OUTLOOK From Kunle

Time & Luxury

Luxury. At its core, it means a state of great comfort or elegance.

For many of us, though, luxury can mean many things. Owning a designer bag, a vintage watch, spending time travelling around the Caribbean islands on a yacht. Or it could simply be spending more time on our pastimes and interests; spending more time with our nearest and dearest.

For me, time really is the true luxury. When it comes to time, we can’t get it back. When it’s gone, it’s gone, so you have to make it count. And there’s no doubt that being able to create wonderful memories with the time that I have is important for my mind and body.

This Summer, I have already enjoyed a holiday in Menorca (fortunately for Mrs O there was no cricket on at the MCC ground), attending the RHS Flower Show Charity Gala Preview and watching Australia beat India in the cricket nal at the Oval.

Here's the thing though. Our brain is wired to remember bad news. There is a part of our brain called the amygdala. The amygdala on the left hemisphere of our brain deals with positive and negative stimulus. The one on the right only processes negative events and ignores happy experiences (our friends at 7im wrote an article all about this on our website not long ago).

It basically means you have to have twice as many good experiences to balance out the bad. Yet another reason to plan and use your time wisely, spend it doing the things you love and with the people you love.

What’s more, good memories last forever. The joy, the happiness, the mind and body bene ts you get from them are not just in the moment, they stay with you and you can revisit them when times get tough. It’s your memory bank – I’d say that makes it the most reliable, valuable, useful bank around (and I know a lot about banks!).

in your memory bank. The monies we have can provide the means to do this. Money is not the end goal, it’s what allows us to do the things that we want to do and our memories add the “why” to what we do. If you invest in your time, invest in your memories, you will always reap the rewards. What a luxury.

Reward your mind with wonderful memories. Be kind to your mind.