Bringing Slow to your Workday

A New York publicist recently asked me how she might bring more ’slow’ to her day.  With a busy firm and a client list the length of her arm, she is often overwhelmed by the rigors of her workday.
As with other people I have spoken with recently, I find bringing Nature closer to home creates [...]

Focused in New York with ‘Distracted’ author Maggie Jackson

Last week in New York City, I sat down with Distracted author Maggie Jackson for a rare face-to-face interview. It was rare because most of the interviews I conduct are through the digital medium, either via phone, Skype or email. We enjoyed a cup of chamomille tea at a quaint Swedish cafe just off Columbus Circle [...]

A Kinder Kind of New York

I have been to New York City at least five times in as many years. Something has changed in the City. It is softer, kinder, more humane. After spending five days there, I experienced nothing but kindness wherever I went.
Someone once told me you see the world through a mirror, not a lens. That which [...]

Slow Being Put to the Test

Safely esconced in the confines of my tiny New York hotel room, I am typing this in rhythm with the traffic nine stories below. I can see why New Yorkers have a hard time slowing down. It is natural for human beings to adapt to their surroundings. As far as I can tell, the Slow [...]

The Gentle Gardener

Nature is balm for the soul. Whenever I feel stressed, I step outside my office and into my garden to dig around in the dirt for a few minutes. Studying the landscape, I inevitably regain a sense of balance and beauty about my surroundings. Internally, I simply feel better having stepped outside the scope of [...]

Slow is the New Fast

Seth Godin recently talked about the pending death of all newspapers. Since I admire his thinking, this has gotten me a little worried. There’s nothing more enjoyable than reading the paper with a steaming cup of coffee in the sunshine on a Sunday afternoon. It is the ultimate slow event as you power down to [...]

Planning the Space in Between

Lauree Ostrofsky wrote a brilliant post about negative space. The Japanese call it ‘ma’, the space between things. She asks what one would do if we planned the things between activities. What would our day look like if we only planned the down time instead of the fillers of time we usually dictate? She asks
“What [...]

Music helps with memory

The brain is a marvelous organ. Its mysteries are still being unleashed by researchers. Consider this video about how music evokes emotion and helps with memory. Many thanks to Neuronarrative for pointing it out!

Twitter leads to moral depravity?

The power of slow is the antidote for information overload. Snap off your TweetDeck, enjoy a drink on the porch, savor the setting sun. Social networking can become an obsession if you let it. It can also be a useful tool, if you know how to use it (more in an upcoming public radio interview [...]

Boredom births Beauty

Ask any kid who’s run out of ideas the second week into vacation, and you’ll see boredom written all over his face. My son took on the typical “I’m-not-leaving-your-office-until-I-am-no-longer-bored’ stance, thrusting his entire frame onto an empty office chair and wheeling around in circles.
“I’m bor-ed!” he chanted to the beating of his own chair whipping. [...]