Горизонт N48/829

RUSSIAN DENVER
Sasha Sosniak
(Voronenko), Denver
Sasha Voronenko was born in
Russia, but moved to California
when she was 11 years old. After
graduating University of California,
Berkeley she found a new
home in Colorado. She teaches
yoga in the studio and online
through www.reflexionyoga.com.
Her online blog can be found at
westernworkforceeasternheart.
wordpress.com.Sasha loves yoga
because the physical practice
has such an intense connection
to real life. Her featured writing
focuses on ways to fuse Eastern
philosophy with Western business
and workplace culture. She
believes that this fusion can create
a healthy work and life balance.
When not in the yoga studio,
Sasha hikes, travels, road bikes,
lifts weights, tries out new recipes,
spends time with her family,
friends, fianc? and their dog
Oxley.
Mariah Carey keeps singing
to me – She really wants me
for Christmas, and that’s all she
wants. Gift cards are flying off
the shelves. If you do anything
for a living that requires selling a
As members of modern families
are increasingly pulled in different
directions, it can be challenging
for them to enjoy time
together as families.
According to a report titled
“Spending Time with His Kids:
Effects of Family Structure on
Fathers’ and Children’s Lives” in
the Journal of Marriage and the
Family, kids’ academic performance
can benefit from having
mothers who frequently communicate
with them and fathers
who spend time doing activities
with their kids. Time spent together
also can nourish a stronger
emotional bond between
parents and children, which may
make children less likely to exhibit
behavioral problems.
The National Center on Addiction
and Substance Abuse at
Columbia University states that
teens who frequently have dinner
with their families are less
likely to smoke cigarettes, drink
alcohol or try illegal substances.
Kids are not the only ones who
benefit from more family time.
Parents who regularly interact
with their children may learn to
appreciate their kids even more.
They can see the subtle changes
in personality and abilities as
Colorado Russian Newspaper published in English 720-436-7613 www.gorizont.com/rd
product or experience, your life
is especially busy during the holidays;
endless sales, marketing
efforts, and goal setting meetings
are a big part of your life. Kind of
like Mariah wants to be part of
mine, apparently. Sales pressures
are tough, and to top it all off,
people seem to be more stressed
out than normal.
This isn’t always the case – the
holidays can be a happy time.
People get each other cards
where they write nice things,
family comes to visit which can
warm your heart (not always,
but it can), Christmas trees smell
amazing, the neighborhoods are
beautifully lit up and decorated,
some of us even welcome the
cold weather. So, lots of things to
be happy about.
I would say that overall, the
Holidays bring out the extremes;
the highs are high and the lows
can seem lower than normal. We
have a constant sense or urgency
– at work, and at home. During
our personal time, we are
buying and wrapping presents,
getting ready to travel or to have
guests over. We are buying trees,
lighting menorahs, baking pies
and basically aren’t doing a lot of
slowing down.
To slow down, to change the
perception of time, to reconsider
the things that seem urgent. According
to Business Insider “In a
Buddhist culture (e. g., Thailand,
Tibet), not only time but also
life itself goes around in a circle.
Whatever we plan, however we
organize our particular world,
generation follows generation;
governments and rulers will
Holiday Rush
succeed each other; crops will
be harvested; monsoons, earthquakes
and other catastrophes
will recur; taxes will be paid; the
sun and moon will rise and set;
stocks and shares will rise and
fall. Even Americans will not
change such events, certainly not
by rushing things.” This circular
way of looking at time described
above is different than the linear
way that most Westerners look
at time. We are driven by future
goals, lists, and basically a linear
money driven push push push
to get through the day and they
year.
Have you heard the expression
“Time is money”? A Spaniard
sitting on his porch drinking
coffee and eating pastries at
two o’clock in the afternoon on
a Tuesday would disagree. He
would tell you, this is “Only in
America,” and then he would
finish his pastry slowly as to fully
enjoy it and probably be late to
his afternoon meeting. I think a
Tibetan monk would back him
up from a mountain top somewhere,
though his time perception
is also different than the
Spaniards.
