The concept of time fascinates me.
There are a number of different interpretations of what it is,
but before I jot a few down let me just say this:
Sometimes it seems as if it just flies, yet other times
it seems to just stand still.
For instance: When I'm sitting in a dentist's chair time seems to
move very slowly, yet when I'm enjoying a therapeutic
back massage(I have scoliosis) it definitely flies.
Pondering this I have concluded that how we experience
time has a lot to do with what we're doing.
Wikipedia: ''Time is the continued sequence of existence
and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible
succession from the past, through the present,
into the future.''
Carlo Rovelli: ''Time is an illusion: our perception of
its flow doesn't correspond with physical reality.''
Time is very much the ''boss of us''.
From the moment we are born the amount of time we are
allotted to live, is unknown.
We have no power to change the past, nor do we have
the power to change the future, we only have the power
to decide what to do with the present.
Yet, many of us often find it quite difficult to ''stay
in the present''.
Some suggest that one of the reasons why we may find it
so hard to stay in the present is that we constantly
keep an inner monologue(mental chatter) going telling
us what we shouldn't have done and or what we have to do
''tomorrow''.
Often our mind swings back and forth between the past
and the future without us really being aware of it
doing so. If the past contains a lot of pain and the future
a lot of worry, this can be very exhausting.
And, while we are torn between these polarities,
we have ''lost'' the present(time).
For years anxiety was eating me up. My mind just would
not shut up chastising me for all the ''wrongs'' I had done
and for the awful ramifications of those wrongs
could have on my son.
(Wrongs as in getting divorced, working too much,
being away too much rehearsing and playing music, etc.)
Not until I had my first
panic attack did I realize that I needed to do something
about it.
Explaining my symptoms to my doctor, she calmly told
me that I had had a panic attack and that she thought
that I was suffering with GAD, Generalized Anxiety
Disorder.
She handed me a small book and urged me to read it.
I did, and that was the beginning for me learning how
to deal with my busy, constantly chatting mind.
A trick I found, was to observe the thoughts in my mind
as an ''outsider''. In other words, becoming
aware of what I was thinking and then redirect my
thoughts to where I was and what I was doing in the
present, or just replace them with more life affirming ones.
''Thoughts are just thoughts and I can change them.
They do not control me, I control them.''
Memories belong to the past and worries belong in the
future. Since I can't change the past and the future has not
happened yet, living has to take place in the present, became
my mantra.
How we experience the passing of time is a matter of
perception in my view.
Have you heard of the term Flow?
Or ''being in the zone''?
Basically, being in the zone or a state of flow is when
a person is so immersed in what they are doing
that everything else becomes blurred.
(Subconscious consciousness is what it feels
like to me. :)
Action and thought are in total sync and hours upon
hours vanish.......
(Personally I step into the zone when I play music or paint,
but the idea of it I believe is basically mindfulness.)
Time, when in the zone, becomes irrelevant. The past and
the future ceases to exist and all there is ...is the now.
Memories, every time we retrieve them, are changed
so say the experts, and many of the things in the
future that we may fear or are scared of,
never actually happen.
However, memories can contribute to our ability to imagine
future events and by doing so we may become better
''planners''.
If we want to enjoy life we need to actually be present
in it when it happens.
When we eat, we need to taste every bite, when we
breathe, we need to feel every fresh breath, when we
share a moment with a friend or a loved one,
we need to listen to his or her every word.
Time always moves, but never backwards.
It can't be owned, but it can be used.
It can't be bought, but it can be spent.
It can't be stopped, but it can be valued.
It can't be ignored, but it can be attended.
Sometimes it can be helpful to take a leaf out of
a children's book and just get lost in the moment.
Like a boy and his dog
just enjoying a summers day.
Side by side, with the sun on their backs,
on the way to nowhere in particular.
about the image: acrylic on large canvas
Title ''Best Friends"
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