By Rose Bryant
Time, time, time. How exactly do we describe something which is difficult to find, catch, define or achieve? People are either obsessed with controlling it, frivolous with it, live in fear of it or completely disregard it all together. Sometimes we go through life and are so busy that chronological time keeps passing by and we may not even realize it. It's like that auto-pilot thing, when you're driving home and arrive there, but don't remember the in between part. Many people get stuck on auto-pilot-hyperdrive and plow through life like an aimless bull, missing things that may have seemed insignificant, but actually were substantial pieces of the human experience.
Others, with endless to-do lists - in a race against time to conquer, complete or feel satisfied. The trouble is, we ride a wave believing we'll be happy "when" or "if" this or that happens . Some people wait an entire lifetime without a fruitful outcome. A repetitive cycle of waiting for something huge to happen in our lives and not feeling like we've ever done enough or completed enough tasks on the imaginary ladder to achieving happiness.....or perhaps what we believe is happiness while living in our glass house, clouded with illusion.
And then there is the 'fear' of time - the passing of it, either too slowly or too quickly - the anxiety about how it should be one or the other. Somewhere we get lost in the suspension of the web. It all kind of flows together and we are not sure which direction to take. We are under the impression that we are allowed a certain amount of time, which we want to make tangible, but tango with the impossibility of that regularly. It's like a hurricane - sucking everything up in it's path - so concerned with the past or the future that we don't even see this moment. And we certainly do not consider that this moment is all that we have - that it's the only thing for certain in the entire universe.
Time in Sanskrit is 'Kala'. Time is a measure of change and prana. 15 prana = 1 minute. 900 prana = 1 hour. So, in Vedic & Yogic teachings it is believed that less respirations - thus less expelling of prana, will result in a longer life span. Pranayama daily, holotropic breath work and meditation are some tools to use to conserve your prana and thus, time.
Chronological time is based on the movement of the Earth, in which one rotation = 1 day and one revolution around the sun = 1 year......while Psychological time is made up of the movement of thoughts.....thought builds on memory.....memory = past, present and future experience. Time = movement of past into present and future.....thought = linear movement of time.....once entering inner space beyond thought, one goes beyond psychological time.
In Chinese medicine, the theory does not separate cause from effect; instead, time transcends in an ever-repeating cycle of metamorphosis. Life is a game of leapfrog with events tumbling over each other in a perpetual cascade. All states, events and moments are said to be characterized by either Yin or Yang, related to an alternating cycle which is along a single continuum.
No matter how we would like to define time, it is ultimately elusive and influenced by perception. Just like how you feel like you've known someone forever that you only just met on the subway an hour ago - the way you wake up one day and realize that every moment that has passed will never occur again - the way you wish so badly that you could 'grow up' when you were a kid and then all of a sudden you're 35, married with children, a dog and a mortgage - the way you never listen to that old hippie on the bus telling you when you were 17 to enjoy the ride of life and not be in a hurry - the way the sun keeps rising and setting without fail - the way we oscillate between having all the time in the world and not having enough time and how we feel as though the outcome somehow defines who we are as human beings - the way we think we know what the outcome will be or that everything in life will go as planned - the way the universe laughs when we make plans - the way an epiphany comes upon you all of a sudden after what felt like an eternity of searching.
Because our perception of the world influences how we live in it, our consciousness sculpts reality. Our experiences influence our thinking, so our reality shapes our consciousness - our minds create what is real, while thoughts are generated from lived experience. When you wake up each morning, know that the minutes or hours you spent hitting the snooze - are moments that will never exist again at your level of consciousness in this lifetime. With that, there is no reason not to seize the day - make the most productive use of time - after all, that's what we are here for, right? If we sit around waiting for that perfect moment, it may never come - perhaps the perfect moment does not exist, but then what's all this talk about waiting for the right time? Is there a right time? Or is it just a matter of perspective and the sequence of events that unfold naturally? How much influence do we have on it? One thing is for sure - that everything changes and seems to do so in a linear, forward moving fashion. The idea is to remain at a constant state of departure while always arriving - The happening of a moment. It turns out that all the answers are inside of us - Doubt simply stems from not believing this fact. The best thing to do is, in the words of my mother, "always do your best and always be kind - the rest will fall into place."
