Time is a Perception, and Perceptions Change all the Time!
When I walk the streets of Mystic, Ct., I feel as though time stands still. Founded in 1654, the restored historic homes filling the town were once owned by Sea Captains, shipbuilders, and sailors, and take me back to a time when tall ships first filled the harbor, bringing life and trade to New England. Nautical history tells of explorers and adventurers who walked these same streets, saw the same harbor, and dreamed the same dreams as I am right now. I could almost feel them there with me.
When you are immersed in a new experience, doing something you enjoy, it’s easy to lose track of time. I seek these moments often throughout the day. Einstein said, ‘When a man sits with a pretty girl for an hour, it seems like a minute. But let him sit on a hot stove for a minute and it’s longer than any hour. That’s relativity.’ Long ago I started exploring time and how to live with it in my life and the universe.
Now’s a great time to practice slowing Time way down. Time is all perception. It’s not that hard to bring back the long, stretched out, hazy summer days of our childhood. Let’s bring back the Magic, the Memories, the Feeling that life goes on forever as though it is just a dream:
1. See with an Artist’s Eye. Look for the details. Just seeing the surface world you’re familiar with, speeds up time. The minds says, ‘I know this. Been here done that’. Instead make your brain seek out the unfamiliar, find more information to process, and pay deeper attention to pleasant events around you. You’ll remember the new and slow down your brain’s perception of time. Here’s where I grab my camera and seek out the unique special things around me…like the sundial below. I look at it every day, but now, I really ‘see’ it.
2. Change what you do, how you do it, or the order of it all. Step away from the mundane, daily routines on autopilot, and the mindless distractions. Repetition speeds up the perception of Time and is NOT memorable. It will eat up your day like a monster. Go for hours, if not days of unscheduled time. Take a walk before breakfast. Eat breakfast for dinner. Wear your watch on your other hand. Take a different route to work or shop. Moving the furniture around makes you move in new ways. Stay in your pajamas and create something, write something, draw something. What did you love to do as a kid? Bring it back.
3. The Sense of Time is woven through all our senses. The more senses you awaken in anything you do, the more full body movement, feeling, tasting, touching, listening, feeling, makes it all more alive, more real, more memorable. Action packed adventures will seem as though you are experiencing them forever. The Senses change your perception considerably. Dancing around the room will make you feel great, too!
4. Keep learning new things. Tim Ferris gives himself 10 days to master new experiences, like learning to swim, pushing himself out of his comfort zone. I’ve learned to make and edit videos, set up my own WordPress website, and edit my images in Photoshop, all from the comfort of my Mac. New learning wakes up your brain, your senses, and truly makes you think in different ways. I’m working on mastering some new stretching yoga moves next.
5. Keep a diary/journal daily. I write in mine every morning with separate, smaller ones for travel. It doesn’t have to be a big elaborate ‘morning writings’, but pausing, reflecting, having some introspection to start the day, puts you in a great feeling place. Gratitude, dreams, ideas, all flow in the morning hours before media and distractions grab you. Where are You in this moment of time? I also write OMG moments throughout the day. Later, I go back into them to re-read, and highlight the stand out thoughts. This is often the source for my blog, my next painting, or my new classes. Journaling about your journey, brings you from ‘out there’, back to ‘You’. And isn’t that a great place to live!
Practice makes Perfect. Slow Down Time and live in the Now. New learning, like a new language, changes the way our brains think. Some say there is no time. The past and the future are all Now, in the present. Change our beliefs and all experiences are there for us to ‘see’ in the Now. The physicist Julian Barbour calls life experiences a ‘succession of Nows, with many different things coexisting at once. Enjoy all your Nows of Summer! More great hands on ways to slow down time.
Sorry, comments are closed for this post.