One Who Is Not Busy, The: Connecting with Work in a Deeply Satisfying Way (Hardcover)

~ (Author) "After talking to her client for the third time that afternoon, Nancy threw the phone down onto the pile of papers covering the desk of..." (more)
Key Phrases: reliable refuge, nondual awareness, simultaneous inclusion, Different Objects of Focus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

The intense pressure of daily life gets to everyone eventually-we are all just too stressed out. The demands of modern lives-job, relationships, children, housework, exercise, meals, even spiritual fulfillment-combine to overwhelm and weigh us down. We seem to get through this struggle day by day, week by week, praying that we have the fortitude to survive until the next weekend, the next vacation, when we can totally crash. Along with the daily stress comes the edgy realization that despite all the effort we've made, we still don't have what we want. Even when everything seems caught up, contentment still eludes us.

Author Darlene Cohen seeks to rejuvenate the weary professional, busy parent, and harried student by offering a path on which to walk away from exhausted frustration toward a holistic approach to time management. The One Who Is Not Busy introduces two fundamental and specific skills to make this happen:

· the ability to narrow or widen the mind's focus at will

· the mental flexibility to shift the mind's focus at will from one thing to another: to go from "narrow" to "narrow" to "narrow"

Sound impossible? This is the notion of simultaneous inclusion. In The One Who Is Not Busy, Cohen illustrates that a person could be both busy and not busy at the same time by following six busy professionals through this unique process. Cohen affirms that it is learning to be simultaneously "busy" and "not busy" by living the principles of simultaneous inclusion that will allow us to experience work-and the rest of our lives-in a deeply meaningful way.

In a culture that rewards only the final product, many professionals find themselves always looking to the next project, the next reward, the next vacation. Learn how to focus on the present, and stop missing what is right in front of you.

Darlene Cohen, M.A., LMT, earned her graduate degree in physiological psychology and spent the majority of her Zen training-thirty years-as a laywoman. After developing rheumatoid arthritis, she became a movement teacher for people with joint restrictions, and was then certified as a massage and movement teacher. Currently, she sees clients and gives workshops, classes, lectures, and seminars that emphasize mindfulness, at various medical and meditation centers throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, Washington State, Illinois, and New York City.

From the Inside Flap

In a culture that de-emphasizes process and rewards only the final product, many professionals find themselves always looking to the next project, the next reward, the next vacation. By never focusing on the present, they miss what is right in front of them.

With proven meditation techniques, Darlene Cohen walks the weary business person from this exhausted frustration to enlightenment: a fresh approach to time management. In these pages she will teach you to:

*Narrow or widen you focus at will.

*Develop the mental flexibility to shift your focus at will from one thing to another.

Following six professionals through this process, Cohen affirms that it is learning to be simultaneously "busy" and "not busy" that will allow us to experience work and the rest of our lives in a deeply meaningful way.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 144 pages
• Publisher: Gibbs Smith; 1ST Edition edition (March 12, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 156731760X
• ISBN-13: 978-1586852511
• ASIN: 1586852515
• Product Dimensions: 8.1 x 5.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #420,327 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Buddhist approach to task management, March 30, 2007

By	Edward Mills "Author of the www.EvolvingTimes... (Sonoma County CA, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Darlene Cohen's The One Who Is Not Busy, provides a fresh take on the concept of multitasking. She points out, accurately, that the reason we get overwhelmed is because we are focusing on too many things at one time. Darlene encourages us to use the Buddhist practice of one-pointed-attention to focus on what we are doing in each moment.

She provides a number of exercises to help you increase your ability to stay focused. One of the most helpful concepts for me was the idea of narrowing and expanding your focus at will. By bringing consciousness to your focus you can choose when to focus on a single tree and when to take in the entire forest.

Admittedly, some of the exercises seem like they would be better suited to a workshop setting than a book. And her writing style is a tad serious for my taste. But overall this book has been very helpful for me.

4.0 out of 5 stars Zen balance in the lives of Multitaskers, September 13, 2009

By	Lori Gertz "Lori Gertz, Author of www.freakin... (Long Grove, Il) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The kicker on this book title says it all.

Connecting with work in a deeply satisfying way...

We don't need to view our work and leisure worlds (if they exist) as fundamentally different. When we give anything we approach with our full attention we are continually connected to our own feelings, thoughts and sensations...One needs to ask without these elements of life, where is the joy? This book gives a multitude of tools to encourage this connection through very simple meditative approaches to everything from sitting at a desk to breathing during a conference call. As a lifelong multitasker, my curiousity was piqued by it's premise. I enjoyed reading it and have begun incorporating many of the tools into my daily practice of work and life.