PAGE 2
In The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying, author Sogyal Rinpoche writes about the human tendency to be in denial about death, thereby not living our most fulfilling lives. He warns not to become "unconscious living corpses." Meaning? If you're not careful, you can sleepwalk through our time here on this planet, causing you to avoid feeling your deepest feelings and risk going after your truest desires by busying your days with total nonsense.

Rinpoche describes a Western tendency of "active laziness": the need to compulsively cram your life with a myriad of unimportant activities, leaving little time to confront what really matters. He jokingly renames the petty projects called "responsibilities" as "irresponsiblities."

What Rinpoche describes is reminiscent of what author Milan Kundera philosophized about in his book Slowness, a slender volume I ironically sped through in a night. Kundera explains how we live in a highly sped-up culture, and that our need for speed promotes forgetting. For example: If you want to forget something, you will pick up speed walking down the street. If you want to remember something, you'll slow down your steps.

With this in mind, Kundera warns how speeding up your life not only keeps you from remembering daily details like "Oops! Forgot to pick up more milk," but also keeps you forgetful about overall life values and how to live your most enjoyable, passion-filled life.

Meaning? The next time you find yourself racing quickly down the street, know that you're not only running to your next appointment, you are literally running from contact with your truest feelings, needs and insights.
I know right now there are some very smart inventors out there trying to create more fancy-shmancy devices to save you more time, like "time-saving" resources on the Internet and "time-saving" doohickeys for cell phones and BlackBerrys. But you don't need any more time-saving devices that quickly morph into schedule-clogging, mind-clogging and feeling-clogging devices. Instead we need more "time-savoring devices" which help us slow down, sit still and become more mindful of who we are and what we value for a fulfilling, happy life.

Get 5 tips to help you savor your time

Karen Salmansohn is a best-selling author known for creating self-help for people who wouldn't be caught dead reading self-help. Get more information on finding a loving, happier-ever-after relationship in her book Prince Harming Syndrome.

What are you wasting your time on instead of savoring it with people and things that truly matter? Share your thoughts with us below.

More from Karen Salmansohn

NEXT STORY

Next Story