Point is – the Western perception
of time is not the end all
be all. If we were to think “circularly”
about the holidays we
would consider the cycle of the
holidays and what it represents
for most of us which is family,
love and warmth. We would try
to indulge in those people and
experiences instead of indulging
in possible travel pains, “people
staying with us” annoyances, and
having to return presents “time
sucks”. Maybe we would embody
the spirit of the holidays as we
drove our cars in traffic. Look,
I’m not saying this doesn’t happen
now, but it would be nice to
see more of it.
In our work lives, the holiday
sales pressures could use some
Eastern “cyclical time perception”
softening as well. Over
the years I have experienced
a great deal of reinventing the
wheel when it comes to sales
at work. “Let’s get together and
talk about how we can improve
numbers, how we can drive sales
to be better than last year.” This
discussion will happen, even if
the company met and exceeded
goals the previous year. Still,
the sales have to increase even
more; and we have to reinvent
the wheel on how to do it. It’s a
cycle of greed really, and it’s very
linear. Do more, sell more, make
more money. Until all human
components are taken out of the
product. We see it happen in so
many corporations – regardless
of how humanitarian their
mission may seem in the beginning.
In a cyclical, more Eastern
inspired sales discussion, the
company would remember the
energy of the previous year and
how well the sales went. They
would then somehow bring that
energy back to life. They would
talk about how our success last
year can drive success this year
and what that means for future
holidays. The energy around the
whole sales experience would
shift, even if the monetary goals
were the same as in a Western
organization.
Different ways to spend more time as a family
kids age, and be
better equipped to
intervene if they
suspect their children
are veering
off the right path.
Spending time with
children can be fun,
as well as mentally
and physically stimulating.
Parents who
want to increase
family time can do
so in various ways.
· Establish at
least one day each
week that the family
catches up with one
another. It may be a
Friday evening or a
Sunday afternoon.
Choosing a day
rather than winging
it guarantees weekly
time together.
· Turn chores into opportunities
to involve the kids. It may be
faster to fold the laundry or rake
the leaves by yourself. However,
showing kids they are a part of a
functioning household in which
everyone does their part is an
important lesson for youngsters
to learn. Let kids know that once
chores are finished the family
can do something fun together.
Such a lesson can instill a sense
of responsibility in youngsters
while also creating some family
time.
· Take a break from television
or screen time on computers
and mobile devices. The American
Academy of Pediatrics discourages
media use by children
younger than two and recommends
limiting older children’s
screen time to no more than one
or two hours a day. Too much
screen time by children, and
even adults, can result in irregular
sleeping habits, behavioral
7
The holidays are hectic every
year, this year there’s an added
stressor of all the things happening
around the world as well as
the dramas of the presidential
primaries. If we could all become
less attached to what we think is
important, to what we think is
real, and truly consider our time
on this planet and how we want
to spend it. Just for a moment,
can we contemplate how we fill
our days and what we put pressure
on ourselves for.
Maybe, our personal life
would be filled with less fear
and more joy for the things,
people and experiences directly
at our fingertips. Maybe, our
work life would put emphasis
on mindfully honoring what
is already working rather than
pushing and sweating for more
more and more in a way that instills
fear and stress. Maybe we
can see and honor the cycles in
our days, seasons, and relationships
and soften just enough to
feel a connection to it all – the
East, the West, the South, the
North. Basically let’s just open
our eyes a smidgen to the humanity
and imperfection of our
own experience. Maybe then,
we could see life as a combination
of cycles, of linear goals,
and sometimes of really good
reasons to be late to a meeting
as we are too busy fully engaging
with something and forgetting
time exists at all.
*Lewis, Richard. “How Different
Cultures Understand Time.”
Business Insider. Business Insider,
Inc, 01 June 2014. Web. 19
Dec. 2015.
problems, obesity,
and less time for
play or family interaction.
Shutting
off devices for a
few hours frees up
opportunities for
families to engage
in other activities.
· Take a vacation
together as a family
and make sure you
leave phones and
tablets behind at the
hotel so you can fully
immerse yourself in
your surroundings.
It’s amazing what you
might learn about
one another when
you are engaged in
the same activity
and are away from
the distractions you
routinely encounter
back at home.
· Eat at least one family meal
together per day and use the opportunity
to talk about what is
going on in one another’s lives.
Creating more time for family
can sometimes seem impossible,
but parents can get creative
to ensure they spend more time
with their kids.