Focus on the now

Have you ever noticed that when you’re very busy you can get much more done than when you have free time? Just when I think I’m as busy as I can be, my schedule become fuller… and yet mysteriously I accomplish more. It’s awesome. I’ve realized that if I focus on the now, whatever’s right in front of me, I can glide through loads of tasks and my creativity and energy grow.

A key to reaping the greatest benefit from each moment has been to play with my sense of time, actually to pay little attention to time – create a feeling that I have all the time in the world, appreciate the time I’m spending on something right now, and still look to finish whatever I’m doing as soon as possible.

Taro on a clifftop photo shoot, Kauai

When time dictates your day, your life, it can mess with your sense of accomplishment and joy. I find when I practice “timelessness” and give myself all the time I could ever need (at least in my heart and mind), then somehow that translates into reality, and I can accomplish even more than I would expect to achieve in a minute, an hour, a day.

Especially since I travel so much, freeing myself from limitations of time awareness has been greatly helpful. Since my last post I enjoyed two busy trips through Japan (finished 14 songs for my album and am mastering them in NYC now), I visited Mexico, more photo shoots in Hawaii, and flew across the US from LA to Miami to NYC and back again. No wonder I started believing in “timelessness” – I can barely remember what time zone I’m in anymore!

Stayed next to Grand Central Station, NYC

Enjoyed a beautiful summer day in Central Park

More than ever, something I wrote in my first book Open Your Mind, Open Your Life rings true to me: “Enjoy the here and now, for there is only here and now.” May you always enjoy your here and now, savor a sense of timelessness, and appreciate yourself and the path that life unfolds before you.

Taro at a Spanish Harlem tunnel, by Central Park