Our Relationship with Time: A Perception or Reality?

Our Relationship with Time: A Perception or Reality?

Do you get the sense that time is moving faster? Or perhaps you’ve experienced occasions when time seemed to move too slowly? Our relationship with time has become one of our biggest sources of stress.

Sometimes, it may feel like there is never enough time to do what we really want to do. It may seem like we are running on a treadmill from one activity to another and suffering from not having enough time to do any of them properly. Minutes, hours and days seem to be over in a flash. At other periods of our life, we have too much time on our hands.  At those times, we feel lonely and disconnected.  Is technology (or lack of technology) the source of our time distress?

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Technology has certainly brought many advances for science, & communications. We now have the ability to communicate 24/7 via instant texting, email, mobile phone calls or social networking sites. Technology has also brought with it greater pressures. It has raised our expectations of the time it takes to respond to requests. But has it really speeded up (or slowed down) time?

Time of course has not speeded up or slowed down.  Technology is not the culprit. It is our relationship with time that has changed.  We are either running towards the future  – to something we desire – or we are running away from something in the present that we don’t like.  In this constant running towards the future or running way from the present, we actually miss out on being in the present moment – in the NOW.  It is only in the present moment that we can be fully aware and only then does time appear to stand still.  In that moment, we stop worrying about the past or the future and can address what is presenting itself in and around us.

How can we cultivate being more in the present in this chaotic world? The answer is simple: find the time to drop into the space of awareness and the state of non-doing. This space exists between thoughts, between doing, between our reactions. It is the space of being rather than doing.

Dropping into present awareness is also referred to as being mindful.  It sounds so simple, yet in reality it is so difficult to accomplish.

Cultivating a new way of being ‘mindful’ and unlearning old patterns is never easy to do in isolation.  It is one of the reasons why individuals seek out a trusted psychotherapist or participate in an experiential mindfulness-based stress reduction course.

The following are some tips to help you drop into present awareness:

  1. Stop frequently throughout the day and give yourself a moment to reconnect with you.
  2. Pay attention to the breath whenever you can – it’s an anchor in your body that is always there and reconnects you with your body & mind.
  3. Find the time to meditate and activate that mindfulness muscle.
  4. Prioritise what is important to you.  Leave the habitual time fillers, such as watching TV, eating chocolates.
  5. Address any habitual patterns that may have been useful in the past but now see you reacting rather than mindfully addressing the issue at hand. For example, you may not want to seem weak at work so you have learned not to ask for help.  When you are worrying to meet your next deadline try something new and ask for help.
  6. Don’t be hard on yourself.  It takes time to develop that mindfulness awareness muscle.

 

Veronik is a somatic psychotherapist in private practice.

She works with her clients to listen, understand and explore the challenges in their life.  She uses mindfulness techniques to assist clients to become more aware of their habitual patterns in mind & body and to explore new ways of being in order to lead a more authentic and fulfilling life.

She also teaches mindfulness-based stress reduction courses. You can register your interest now by emailing Veronik at veronikpsychotherapy@gmail.com or ringing 0412 210 339.

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