The recent death of a cousin prompted me to think more deeply about time. So often he and I would say "We should get together with our families, we don't do that enough". Last night, I learned he had peacefully passed away, and my sense of time for others, for family, for my own life, seemed to change immediately. I spoke to his wife, and told her about our conversations and we agreed, time is too short.
Then this morning, after sleeping on it and meditating, I realized that the time with him was not gone per se, just different. Like anyone who loses a loved one, you just have a different relationship with them, far less satisfying of course but you never forget them. Their words and actions, their love, their smile, never vanishes from your memory and who you are because of them still remains.
I then realized that instead of focusing on what I can't regain with him, to embrace what I did have and suddenly I realized I do have time to continue our mission of bringing family closer together, and that is the actual energy of his desires, still very alive. I can't change some facts of life, but I can in fact, change my sense of time urgency and perception.
Here is why & how
Scientifically, as you age the area of your brain that senses time goes downhill and time seems to happen faster. It's why summers seemed long as a kid and as we age "time flies". Anxiety can change the sense of time and urgency, so destressing is important for lowering impatience responses and enjoying your "time"
There are a lot of theories but when push comes to shove, it's our brains processing that creates the response/result for us. Here is a great blog on all the different theories.http://4mind4life.com/blog/2008/07/23/time-perception-how-the-brain-controls-time/
Our sense of time is a unique sense and not the same as our sense of smell, sight, taste, etc. Those senses are given to us and we process them. The sense of time must be constructed by us, so as we lose ability to construct properly, our "sense" diminishes, much like our ability to see, our sense of sight can diminish over time. Unlike our sight which can often be corrected with glasses or surgery in the case of cataracts, our sense of time is sort of dangling out there and the concept of healing it is unheard of.
I disagree. If the central system of sensing time is a combination of the consciousness and being present, and the "cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia. One particular component, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, is responsible for the circadian (or daily) rhythm, while other cell clusters appear to be capable of shorter-range (ultradian) timekeeping." (Wiki) then we already know that yoga and meditation helps balance our circadian rhythm.
If we look at neuroscience, we see that different types of people have a different sense of time- it's not only their age. People who enjoy and tend to organize more of an urgency of time while visionaries tend to be less deadline focused and have a different sense of time. These attitudes toward time also change the perception of actual time per person. Everything with time is really perception within the barometers of fact of the measured cycles be it a day, or the types of calendars we follow...
When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity.
(Albert Einstein)
The nitty gritty
When we take away stress, as we had less of (most of us) as a child, we see our stress receding as well as sense of urgency and are able to soak up in the now. Yoga and meditation are known for reducing stress, for balancing our bodies and mind, for rewiring our faulty neurosplasticity that may have gone haywire after stressful incidents, sadness with faulty coping, crisis and even illness. We can rewire a bit on our own and regain a new outlook and coping mechanism.
When we do this, even for someone who does it often, to be able to take something factual and realize we have to work on it (like myself with the learning of the death of my cousin and my awareness of the time/urgency focus), we can address it.
How many times have you had fun and wanted it to never end? How many boring meetings have you been in that seemed like they lasted too long? How many times have you almost burned a meal or lost track of time? ALL of those moments had nothing to do with a calendar or clock, they all had to do with your perceptions. In fact, the reason we even have clocks is to keep us all without chaos of our individual senses of time. Our time measurement is guided by a clock in one world, in another world, it is guided by our brain. We constantly sync when we look at a watch, cell phone time, clock, where the sun is in the sky, based upon a schedule we keep... it's not about a a schedule, it's about syncing schedules.
So, we can cry, or mope if it is just about time passing, or we can be anxious; or we can relax in the reality knowing time is more about our perception than it is about a calendar hanging on a wall. Easing into a yoga or meditation practice, on your own, with a teacher or group; is going to only help you feel that time is not slipping away, but is able to be enjoyed and embraced without urgency.
Then this morning, after sleeping on it and meditating, I realized that the time with him was not gone per se, just different. Like anyone who loses a loved one, you just have a different relationship with them, far less satisfying of course but you never forget them. Their words and actions, their love, their smile, never vanishes from your memory and who you are because of them still remains.
I then realized that instead of focusing on what I can't regain with him, to embrace what I did have and suddenly I realized I do have time to continue our mission of bringing family closer together, and that is the actual energy of his desires, still very alive. I can't change some facts of life, but I can in fact, change my sense of time urgency and perception.
Here is why & how
Scientifically, as you age the area of your brain that senses time goes downhill and time seems to happen faster. It's why summers seemed long as a kid and as we age "time flies". Anxiety can change the sense of time and urgency, so destressing is important for lowering impatience responses and enjoying your "time"
There are a lot of theories but when push comes to shove, it's our brains processing that creates the response/result for us. Here is a great blog on all the different theories.http://4mind4life.com/blog/2008/07/23/time-perception-how-the-brain-controls-time/
Our sense of time is a unique sense and not the same as our sense of smell, sight, taste, etc. Those senses are given to us and we process them. The sense of time must be constructed by us, so as we lose ability to construct properly, our "sense" diminishes, much like our ability to see, our sense of sight can diminish over time. Unlike our sight which can often be corrected with glasses or surgery in the case of cataracts, our sense of time is sort of dangling out there and the concept of healing it is unheard of.
I disagree. If the central system of sensing time is a combination of the consciousness and being present, and the "cerebral cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia. One particular component, the suprachiasmatic nucleus, is responsible for the circadian (or daily) rhythm, while other cell clusters appear to be capable of shorter-range (ultradian) timekeeping." (Wiki) then we already know that yoga and meditation helps balance our circadian rhythm.
If we look at neuroscience, we see that different types of people have a different sense of time- it's not only their age. People who enjoy and tend to organize more of an urgency of time while visionaries tend to be less deadline focused and have a different sense of time. These attitudes toward time also change the perception of actual time per person. Everything with time is really perception within the barometers of fact of the measured cycles be it a day, or the types of calendars we follow...
When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, it seems like two minutes. When you sit on a hot stove for two minutes, it seems like two hours. That’s relativity.
(Albert Einstein)
The nitty gritty
When we take away stress, as we had less of (most of us) as a child, we see our stress receding as well as sense of urgency and are able to soak up in the now. Yoga and meditation are known for reducing stress, for balancing our bodies and mind, for rewiring our faulty neurosplasticity that may have gone haywire after stressful incidents, sadness with faulty coping, crisis and even illness. We can rewire a bit on our own and regain a new outlook and coping mechanism.
When we do this, even for someone who does it often, to be able to take something factual and realize we have to work on it (like myself with the learning of the death of my cousin and my awareness of the time/urgency focus), we can address it.
How many times have you had fun and wanted it to never end? How many boring meetings have you been in that seemed like they lasted too long? How many times have you almost burned a meal or lost track of time? ALL of those moments had nothing to do with a calendar or clock, they all had to do with your perceptions. In fact, the reason we even have clocks is to keep us all without chaos of our individual senses of time. Our time measurement is guided by a clock in one world, in another world, it is guided by our brain. We constantly sync when we look at a watch, cell phone time, clock, where the sun is in the sky, based upon a schedule we keep... it's not about a a schedule, it's about syncing schedules.
So, we can cry, or mope if it is just about time passing, or we can be anxious; or we can relax in the reality knowing time is more about our perception than it is about a calendar hanging on a wall. Easing into a yoga or meditation practice, on your own, with a teacher or group; is going to only help you feel that time is not slipping away, but is able to be enjoyed and embraced without urgency.
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