JAMES POLK: Wasn't the advancement of technology supposed to make our lives easier? In a cruel twist of irony, that's not how it seems to be playing out.

As a creative professional having engaged in design and primarily architecture now for about 30 years, the technological resources available today are mind-boggling. Installing and becoming proficient with various productivity-increasing software programs with seemingly endless required add-ons (and options for add-ons to the add-ons) -- all with associated necessary hardware -- can eat up more time and money than they save.

And with a myriad of increasingly user-friendly platforms enabling us to communicate instantly with practically anyone in the world and an avalanche of information cascading through the Internet, most of us are now busier than ever. In an astonishing observation, Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently made the claim that the volume of information created from the dawn of civilization through 2003 is now generated every two days.

I don't know about you, but too often I find myself overwhelmed with the endless and ever-expanding 'to do' list. I find myself huffing and puffing as I sprint from task to task as fast as I possibly can only to realize that my schedule is slipping, slipping, slipping and the work ahead continues to mount. Overwhelmed can turn into exasperation when the arms of the clock spin wildly as deadlines draw near and the early ideas of what I could or should accomplish start to appear compromised or impossible to pull off for lack of enough time.

It is precisely at that instant -- at least when I'm at my highest and best -- that I stop and take a deep breath. For a brief moment, I put the pressing expectations of the world at bay and find a place of stillness, a place of selfish Silence, where I can be with myself and acknowledge that everything is OK. And most importantly, I take time to reinforce the sometimes-forgotten-in-the-frenzy truth that I am OK and adequate and worthy of loving and being loved.

Inevitably, that moment of Silence becomes my salvation. It allows me to think more clearly facilitating an awareness that helps me to prioritize which aspects of my immediate agenda are profound and which are meaningless, and it recalibrates my focus on manifesting the object of my intention. And with Silence comes a reintroduction to a calming sensation of centeredness and balance allowing me to fully access the uniquely creative part of myself while inviting in those powerful universal energies that assist me in my mission.

As for the super-duper computer and communication gizmos, I use them as they serve my life's purpose. But I'll keep using my triangle, T-square and pencil, thank you.