MindBody Deals

Mindful Creativity: Subtractive Ways to Hone Your Creativity

pooja — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 02:01:20 +0000

The secret of creativity is to subtract, not add. Here's how. One of my favorite books about writing is Writing Down The Bones: Freeing The Writer Within (Shambhala, 1986) by Natalie Goldberg. Yes, some artists find Goldberg’s guide to be fuzzy, neo-hippie claptrap, but I return to it again and again, not for “practical” advice, but for Goldberg’s Zen approach to craft. The secret of creativity, Goldberg makes clear, is to subtract rules for writing, not add them. Her book often puts my into the “right” frame of mind, regardless of what I am creating—a short story, a hand-bound b ook, a flower arrangement. So, today, in the spirit of Writing Down The Bones, three mindful, subtractive ways to sharpen your creativity: Search for Solitude. I have always lived in big cities, first in New York and now in Singapore, but I try to find time to turn inwards. I love to walk. A few hours in the park give me a chance not only to contemplate, to be creative, and think critically about my world. It’s a challenge to create when immersed in the lives of others. If you want to dig deep into your creative well, don’t be afraid to be truly alone. (But not, lonely, mind you!) Purify. Unfortunately, not everyone with whom we collaborate or converse will be a positive influence on our creative lives. In fact, the ideas or criticisms of others may be destructive to our visions. Every now and then, take a moment to purge your mind of negative and unproductive notions that you may have held on to. Play! Creativity isn’t just about work. I have much experience and expertise in education, early childhood education specifically, and am a huge advocate of letting one’s mind wander in the search for creative solution to unanswered questions. Oftentimes, when you stop actively thinking, your subconscious will reveal the “answer” to you. So, take a break from your studio or unplug your computer and play. Pooja Makhijani (@notabilia) is a writer, editor, educator, and New Yorker now based in Singapore. She writes about arts and culture on her blog, notabilia.

There Is Always Time If You Make Time

doingtoomuch — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 02:25:55 +0000

You have the power to set aside sacred time on your calendar and to make time for what is important to you. A few years ago, I had the chance to speak with Nina Sankovitch, the author of Tolstoy & the Purple Chair: My Year of Magical Reading. A lawyer and a mother of four, Nina had just completed an unusual experiment: she had read one entire book every single day for 365 days. The project was a tribute to her sister, who had died at forty-six, the age that Nina was when she began her year of reading. "How did you possibly find the time to read an entire book each day?," I asked Nina incredulously. I thought of my own life, which is often so harried that I hardly have the time to scan the headlines every day, let alone read a complete book from start to finish. Nina’s answer was stunning in its simplicity: “There is always time if you make time.” Nina’s words have stayed with me. When I feel frustrated that I can’t find the time to do something I want to do, like reconnect with an old friend face-to-face, I think of what Nina said. I remember that I have the power to set aside sacred time on my calendar and to make time for what is important to me. This post comes to you from Nihara, a blogger who is (slowly) figuring out how to make the most of her time and her life. Read her thoughts on how to live a better, saner life at Doing Too Much.

Getting Quiet: Wanted—Lower Decibel Humans

allan ishac — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 02:39:59 +0000

By Allan Ishac Noise is the number one quality-of-life complaint in New York City and we’re all contributing to the din. Eight years ago, on a steamy afternoon in August, the power went out in New York City. Off went the lights, the computers networks, and the air-conditioning systems. The subways stopped, and with no traffic signals, cars came to a halt. Eventually, the juice ran out on cell phones, iPods and all things handheld, and they went black, too. As night fell, and there was still no electricity, the city slowly descended into an unfamiliar darkness. Then it became remarkably silent. Without the constant thrum of rooftop HVAC units, the sonic chaos of traffic horns, and the subterranean rumble of the trains—the city turned quiet in a way I’ve never heard before. I found it delightful. And while it inconvenienced many, I believe that city residents loved it. Candles were lit on fire escapes, people gathered for potluck suppers, and the avenues became broad, nearly noiseless bike lanes. Of course, I am someone who craves peace and quiet, but I am not alone in believing we need a daily dose of prolonged quiet for good health and sustained happiness. Studies as far back as 1975 have concluded that excessive noise contributes to high blood pressure, fatigue, increased anxiety, and difficulty concentrating. Noise, the number one quality-of-life complaint on the city’s 311 hotline—and more ubiquitous than any other pollution we face—can make us tired, irritable, and ill. While the city has put more teeth into its noise code, and occasionally enforces it, we can each help by managing our own noise footprints. I could run through the usual list of offending and controllable behaviors (loud public cell phone conversations, high volume home stereos, running personal air conditioners nonstop, taking a car instead of a train, yelling instead of restraining our vocal enthusiasm), but taking control of the noise situation around us involves something more global—we need to be more conscious about it. Creating a quieter city means paying closer attention to what we’re doing, who’s around us, and what kind of environment we want to live, work and play in. I want to live in a fully alive, but not so loud one. Allan Ishac is the bestselling author of New York’s 50 Best Places To Find Peace and Quiet and the related iPhone app TranquiliCity.

