. Do at least one daily unplugged activity such as going to the gym, socializing with friends face to face or attending a cultural event.
4. Make an effort to have face-to-face contact with people every day. Give someone a real-live hug. In fact, hugs are most certainly one of the best kinds of contact you can have.
5. If you find you have symptoms such as the ones listed above, get professional help. The first net addiction recovery program in Seattle opened its doors recently. Visit (http://www.netaddictionrecovery.com) for more.

The Internet offers infinite possibilities for us all. Be sure, however, that your virtual world is only an augmentation to the real one in which we live.

**This article was originally published on WowOwow.com under the title ‘7 Signs You’re an Internet Addict’.

The Powerlessness of Now

Deborah Wearing’s story is so powerful that my goosebumps cried when I read it. Her husband, Clive, lost his memory after contracting a virus that destroyed parts of his brain. He only ever lives in the now without a working memory of anything that happened before him. Not unlike Alzheimer’s patients whose hippocampus responsible for learning and long-term memory malfunctions, he can’t remember what happened just three minutes prior. Miraculously, he remembers his wife and delights each time he sees her. Since 1985 he has lived this way. Deborah divorced him, then remarried him about a decade later. After twenty-five years, he has been able to condition himself to understand his situation. His life is an example of how powerless always being in the now can be.

While Eckhart Tolle rightfully suggests we embrace the Power of Now, it is based on the assumption that we have a past and, most likely, a future to which we can refer as we navigate through life. We are human beings with a history. It is what makes us become embedded in this thing called time.

Imagine not having time as friend? Imagine living in an ever timeless state! It is stories like these that remind us how powerful time can be for us. It gives us a semblence of structure. It is the safety net that lets us know where we are, even if we feel lost.

Time is by our side. Clive’s wife is by his. It is a story of true love and of what it means to be a time translator for those to whom time means nothing.

New Poll: What’s Your Favorite Time of Day?

Leave a comment and tell me why! Oh, and Happy Friday, All. You’ve made it.

Slow Motion, America

Seventy-one percent of all Americans haven’t heard of the Move Over Law, which requires you either move over to the neighboring lane or slow down to below 20 mph below the speed limit while passing an emergency roadside vehicle with flashing lights.

Why this new law, effective in forty-seven states as of January 1, 2010?

According to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, 154 police officers have been struck and killed by motor vehicles while roadside since 1999. Our need for safety supersedes our need for speed.

So the next time you see those flashing lights, move it over and slow it down. You could save a life. What better way to do that than in slow style?

Slow Thought of the Day: Life as a Project

A hearty thanks to PM4Girls’ Elizabeth Harrin for a rocking review of The Power of Slow.

[I]t is a useful book about the principles of working within the boundaries of time…[If you want to] really get to grips with what time means for you, in the workplace and at home, then read The Power of Slow.

Dedicated to the discipline of project management, Elizabeth is a stellar thought leader. I appreciate her work a great deal. Oh, and did I mention she’s giving away a copy of The Power of Slow on Friday? So be sure to visit her blog then.

Our lives can be viewed as one big project. Or in PM-speak, a series of projects that make up a program. What do we want to accomplish? How can we reach our milestones?

Slow thought of the day:

Slow down to take a look at the Big Picture. Consider it the very canvas you were born with. Now pick up that brush and paint. This is your life. You get to choose how colorful it is.

A life of thriving, not surviving

A thousand thanks to the Brazen Careerist Penelope Trunk for her blog love yesterday. And welcome to all you new visitors who might have found your way here through her. I’ve heard from a few of you already (thanks @btwendel, @bloomerbride and Tracey Linkous in particular).

Mindfulness rules.

So what is the power of slow? It really is about mindfulness. It is about moving beyond clock combat to embrace time as friend. Time is indeed all we have.

“I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” -The Captain in Wall-e

Kudos to Samantha Jones for this quote, which I totally lifted off her Facebook page and plopped here.

As Survivor enters its 20th season, I have to ponder the human desire to push the envelope, if you will. We are designed, on some level, to test our limits. Ask any three year-old. He’ll tell you. It’s funny watching Mommy get all purple in the face as I teeter on the edge of the sidewalk into oncoming traffic. Nice one.

If you are reading this, you are most likely in the privileged position of deciding now whether to live or just survive. We have enough food, clothing and shelter to make more than a difference in the world. We have access to the very technology that can change it for the better.

So what does living, and I’m saying rock-the-house-like-there’s-no-tomorrow kind of living, mean to you? Does it mean staying safe within the walls of your comfort zone, or does it mean doing that one thing each day that scares the crap out of you, then leaves you breathless as you realize it wasn’t all that bad?

You are more powerful than you can imagine. What will you do with your power today?

Making the change

In this TED Talk, Seth Godin shares his insights about how to create a movement. It is no longer about advertising and selling someone something they don’t already have. It is about connecting people who are interested and leading them down the path of transformation.

So if you are committed to mindful living or know you need to make a change in your life, you can start today by telling others about this blog, about my book,  The Power of Slow, and about how they can live a more powerful life by embracing, not combatting, the clock.

Looking forward to hearing about how it goes for you!

Nature’s Narrative

For the third time this winter, we’ve seen the sun.

I exaggerate.

For the second.

It has been a Star Wars-like season ~ dark battling light. It appeared for a time that the darkness had won. But in the last few days, Nature has spoken in more ways than one.

It started with a long walk outdoors I took yesterday. Face sunward, I gleefully donned my winter boots for a communion with the light. The concerto of spring-minded birds taunted my ears. I stomped through the crisp snow to the forest’s edge. Dipping into the shaded woods, I followed deer tracks for a while, then a set of badger paws that seemed to be following the deer themselves. The baby deer tracks made my heart leap for joy.

“You made it. Your mama, too.” Winter’s final cry has come in the form of curtains of snow colliding with the Earth as the sun’s proximity leaves the houses dripping.

Nature has spoken. And I like what I hear.