Time
Crunch
“The
separation of thinking and awareness, which lies at the core of your
primary purpose, happens through the negation of time. We are not
speaking here, of course, of the use of time for practical purposes,
such as making an appointment or planning a trip. We are not speaking
of clock time, but of psychological time, which is the mind's
deep-seated habit of seeking the fullness of life in the future,
where it cannot be found and ignoring the only point of access to it:
the present moment.”
Eckhart
Tolle (A New Earth)
I
don't know about you, but I am constantly running the clock. I am
looking ahead, planning what I need to do before I go out to the
grocery store, or for an appointment. I repeatedly check the clock or
my phone to see how much time I have before I have to do something
that I'm not doing now. In short, my mind is always looking to the
future event at the expense of the present moment. This blog, for
instance: I try to post by 7:30 central time, but if I sleep late, I
don't always make the appointed time. The result is anxiety even
though it is a completely arbitrary deadline. No one is holding an ax
over my head to post at a particular time.
This
artificial sense of timing keeps me rattled. It means that whatever I'm
doing now is getting less attention than it should because half of my
awareness is racing ahead. You probably do this too. It is built into
the way we live today. Deadlines are always looming because that is
our normal way of functioning. What it means is that we are rarely
focused in the here and now, where our life is actually taking place.
To
be present-focused takes a whole new orientation to life. I must work
out some ways to allow my mind to stay with me instead of moving
ahead to the next thing on my list. And because of our sense of the
importance of time, we may have to get creative about helping
ourselves detach. For instance, if I have an appointment at noon, and
will need an hour to dress and ready myself, I could set a timer for
eleven, or if that makes me nervous, for 10:45. Then I will have
several hours before I have to consider time again. I can focus on
this present moment without the distraction of watching the clock.
Another
way to train the mind to stay in the moment is to take yourself to a
place where there are no clocks. Like a botanical garden, say. Leave
your watch behind, and your phone. You can lock them in your
glove-box, or in your desk at the office. (Raises your anxiety just
thinking about it, doesn't it?) Take a walk, enjoy the scenery,
listen to the birds singing, notice the shadows on the ground, the
dancing of the trees. Allow yourself to be fully present. You'll see
that even a few minutes of 'here and now' feels like a mini-vacation.
You'll come away calm and focused. You'll feel more solid inside and
will bring more of yourself to whatever comes next.
In
the spirit,
Jane
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