About Time and Timeless Self

We hear often people say ‘’I don’t have time’’. The question that pops up immediately for me is ‘What is your relationship with time?’’. We struggle every day to fit more and more in 24 hours, we constantly ‘’do’’ and often cut from basic needs, togetherness and creative moments to allow for more doing. What I always say, is ‘’how about more being rather than doing’’.

Acceptance that time passes according to your own perception and agenda may be the first step to change your relationship with it. Coming to terms with ‘’what is’’, business, work, bills, obligations puts you in an observer role and by watching what gets you busy every day, you will become more and more present. Awareness and observation allow you to define time according to your inner world of feelings and slowing down becomes possible by simply expanding breath. Our impermanence does not change. The perception of short/plenty of time changes when we stop being in the past/future and become presently aware in the here and now.

When is the best time of my life? I ‘d love to hear ‘’Now’’. You certainly had great experiences in the past and looking with excitement at the future, but the best deal you can make is when you are having the time of your life now, in the present moment. Take time for dear ones, do everything one thing at a time with mindfulness, take care of yourself and notice the feelings you experience in each of these moments. Time will feel longer.

We tend to get ourselves busy holding onto the past, regretting or feeling anger or worrying about the future and making scenarios. But we are not our thoughts about all of that, we are the observer of our thoughts. Time is slowed down when you observe your mind and reflect upon the process of now.

We can observe our inner critic with its expectations (do better, faster, more) and decide to stop ourselves from the rush and self-pressure. Our brains are excellent to default into patterns well wired since childhood that create stress, anxiety and pressure. What would you be if you would stop the rush of doing and live in this moment? What would happen if you would stop this pattern right now and shift to ‘’being’’ in the present moment where joy, love and transformation happens. Perception of time changes with increased levels of awareness and capacity to limit the dwelling of the past and the anticipation of the future.

The next level is to observe emotions. Transforming hurt and sadness into lessons and not letting them take over our life allows space for noticing reactions and emotions in the present moment. Heal the past so you are enabled to respond the world based on today’s emotions. Every time you put a positive note on a past debt, your memory is wired to remember a better version of this event. Time heals.

Time is not measured by a clock but by the present experience. It becomes an illusion of anything we want it to be. It can be a self-measure according to natural biorhythms like breath, digestion, period, pregnancy or can vanish when we sleep. We become masters of our time when we attune to the flow of life, no longer counting straight-line hours but enjoying and living at full moments like baby’s first tooth, adolescence, first girlfriend, first kiss and making love, marriage, even death of a dear one.

Thus, we operate from a place where time is an endless chain of personal moments. We live in a world where we perceive time, money and love as scarce resources. But they endlessly exist in the universe according to our perception and presence. Removing beliefs about time starts with removing the ‘’3 toxics of scarcity: there is not enough, more is better, the resignation that it’s just the way it is’’

Shortage of time is a perception, the more present and aware, the better the relationship with it. To achieve the present moment plan to relax, sleep, meditate and restore inner balance. Daily rush has no place. Time suspends when we slow down and inner healing takes place when we do what is really important for us, worthwhile our time and when we like what we do. We naturally turn into ‘’Being’’ rather than ‘’Doing’’.

(Tribute to Deepak Chopra – Timeless self meditations)