I just can’t find the time. I don’t know where the time goes. Time seems to be speeding up. I hear these statements all the time, spoken by friends, family, colleagues, clients and often myself.
But in my experience, your perspective of time can change according to what you are doing and how you are feeling. Time is the province of the logical brain. But once you become lost in the flow of a creative task or a favourite sport, and your conscious mind is almost sidelined, you often “lose track” of time.
I notice this especially when I’m deep in meditation or doing the simple breathing technique used during breathwork, when two hours can seem like half an hour. I know time will seem to pass more slowly during this week, when I’m at work doing my survival dance, rather than at the weekend when I’m doing exactly what I want.
Neuroscientists and psychologists are continually grappling with the question of how our brains perceive time, the latest theory being the Holiday Paradox, which explains why holidays appear to go fast at the time, but when you look back you feel as if you were away for ages.
I rather like the way it was put in my daily Note from the Universe, provided by the good people at tut.com. It said: “Do you ever wonder where all those glorious seconds, minutes and hours go that recently poured through your fingers on an idle weekend or a cool evening, when suddenly you feel as if you’re racing the clock on some crazed, hurried weekday?
“Nowhere. They’re still there, lazing around. They just look different when you focus upon what you haven’t done, instead of what you have done.”
This suggests that, rather than focusing on your to-do list, if you place your attention on what you have already achieved, then you might find that the time you thought you’d lost mysteriously reappears!
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