Time, time, time. How exactly do we describe something which is difficult to find, catch, define or achieve? People are either obsessed with controlling it, frivolous with it, live in fear of it or completely disregard it all together. Sometimes we go through life and are so busy that chronological time keeps passing by and we may not even realize it. It's like that auto-pilot thing, when you're driving home and arrive there, but don't remember the in between part. Many people get stuck on auto-pilot-hyperdrive and plow through life like an aimless bull, missing things that may have seemed insignificant, but actually were substantial pieces of the human experience.
Others, with endless to-do lists - in a race against time to conquer, complete or feel satisfied. The trouble is, we ride a wave believing we'll be happy "when" or "if" this or that happens . Some people wait an entire lifetime without a fruitful outcome. A repetitive cycle of waiting for something huge to happen in our lives and not feeling like we've ever done enough or completed enough tasks on the imaginary ladder to achieving happiness.....or perhaps what we believe is happiness while living in our glass house, clouded with illusion.
And then there is the 'fear' of time - the passing of it, either too slowly or too quickly - the anxiety about how it should be one or the other. Somewhere we get lost in the suspension of the web. It all kind of flows together and we are not sure which direction to take. We are under the impression that we are allowed a certain amount of time, which we want to make tangible, but tango with the impossibility of that regularly. It's like a hurricane - sucking everything up in it's path - so concerned with the past or the future that we don't even see this moment. And we certainly do not consider that this moment is all that we have - that it's the only thing for certain in the entire universe.
Time in Sanskrit is 'Kala'. Time is a measure of change and prana. 15 prana = 1 minute. 900 prana = 1 hour. So, in Vedic & Yogic teachings it is believed that less respirations - thus less expelling of prana, will result in a longer life span. Pranayama daily, holotropic breath work and meditation are some tools to use to conserve your prana and thus, time.
Chronological time is based on the movement of the Earth, in which one rotation = 1 day and one revolution around the sun = 1 year......while Psychological time is made up of the movement of thoughts.....thought builds on memory.....memory = past, present and future experience. Time = movement of past into present and future.....thought = linear movement of time.....once entering inner space beyond thought, one goes beyond psychological time.
In Chinese medicine, the theory does not separate cause from effect; instead, time transcends in an ever-repeating cycle of metamorphosis. Life is a game of leapfrog with events tumbling over each other in a perpetual cascade. All states, events and moments are said to be characterized by either Yin or Yang, related to an alternating cycle which is along a single continuum.
No matter how we would like to define time, it is ultimately elusive and influenced by perception. Just like how you feel like you've known someone forever that you only just met on the subway an hour ago - the way you wake up one day and realize that every moment that has passed will never occur again - the way you wish so badly that you could 'grow up' when you were a kid and then all of a sudden you're 35, married with children, a dog and a mortgage - the way you never listen to that old hippie on the bus telling you when you were 17 to enjoy the ride of life and not be in a hurry - the way the sun keeps rising and setting without fail - the way we oscillate between having all the time in the world and not having enough time and how we feel as though the outcome somehow defines who we are as human beings - the way we think we know what the outcome will be or that everything in life will go as planned - the way the universe laughs when we make plans - the way an epiphany comes upon you all of a sudden after what felt like an eternity of searching.
Because our perception of the world influences how we live in it, our consciousness sculpts reality. Our experiences influence our thinking, so our reality shapes our consciousness - our minds create what is real, while thoughts are generated from lived experience. When you wake up each morning, know that the minutes or hours you spent hitting the snooze - are moments that will never exist again at your level of consciousness in this lifetime. With that, there is no reason not to seize the day - make the most productive use of time - after all, that's what we are here for, right? If we sit around waiting for that perfect moment, it may never come - perhaps the perfect moment does not exist, but then what's all this talk about waiting for the right time? Is there a right time? Or is it just a matter of perspective and the sequence of events that unfold naturally? How much influence do we have on it? One thing is for sure - that everything changes and seems to do so in a linear, forward moving fashion. The idea is to remain at a constant state of departure while always arriving - The happening of a moment. It turns out that all the answers are inside of us - Doubt simply stems from not believing this fact. The best thing to do is, in the words of my mother, "always do your best and always be kind - the rest will fall into place."
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