Counting Sleep (Not Sheep)

doingtoomuch — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 20:05:44 +0000

We are lousy judges of our own sleep needs, new research shows. I don’t usually think of myself as sleep deprived. After all, it takes just a few cups of (very) strong coffee for me to get going in the morning. And once I get going, I keep going . . . and going . . . and going. I seem to have enough energy to do the things I am supposed to do most of the time. But I am starting to think that while I feel awake for most of the day, I’m a lot more tired than I think I am. There’s a great deal of new scientific evidence to back up this view. David Dinges, a sleep expert at the University of Pennsylvania, has been running sleep deprivation experiments to find out exactly how much sleep most people need. Maggie Jones reported Dinges’ research results in a fascinating article in The New York Times this past April. Much to my surprise, Dinges found that people who sleep seven hours per night (what I would consider a respectable night’s sleep) are cognitively impaired to some extent. He used the psychomotor vigilance task (P.V.T.), a computer-based attention test that is the “gold standard” for measuring “sustained attention.” This is the type of attention you need “for reading a paragraph just once, instead of five times.” When you’re well-rested, the P.V.T. is “tedious” but easy. When you’re exhausted, frequent “attention lapses” cause you to flub the test. Dinges found that people who were limited to seven hours of sleep per night did progressively worse on the P.V.T. for three solid days, until their performance stabilized at “lower levels than when they started.” (People who slept eight hours per night, in comparison, passed the P.V.T. with flying colors.) Dinges’ research revealed even greater consequences for six-hour sleepers. After two weeks of sleeping for only six hours per night, people became just as cognitively impaired as those who had been “sleep-deprived for 24 hours straight -- the cognitive equivalent of being legally drunk.” Ironically, these same individuals felt perfectly fine at the time. The punchline is that even when we’re sleep deprived, we have no idea how exhausted we really are. We are “lousy judges of our own sleep needs,” explains New York Times writer Maggie Jones, and “not nearly as sharp as we think we are.” This post comes to you from Nihara, a blogger who is (slowly) figuring out how to make the most of her time and her life. Read her thoughts on how to live a better, saner life at Doing Too Much.

Getting Quiet: Don’t Skip that Summer Vacation

allan ishac — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 17:04:31 +0000

By Allan Ishac Important research concludes that taking time off from work can actually extend your life. [caption id="attachment_793" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="When I get away and do it right, it’s often to the enchanted, car-less retreat of Fire Island. "][/caption] When it comes to vacationing, Americans could learn a few things from Europeans, who regularly receive—and take—up to 4 weeks of paid vacation a year. While American workers are granted fewer vacations days than their counterparts in many Western European countries, and regularly gripe about that, the truth is that we don’t take advantage of the days we do get. In fact, the result of Expedia’s 2010 Vacation Deprivation Survey shows that Americans are lousy vacationers. Only 38% of us use all of our vacation days, with most Americans taking only a few of their allotted days and many others essentially selling their vacation days back to their companies for cash. But two major studies— the well-known Framingham Heart Study and the Multiple Risk Factor Intervention Trial (MRFIT)—conclude that vacations have healing powers. In the Framingham study, 749 women ages 45 to 64, who were free of heart disease, were followed for 20 years. In these women, lack of vacations proved to be a key predictor in the incidence of heart attack and death. The MRFIT study analyzed the death rates of 12,000 middle-aged men in a nine-year period to determine how certain health conditions might have precipitated death. They found that the more vacations the study subjects took, the greater the reduction in deaths from any cause. I am guilty of not taking enough vacations. I do enjoy many one day “rest breaks,” when I go cycling or visit friends away from New York City. But I don’t get my quota of weeklong or two weeklong vacations—a duration that heals mind, body and spirit on a deep and necessary level. [caption id="attachment_794" align="alignright" width="300" caption="Fire Island's friendly soundtrack is the slow clackety-clack of Radio Flyer wagon wheels on ribbons of wooden walkways."][/caption] When I get away, and do it right, it’s often to a very enchanted place only 45 miles from the city called Fire Island. I’ve rented a house there with friends in a community called Lonelyville for more than 20 years. The wonderful thing about Fire Island is that it has no inner roads, so there are no cars allowed, or car horns. Just boardwalks, bikes and bells, and some sweet red wagons to cart groceries and luggage. It captures a time long ago, when doors were left unlocked and kids could go out and play without supervision. When less vigilance meant less stress … and more fun. It’s summer—let the healing power of vacations begin!

