9. Hit the pause button

Americans are in a hurry. We have one of the lowest rates of residential mobility in the post-war era; just 14 percent of Americans move annually. But the average number of miles that Americans drive annually has risen 80 percent in the past 20 years. Forty percent of Americans sleep fewer than seven hours a night. Hyper-mobility is such a cultural value that we scorn the idea of stopping, pausing or stillness.

That may be one reason why we get the least vacation time of any developed country, yet a third of Americans don't take all their days off. Still, racing breathlessly through life, we short-circuit our power of awareness, the cornerstone of our sensitivity to our surroundings. Stop a minute. It won't hurt a bit.