Hoarding goes Mainstream - Breathing Space Blog

The New York Times: "An estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of Americans suffer from hoarding, which was officially recognized as a disorder this month in a psychiatric diagnostic manual. But the impact of hoarding extends beyond the afflicted individual and relatives in the home: the behavior can also put immediate neighbors at risk, by creating perfect conditions for explosive house fires and infestations of vermin and disease.

Across the country, local officials... have begun grappling with hoarding as a serious public health hazard. More than 85 communities -- from San Jose, California, to Wichita, Kansas, to Portland, Maine -- have established task forces, hoping to stave off catastrophes and help hoarders turn their lives around.

Can You “Slow Down” Time? - Breathing Space Blog

Each minute holds so much potential, but they still race by quickly: The way you experience time passing each day is based on your perception. You can slow down time if you choose. How? Whenever you feel you’re racing the clock or trying to tackle too much at once, try this exercise:

Close your eyes for sixty seconds and imagine a pleasant scene, perhaps one in nature, with a loved one, or something from childhood. Let the emotions of that place and time predominate. Give yourself time for the visualization to take hold. Then open your eyes and return to your present task. You might find that the task and the pace at which you are working no longer seem so stressful.

One effective method for catching up with today is to periodically delete three items from your to-do list without even doing them. Before you shriek, consider that much of what makes your list is nonessential. If you can eliminate three items, it will rarely impact your career or life, and doing so frees up some time for yourself in the present. Nice gift.

Cell Phones are Dangerous - Breathing Space Blog

CBS NewYork -- A man was killed by a subway train in the Bronx early Saturday, after he jumped down onto the tracks to grab a cell phone he had dropped.

Create Your Own Path - Breathing Space Blog

The most effective way to compete in this world for jobs, lovers and that which is coveted, is to not compete at all.  Don't compare, analyze, or dwell upon whatever others are doing.  But instead create your own path -- your internal guidance system -- and have faith that your way will work.

Where is the Worst Traffic? - Breathing Space Blog

 Where is the Worst Traffic?

      1. Honolulu: Drivers waste 58 hours annually in traffic
          Worst hour is Tuesday from 5:15 – 5:30 p.m.

      2. Los Angeles: Drivers waste 56 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:45 – 6 p.m.

      3. San Francisco: Drivers waste 48 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:45 – 6 p.m.

      4. New York: Drivers waste 57 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Friday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

      5. Bridgeport, CT: Drivers waste 42 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Friday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

      6. Washington, DC: Drivers waste 45 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:45 – 6 p.m.

      7. Seattle: Drivers waste 33 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

      8. Austin: Drivers waste 30 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

      9. Boston: Drivers waste 35 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

    10. Chicago: Drivers waste 36 hours in traffic
          Worst hour is Thursday from 5:30 – 5:45 p.m.

Reducing Your Focus on the Future - Breathing Space Blog

from The Book of Life by J. Krisnamurfi:


“Expectations are the ego's way of reminding us that the ego is very much alive inside of us. The most effective way to remove expectations and thus eliminate disappointments, shame, upsets and dissatisfaction, is to remove or reduce one's focus on the future.

True, a goal, mission or vision can provide context and motivation for the present, but when you NEED the future to be a certain way, you measure your quality of life against the future and often come up short. It's a radical idea to decrease your orientation on the future, but when done," you have a richer present.

High Flight - Breathing Space Blog

HIGH FLIGHT

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings,
Sunward I've climbed and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds; and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of; wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there
I've chased the shouting wind along and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air
Up, up and long delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, listing mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

The only poem by American Lt. John Magee, 19, who served as a Canadian Air Force volunteer for 18 months before being killed in action over England in 1941.