Minding the energy, not the time

How do you visualize time? Have you ever thought of how or where you position yourself in it? When does time fly too fast for you and when does it seem to be slowing down? Are you one of the many saying “I don’t have enough time”? Enough for what exactly? By the way, how much would be enough? What if today was the last day?

I’ve been hearing this complaint a lot lately; although everyone is aware of time plasticity, people often moan about the lack of time. Many of my colleagues are coming back from their vacation; and when asked “How was your holiday?” Too short! Is their most frequent answer. I know how tricky time can be… Speaking about some of my recent observations, time dissappeared at the moments of communicating from the heart, dancing to a moving song, surfing in the ocean and feeling one with nature. During work with people when I was really connected to them, which I luckily happen to do daily while coaching, presenting or facilitating workshops, time accelerated. But then came other moments, such as when I was waiting for a surgeon to take out my wisdom tooth, or in the airport terminal expecting the arrival of my daughter. Those moments seemed to take forever.

How do you perceive the passing of time and what is your favorite quality of time?

The main thing I like about time is how it helps me to focus. It is the alignment with what I am experiencing and my level of mindfulness that drives my individual perception of time. Could it be that time is a function of our focus and inner alignment?

Why does time matter to you?

To me, it matters when I am not in the present. When I wish to be elsewhere or if my mind dwelwes in the past or future. I used to be very concerned with time (or rather lack of it) in relation to my seemingly neverending to-do lists. I was speeding up in a desperate attempt to “sort all the tasks and problems out”. In return, the workload would only expanded filling up more and more space in my life… I will be honest with you, before the 100 days of Nowness, the notion of time passing used to stress the hell out of me. It wasn’t until there was nothing urgent to do that I suddenly saw it clearly. I became aware of the game my mind was playing with me. There is never going to be a moment when everything is solved, done and sorted out. Change is the only constant and therefore I may as well relax right now..! I started to respect and even appreciate time, because of how it helps to focus our attention and enables us to meet each other at a given point in time to create something together.

Time provides us with the dynamics which inevitably teach us not to hold onto anything, even those moments that feel so good. And so I decided to let life flow in the same way I let the clouds move and transform. I can’t stop my own body and life from transforming neither. That would stop the flow. Kill the beauty. Prevent the surprise. Limit creation. Ultimately it would make life completely dull. As Joi Ito puts it in his TED talk we better focus on being fully aware, super present and always learning.

What would it change if you knew you have an infinite amount of time available?

Think eternity and immortality for a moment… How would you live?

Now, what’s preventing you from living like that?

In which moments do you most realize the volume of time passed? How clear do you remain in the midst of chaos or time pressure? As time goes by are you transforming with it or trying to prevent some changes from happening?

When I imagine a life not limited by time, I guess I wouldn’t change much. I’d probably be living where I am, with whom I am, doing what I do. Being not limited by vacation – think eternity – I just might have been spending a bit more time surfing :)

Lately, we’ve celebrated our anniversary, our daughter’s birthday, and another school year is about to start tomorrow. Sometimes it’s other things that trigger a time reflection – an accident, illness of a loved one or wars happening yet a bit closer to our home. I tell you even a trivial thing such as a water outage offered a bird perspective on life, something we are often too busy to adopt during our ordinary life. How can such reflection serve us? I believe that similar events are opportunities to reflect and re-focus on what matters the most to us.

After all, time is of no importance when we live each moment fully; when we feel every day pulsing somewhat new, each experience offering a unique and slightly different value. For me, it means accepting the place I am at, and whatever I am part of as exactly right for that moment. It’s letting the life energy flow. When I am fully present, now is all there really is. Time becomes irrelevant and Being now feels awesome.

Ever experienced a moment when time seemed to stop completely?

What were you doing? What is your favorite way tobalance at the edge of the time spiral? I’d love to hear about it!