We are all imprisoned by the perception that time is scarce and a limited resource. What if we didn’t define time in terms of minutes, hours, days? What if we defined it in terms of the rhythmic dimension of life instead? We can pay attention to moments in time and expand and contract them….when we are aware of this quality of time, we get better at shifting it. Many of us do this while we are on vacation….only to go back to the same time limiting beliefs when we get back to the “real world”.
We tend to not live in the moment we are in. Slowing down in order to listen and feel what is happening in the present moment is not a skill most of us learn in today’s busy, technology driven, fast world. If we resist life as it is in this moment and tell ourselves that we will find the time to relax after the current crisis, or the next one after that…life passes by and we have not lived many of the moments as they have happened and consequently don’t have clear memories of them. Living in the Now, as Eckhart Tolle calls it, mindfulness, paying attention to the moment we are in, is a way to expand your sense of time and save you from the feeling that it is slipping away. How do we pay attention to the rhythms?
Find a way to break patterns of behavior—break the rhythm and by doing so enter into a deeper one: When the phone rings…..stop! Take a breath before picking it up to answer—just PAUSE for a moment before acting. Pausing can expand the moment and help us gain clarity and a complete experience of the moment.
Create Boundaries—set specific time slots aside to answer emails rather than checking it all day long. Make time for contemplation, meditation, or just drinking a cup of coffee or tea alone in silence. Make uninterrupted time for yourself every day.
Make room for spontaneous time. Remember those romantic days early in a relationship when you would ditch school or work to go have a picnic with your Love? Or go on a hike or bike ride because you wake up and it is a gloriously sunny day and you just have to be outside experiencing it! Unplanned time…. Write your own name in your planner and go wherever the whim takes you!
Take a Retreat—Once or twice a year, and spend some time doing something out of your ordinary routine. This will make room in your life to shift to a different rhythm, expand your horizons, and open up to new possibilities and opportunities.
Slowing down and living in the moment is a skill we can all hone— it’s a matter of training the mind.
