The Art of Stopping Time

with Dr. Pedram Shojai

We feel stressed about “not having enough time” even as we continue to overcommit ourselves. We often deprioritize our self-care or start relying on multitasking and split-focused attempts to “do it all.” As a result: our minds and bodies are exhausted, we are less efficient, and we feel guilty about neglecting what we really want to be doing, such as being present and connected with loved ones.

You have 24 hours on any given day, so today we are going to look at the time you have each and every day to get a clear picture on how you’re spending your time.

Creating Micro Habits

If you’re going to take your time back, it's going to start with every micro habit. Morning to night, these small changes not only set the tone for each day but for the rest of your life. In this lesson, you'll learn how to set the tone with gratitude and mindfulness as soon as you wake up. 

EXERCISE: How to Start Each Day Mindfully

Today's exercise is all about setting the tone with gratitude and mindfulness as soon as you wake up. You'll focus on the breath and body movements to help ground yourself. Why? When you do so, you have better control over your day, time, and your perception of both.

Habits can become complacent or automatic. One such area is mealtimes. But it’s important to stay engaged with what you’re doing as you’re doing it. Today, we remember to eat with all our senses to savor what’s on our plate, making this habit sacred and fulfilling. It’ll be the same total of time as you normally would eat; only today, the experience will transform.

Handling Stressful Events

Everything's fine when things are fine, right? But once a stressful event happens, what do you do? An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

In this lesson, we talk about how to handle stressful events. It begins by understanding your body’s reaction to stress. It’s a very real, physiological response that, by further understanding it, we can learn how to create more peace in our lives. 

EXERCISE: How to Handle Stressful Events

This exercise is all about keeping you grounded in stressful situations. By focusing on your body and your breath, you can gather yourself and let go of the negative emotions.

Reclaiming your time requires bringing greater awareness to what you’re doing when you’re doing it. In this way, you orient yourself to the present. This aligns your consciousness to what’s happening, in the now. 

In this lesson, you learn how to reclaim lost time. That is, time that seems to vanish in everyday activities. Every free moment you will be used mindfully or lost, often wasted in activities like scrolling social media. The practice here is being intentional and purposeful with your time even when doing everyday activities like taking a shower.

If you have a work commute or drive often, you will learn today how to bring more mindfulness to when you’re in the car. You will learn how to meditate in the car as well as how to better align your posture and breath more intentionally so that when you reach your destination, you are calm, present, and feeling more at peace.

In this lesson, we talk about your workspace and what needs to happen to make it more conducive to being focused and productive. There are so many things that can be adjusted in how you spend your time at work to increase your productivity, such as focusing on a single task (and not trying to multitask), getting natural light, being mindful of your posture while seated, keeping your desk organized, and taking breaks to walk and stretch at regular intervals. This all leads to greater efficiency.

Spending Time More Wisely Each Evening

For many of us, we get home from work and the TV goes on. Immediately, there is something calling for our attention and our precious time. Yet this is counterproductive to Time Prosperity. 

So, how could you spend your time more wisely each evening? This lesson guides you to look at what you can do with your evenings to create more calm, intention, and quality of life - as well as a better night’s rest. An evening routine is important so you wake up refreshed the next day. 

Meditation for Evening Relaxation 

Today, we practice not doing. We scan the mind for what it is we're doing at this moment, and we stop. No lights or stimulation. This is a practice of unplugging and easing into sleep. Do this every night, and the days start to get better.

The key ingredient when spending time with family and friends is quality.

Research shows that the number one marker for longevity are relationships and having a connection with the people in our life, whether that's family, close friends, or pets. Yet how we spend that time together directly influences if we are connected.

If your idea of quality time with your family and friends is to huddle and watch some sort of entertainment, that’s proven to not be effective quality gathering time. In this lesson, we look at specific things we can do to strengthen the bonds that matter to us.

We live in a culture where we think willpower is everything. Yet that perspective is missing one piece of the formula: focus. You need both intention and focus to live life more purposefully. When you have both intention and focus, you choose more powerfully, too, where to spend your time and how to allocate it.

In this lesson, we look at how to tend to your life garden. That is, all the areas of your life in which you have responsibilities, goals, desires, and priorities.