When a Shortcut Isn’t a Shortcut

doingtoomuch — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 02:23:34 +0000

Trying to save a minute can sometimes cost us an hour. Sometimes we have to slow down in order to speed up. Our dishwasher was on the fritz this entire week. All the glasses were coming out with teeny tiny flecks of stuck-on food (yuck) and nothing was as clean or as sparkly as it should have been. So I called Sears and waited for the maintenance man to arrive. I waited, and waited, and waited. In the meantime, we struggled to keep up with the piles of dishes generated by our family of five. On day one of no dishwasher, I rolled up my sleeves and hand washed all the dishes. To stay ahead of the game, I washed the dishes the moment they were dirty. Sometimes this meant yanking a glass from one of my children while she was still drinking so I could get it clean and have one less dish to wash. On day two of no dishwasher, I went shopping. I brought home plastic plates and plastic glasses and plastic forks and plastic knives. I thought about bringing home plastic food while I was at it. After that we had far fewer dishes to wash . . . but far more garbage to take out. Today, six full days after our dishwasher began malfunctioning, the man from Sears finally arrived. It took him ten minutes to identify (and solve) the problem: kernels of corn stuck in the holes of the dishwasher jets. Apparently, we had not been scraping our plates well enough before hastily stuffing them into the dishwasher. “This is a dishwasher, not a garbage disposal,” the Sears man explained. The cost of this sage advice: $150. If we had spent six seconds de-gunking our plates before loading them into the dishwasher, we would have saved six days of a dishwasher-free existence (not to mention $150). Trying to Save a Minute Can Sometimes Cost You an Hour There are good shortcuts, and there are bad shortcuts. Not cleaning your plate before sticking it into the dishwasher is a bad shortcut. Here are some other bad shortcuts:

Not checking whether you clicked “reply” or “reply all” before sending an important email.
Rushing out of the nail salon before your polish is bone dry.
Skipping the saran wrap when microwaving a plate of pasta with marinara sauce.
Deciding that your toddler really doesn’t need that one last diaper change before bed.

As I race through my life, I often end up wasting hours in my effort to save minutes. It might be because I am permanently set on “fast forward” mode. I try so hard to pack it all in that I take shortcuts, even when they don’t make any sense at all. The corn-in-the-dishwasher incident reminds me that I sometimes have to slow down to speed up. I need to take a few extra minutes to do things right, even if it feels like I am wasting time, because those minutes will save me hours in the long run. This guest post comes to you from Nihara, a blogger who is (slowly) figuring out how to make the most of her time and her life. Read her thoughts on how to live a better, saner life at Doing Too Much.

