How do we develop our habits? Are we conscious of our habits? Do they serve us and help move us forward in our lives or do they keep us spinning in place? Are our habits crowding the hours of our days or creating more time in our lives? When it comes to time management, these questions and more are meaningful.
The Art of Stopping Time
The point of The Art of Stopping Time is to give us the time management tools to create more productive space in our lives. New York Times bestselling author Pedram Shojai asks us to question our habits. He encourages the reader to choose practices that actually help us to “stop time.” Shojai has organized this book in such a way that the reader can try out one practice a day for a period of 100 days. This type of habit creation is known as a 100-day Gong. The Gong is a ritual method for training oneself. After completing the full Gong, Shojai suggests that the reader can pick up the book and open to any page containing a practice. Pick a practice for a healthy Gong Roulette.
Practices for Improved Time Management
The practices Shojai gives are not merely thought-provoking. They are powerful enough to allow us ways to hit our internal reset button. These self-care suggestions are deceptively simple yet their effects can be life-changing. Read the book to discover them all. Don’t just read them–dare to try them out. Get out of your chair, relax the back of your neck, focus on your meals, enlist help, digest your emotions, write your bucket list, spend time in the sun, and daydream. Other suggestions are to pray, enjoy whatever place you are in, and organize your time in chunks. Shojai encourages us to take time to sip on a cup of tea, read, and even spend time in the dark. He offers a practice for rejuvenation through spending time in nature. In addition, Shojai instructs the reader to take deep breaths, to imagine infinity, and just do nothing.
These moments that remove us from our to-do lists allow us to develop a new relationship with the time we have. Shojai calls this developing time prosperity. This is the experience of having an abundance of time. When we fully embrace how to live this quest, we may find that we are able to do more than simply stop time. We can create more time in our lives.
Felicia Tomasko has spent more of her life practicing Yoga and Ayurveda than not. She first became introduced to the teachings through the writings of the Transcendentalists, through meditation, and using asana to cross-train for her practice of cross-country running. Between beginning her commitment to Yoga and Ayurveda and today, she earned degrees in environmental biology and anthropology and nursing, and certifications in the practice and teaching of yoga, yoga therapy, and Ayurveda while working in fields including cognitive neuroscience and plant biochemistry. Her commitment to writing is at least as long as her commitment to yoga. Working on everything related to the written word from newspapers to magazines to websites to books, Felicia has been writing and editing professionally since college. In order to feel like a teenager again, Felicia has pulled out her running shoes for regular interval sessions throughout Southern California. Since the very first issue of LA YOGA, Felicia has been part of the team and the growth and development of the Bliss Network.