Even if though the average Joe won’t make a fashion statement about it, most of us are feeling over-stimulated and “time poor.” So I’m betting this concept will strike a cord with many.

Rogan wants to help people reclaim time with their newest bit of design re-invention called the Timeless Watch.

“…Its “timeless” empty face, not only neatly dismisses the modern anxieties of analogue-vs.-digital, the conceptual accessory introduces freedom from deadlines, time changes, alarm clocks (and the constant inching towards death) with its sleekly sustainable design.”

Sustainable? Yes, they are made from repurposed old watch pieces so they get to put the word “upcycling” in the press release.  Score!

All cynicism aside though, so many things beep, buzz, and “alarm” us in daily life.  Little suggestions that ask us to stop keeping time, even if for just a moment, would fit many design concepts and really resonate.

“Stress is real. It’s caused by all of the things you juggle in life — money, relationships, schedules, family, work, your health.  In your busy day, what if you could pause briefly, and give yourself a moment to get a better handle on things? What if you could put a ‘number’ on stress and watch it get lower over time? What if you could even keep yourself from becoming stressed in the first place so you can be there for the ones you love?”

It’s called UPLIV™, and they claim that it’s the “first comprehensive stress management program that’s personalized to you and your lifestyle.”

You take an online test to gauge what kinds of stress you have and they give you a “prescription” of products, techniques, and resources to help you achieve more balance in your life.

The subscription based program starts with a monthly fee ($99.95 for the first month, $39.95 monthly thereafter).  Which includes the test, the personal program, and “exclusive face and body products made with proprietary Active Essences that elicit relaxing and refreshing moods and make your UPLIV™ program more effective”

The site claims the program has been clinically shown to help relieve stress in as soon as 4 weeks and nearly 8 out of 10 women report reduced stress in their lives.

I have noticed Moment Momentum™  has become such a pervasive Wave in the last few quarters as people start to get serious about coping with the many challenges modern life is presenting us with.  UPLIV™ is aimed specifically at women, which draws my attention to the fact that, while not wanting to generalize, so many women have taken so much on.  Every working mother I know is scheduled within an inch of her life and this is program that helps women get as organized about their mental health as they are about everything else.

Making the time to “take your time” is what Moment Momentum is all about.

In that vein, may I present an interesting film that we are looking forward to seeing.  LEMONADE:  “More than 70,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this “Great Recession.” Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives.”

Yes, it’s close to home for us here at Culturewaves^® because we often work with creatives who want to be “First Faster”.  However, we think this film would serve as inspiration to anyone who has been laid off or negatively impacted by this financial crisis.

Moment Momentum generally had a lot of evidence that was about “My cruising time” ie: how to find ways to recharge from a hectic lifestyle.  However, this film is a perfect example of how the evidence is swinging more to “Slowing down to enjoy the pace of life” on a permanent basis.  More and more ex-professionals are choosing to “EXTEND THE NOW” as a lifestyle choice.

Moment Momentum is often overlooked. When we work on it, it’s always the last one to get touched, and usually takes the most time to truly understand. The concept is actually pretty simple. My time. Not works, not distractions, but mine. The problem is, everyone makes products to help you cope with work or help distract you.

From time to time, however, we do run across the occassional piece that’s made to just shut time out of your life. The slow food and living movement, self erasing clocks, and now, the time light switch.

It’s relatively simple, a light switch with an illuminated clock above the flicker switch. Whenever you get worried, frustrated or panicked, shut the switch off. The time goes away. Whenever you feel ready and willing to go back to the real world, a flick of the switch brings it right back.

Amusingly enough, subway drivers on London’s Piccadilly line however have been given a book of inspirational sayings and encouraged to recite them to passengers.

The quotes include “Everyone should be respected, but no-one idolised” (Albert Einstein), “An ounce of action is worth a ton of theory” (Friedrich Engels) and “Nothing is worth more than this day” (Johann von Goethe). -via

As part of an initiative to promote art on the London Underground, poems have been regularly posted inside the trains replacing traditional advertising. In our daily noisy, seemingly chaotic, and at times monotonous lives little breaks of cruise time to enjoy the moments of wait and delay can go a long way. If reading poems or hearing conductors recite philosophy can lend our minds to break without going into cardiac arrests or rising blood pressures than I say its passengers riding the London Tube can consider themselves fortunate for the opportunity.

Now unless the NYC metro makes an official announcement of copycatting such plans, I’ll remain suspicious should I be greeting by Chaucer over the intercom.

It’s easy to say that we all constantly seek to slow down and get away from our busy lives. What’s retirement if not the goal to build wealth so that we may finally find ourselves doing little, enjoying life at our own pace and on our own termspea, a complete Moment Momentum state of nirvana.