Getting Quiet: Plug into Nature at Shakespeare’s Garden and Wave Hill

allan ishac — Fri, 03 Jun 2011 18:40:33 +0000

By Allan Ishac Counter Nature-Deficit Disorder with these brief encounters with nature in the heart of NYC In his 2005 bestseller, Last Child in the Woods, author Richard Louv introduced the idea that people in modern societies are suffering from a “nature-deficit disorder.” He explores this concept further in a new book, The Nature Principle, citing studies that suggest exposure to nature, even with brief encounters, can improve psychological and physical health. I have been writing about a similar idea recently, specifically that our absorption with video games, smart phones and high-tech gadgets accelerates and overwhelms our nervous systems, leaving us further out of sync with the slower, rejuvenating rhythms of nature. Louv asserts that we need a reliable force to balance this electronic immersion and that nature is that force. He adds that in addition to being restorative, time spent in the natural environment “seems to stimulate our ability to pay attention, think clearly and be more creative.” With that in mind, I have been thinking about city living and the experience of having a concrete crust separating us from terra firma below. This can make engaging with nature more challenging for us. But here are two readily accessible suggestions for nature-deprived city folk, or visitors to this metropolis who are feeling the “deficit.” Wave Hill is the best opportunity I’ve found to get away from the city without ever leaving. Located in the Bronx, Wave Hill’s 28-acres of award-winning gardens, greenhouses, sweeping lawns, magnificent trees and unspoiled woodlands, all adjacent to the surging Hudson River, is as exuberant a verdant oasis as you’ll find. While a popular destination, Wave Hill is never overrun and there is always a high-backed lawn chair available where you can close your eyes, smell bursting blooms on beautiful pergolas, and listen to the lost sounds of nature. My second close encounter with nature is the Shakespeare Garden in Central Park. Of course, the entire 800-plus acres of Central Park provide special opportunities for respite from the noise and pressures of the surrounding streets. But the Shakespeare Garden is a truly secluded corner of calm. This shady, texturally enticing garden serpentines on coiled flagstone paths up a short hillside. There is no way to walk through the dense garden quickly because the placement of the spiraling steps and rustic benches almost forbids it. So take your time with the delphiniums, ferns, and delicate poppies, and make a conscious decision to slow down. Coordinates Wave Hill West 249th St. and Independence Ave., Bronx 718-549-3200 Shakespeare Garden Central Park near 79th St. Transverse Allan Ishac is the bestselling author of New York’s 50 Best Places To Find Peace and Quiet and the related iPhone app TranquiliCity.

Choosing to Have Fewer Choices

doingtoomuch — Fri, 27 May 2011 19:13:49 +0000

Though the world offers unlimited possibilities, limiting one's choices, voluntarily, is one way to reclaim a little time amidst the madness of daily life. [caption id="attachment_748" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Creative Commons. Credit: EPA Smart Growth"][/caption] From big decisions (like where to buy a house) to small decisions (like where to go to dinner on Saturday night), we face far too many options and not enough time to sift through all the choices.It can be hard to make even the simplest decision without extensive research. There is the constant sense that we might be missing out on something better, and so we should keep looking. In The Paradox of Choice, Barry Schwartz argues that too much choice can be paralyzing: As the number of options increases, the effort required to make a good decision escalates as well, which is one of the reasons that choice can be transformed from a blessing into a burden. ... A major contributor to [the] time burden [is] the vastly greater number of choices we find ourselves preparing for, making, reevaluating, and perhaps regretting.” The time we spend on every single decision in our lives, from which blouse to buy to which book to read, is “time taken away” from the things that really matter in our lives. So how do we “fight[ ] back against the tyranny of overwhelming choices”? In Schwartz’s view, we must simply “decide which choices in our lives really matter and focus our time and energy there, letting many other opportunities pass us by.” He claims that “by restricting our options, we will be able to choose less and feel better.” Last week, I planned a week-long getaway in July, a little respite for my sister's family and mine to reconnect and relax in a home away from home. I could have spent days weighing my options, doing endless hours of internet research and comparisons to find the most perfect cottage in the most perfect town between New York (where we live) and Washington, D.C. (where my sister lives). Instead, I limited my search to four towns in Maryland's Chesapeake Bay region, based on nothing more than the recommendation of a friend. It was easy for me to find a small cottage that suited our needs once I narrowed my choices to this small region. Not only did I make my decision faster, but I felt happier about my choice. Although the world offers unlimited possibilities, I have begun to limit my own choices, voluntarily, to make decisions more manageable. It is one way to reclaim a little of my time in all of the madness. This guest post comes to you from Nihara, a blogger who is (slowly) figuring out how to make the most of her time and her life. Read her thoughts on how to live a better, saner life at Doing Too Much.

Getting Quiet: A License to Chill

allan ishac — Thu, 26 May 2011 16:39:14 +0000

By Allan Ishac In Norway, relaxation is a serious business. Last month I spent a week in Norway, visiting some friends who have a home on the soothing shores of the Oslo fjord and doing an interview for Norwegian television about the 20th Anniversary of my Peace and Quiet book. The interview will be bookended later this year, when I escort the same Norwegian TV crew on a tour of quiet places in New York City. The Oslo interview was conducted by Tom Madslangrud, a passionate man who believes as much in the importance of daily relaxation as I do, and who puts his energy where his heart is. Tom is known as The Hammock Man in Europe and has a wonderful website called Laidback where he sells his cozy string hammocks and his environmentally sustainable Chill Bill foam bags, and reports on the nature of stress and “chillin” in Norway and across Europe. As an ethnocentric New Yorker, it’s easy for me to think of my city and country as having cornered the market on stress and tension, with every other civilized place on the planet being a virtual peace pocket by comparison. But Tom gave me an education, and convinced me that stress is relative and that the weight of workday pressures and contemporary anxieties are pandemic problems that come with a universal need for downtime. He has met the problem head-on in his own country, purchasing an old bus, wrapping it in “License to Chill” cloud graphics, and driving it around the country to music festivals. There he unloads a slew of hammocks to create “hanging forests” and deposits dozens of his foam bag chairs into inviting fields of soft slumber. Incredibly, Tom gets support from the Norwegian government for his relaxation initiatives, with funding and tax breaks and other assistance. It is inspiring to imagine official support for progressive, preventive, health-sustaining efforts like Tom Madslangrud is promoting in Norway through his laidback.no website and License to Chill excursions through the land of the fjords. I’ll be bringing you more mind-body relaxation news from around the world in the months ahead. In the meantime, I leave you with some photos of springtime in Vigeland Sculpture Park, part of the extraordinary urban park system in Oslo that encourages a slower pace through one of Scandinavia’s great cities. Allan Ishac is the bestselling author of New York’s 50 Best Places To Find Peace and Quiet and the related iPhone app TranquiliCity.

Making Time for Doing Nothing

doingtoomuch — Mon, 09 May 2011 17:11:37 +0000

This guest post comes to you from Nihara, a blogger who is (slowly) figuring out how to make the most of her time and her life. Read her thoughts on how to live a better, saner life at Doing Too Much. Lately, it has occurred to me that I am always doing something. Even in the few minutes that I spend waiting for my train or waiting to pick my daughter up from preschool, I rarely stare off into space or watch the clouds roll by. Instead, I check the weather or send an email or respond to a text or read the headlines. I think, mistakenly, that I should be using every spare moment of every day to do something “productive.” I am starting to wonder whether my mind might work a bit better if I gave it the chance to rest from time to time. For the moment, I have no hope of spending an entire day or two doing absolutely nothing. That opportunity won’t come until all three of my children are in college, and probably not even then. But perhaps I can start doing nothing during the little snippets of in-between time I get here and there (while waiting for the school bus to arrive, for example, or waiting for a pizza to come out of the oven). No fiddling with my iPhone, no reading, no touching up my makeup. Is it possible that inserting a few pauses into my day will make me feel more refreshed and more present in my day-to-day life? Leo Babauta of Zen Habits certainly believes this is true. He claims that “[d]oing nothing can be an art form” that can help you to “improve your life, melt away the stress and make you[] more productive when you actually do work.” In Leo’s view, even the busiest person can make time for a little bit of nothing: Start by doing nothing while you are waiting in line, at the doctor’s office, on a bus, or for a plane. Wait, without reading a newspaper or magazine, without talking on the phone, without checking your email, without writing out your to-do list, without doing any work, without worrying about what you need to do later. Wait, and do nothing. Today, I experimented with doing nothing while waiting to pick up my order of takeout Chinese. Instead of pulling out my iPhone as I normally would have done, I just stood there at the counter, watching the cook brown beef and green peppers over a tall flame. I felt a bit silly at first, just standing there without actually doing anything. But then I realized how relaxing it was to just . . . be. It was like a mental mini-break in the madness of my day. By the time my order was finally ready, I was almost sorry to leave.