But while we all work towards this goal day in/day out we tend to forget that life is a present journey, not a future end. A little reminder from time to time to take a moment would do us all well, and that’s exactly what an experiment at a metro station in Washington DC does.

A young man decided to play his violin one morning, leaving the case open on the floor for anyone willing to tip. He played six Bach pieces for about 45 minutes. Over a thousand people walked by him. Maybe two or three stopped a moment to listen. When he finished, no one noticed, no one applauded, and had about $32 dollars in his pocket now freshly made.

As the Washington Post article so blatantly confessed:

“No one knew this but the violinist was Joshua Bell, one of the best musicians in the world. He played one of the most intricate pieces ever written with a violin worth $3.5 million dollars. Two days before his playing in the subway, Joshua Bell sold out at a theater in Boston and the seats average $100”.

Perhaps beauty doesn’t transcend duty; perhaps our survival instincts to work, fill our stomachs and shelter our backs will always get the best of us –deafening our ears and blinding our ability to recognize the special and rare.  In the end, that’s understandable. But taking a moment, just a moment, to appreciate the finer things in life will always make for a much more interesting ride.

From the hotel that brought us the $10,000 cocktail and found itself recently listed in Cat Fancy magazines top 10 cat friendly resorts, New York City’s historic Algonquin Hotel has made some headlines again with its ambition to continuously keep customers relaxed in a city that never sleeps. Moment Momentum expresses our need to slow down and enjoy time, whether it’s to a glass of wine, a good cigar, a long bath, or as Algonquin is offering –a good book. How fitting for a hotel who got much of its fame from its own literary history catering to legendary authors and playwrights. But it’s not offering just any book, its all books. According to its own press release,

The Algonquin Hotel has launched Algonquin’s eBooks on Demand program in an effort to re-“kindle” guests’ love for reading.  Guests are invited to enjoy the hotel’s new literary amenity and “checkout” Amazon’s new digital book, the Kindle.

For those who might be choice choked by the endless possibilities of what to read, they can just pick one out of the list of modern classics the Kindle already contains.

It’s safe to say the hotel prides itself on its ability to give guests a long extended moment during their entire stay, boasting “accommodations as restful to the eye as to the body, while modern amenities ease the burdens of 21^st century travelers”.

For guest staying at the Algonquin, the Kindle is just one more amenity they can take to savor time and forget the busy, noisy city outside.

The suburbanization of our nation has balkinized us in ways beyond ethnicity and race, people seem to have less and less contact with anyone outside family and their list of usual aquaintances.  The current downturn may accelerate the trend, and we don’t need to lose these places that are neither home nor work, but third places that act as an outlet beyond our routine.

Whether you do yoga, Pilates, or core strength training it ultimately all leads to the same goal: strengthening of the torso muscles and having full control of the alignment of the spine giving you stability and hence a solid foundation.

Um…yea whatever, the important part is that the exercises provide for deep mental concentration and a bit of cruising time. Now we’re talking. Because cruising time is exactly why the latest gym craze in Britain deserves a ride on our moment momentum wave. Mixing yoga, Pilates and dance moves the anti-gravity yoga has users practicing simple core techniques while being suspended from the ceiling using a hammock. Naturally, focusing on these suspension techniques requires your full and undivided attention if you’re going to land those neat advanced poses. (Remember that hotel commercial with a beautiful lady suspended from the ceiling in red drapes picking up an apple with her foot and bringing it to her face –invertedly?)

For the antigravity yoga techniques, it’s time to push out the traffic sounds, the kids fighting, the endless chit chatter amongst your co-workers, the apocalyptic headlines, everything. It’s just your breath, your mind, you body. For so many city dwellers in Britain, it’s little wonder this is the next “time for me” craze.

 “If you think about the very best times of your life, I’ll bet that most of them were spent around a table with great food in front of you and the people you love all around. If the Slow Food movement is about anything, it is about making as many of those moments as possible”, says Chef Kurt Michael Friese in  A Cook’s Journey: Slow Food in the Heartland In his book, Friese travels to the Midwest and shares his stories and interactions with farmers, restaurants, and community members who work towards greater sustainability and the everyday simple joys of sitting, sharing, and eating over the dinner table.  The book is a about love, community, and appreciating the hard work, dedication, and patience it takes to be a part of the slow food movement, and how others can incorporate it into their own lives. Just imagining the smells of a home grown, home cooked meal over a picnic table with the sounds of summer crickets chirping and fireflies dancing around you is enough to take anyone away in a dreamy daze. If escape is what us city folk are searching, this book marks an attempt at trying to help others find their cruising time in the thing our bodies seem to love most: food.