Dwell as near as possible to the channel in which your life flows. -- Henry David Thoreau
What comes to mind when you think about time? Is it a quantity that you measure? Time is certainly how we measure our lives in hours, years, or decades. We kill it, we waste it, we pass it, and we sometimes savor it. At work, it's easy to become clock-bound.
In the book Timeshifting, Stephan Rechtschaffen, M.D., of the Omega Institute explains the difference between mental time and emotional time. With mental time, concepts and thoughts come quickly, and we learn to rely on this. We stay "in our heads" and think rapidly. But when we think about emotional time, we are entering another realm. Emotional time is connected with the limbic system of the brain and has to do with our emotions, which we often run from. Emotional time demands that we slow down and breathe so feelings can have the time they need to surface. When we are using only mental time, we are imbalanced, limiting our creativity and crowding our spirits.
How can we join our emotional time with our mental time?
Just for today, I will focus on my breathing and concentrate on blending my emotional time with my mental time.
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Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind. ~Dr. Seuss
Sometimes, even when doing work-related things, we can pause and kind of "Be here now" and take in all that is around us, and within us. I like to use this exercise. It really doesn't matter then, what time it says on the clock. I can recognize that I am a human having experiences, and feelings, and I can get in touch with them, with a pause. I am looking forward to reading other replies to this topic.
Lovely post. Something that my husband and I chose to do when we moved here---we were both time driven before; I did alot of shift work in hospitals and institutions, he's retired military so was very time consious---was to leave all our clocks stored in his shop. For most folks, this isn't feasible, but for us it has worked so well. We have an alarm clock if we need it for being to an appt. on time. A clock in his shop because he uses it for his lead pouring. One on our stove, just because it came that way, and I do need to have a timer set when baking.
For myself, I measure the day by the outdoors and by the season. I have even tried to drop the word "time" from my vocabulary. Instead of "it's time to mow the lawn", it's "the lawn needs to be mowed". This relieves me from looking at my life in a linear way, and allows me to be aware of my life in a cyclic way. We did this on weekends, before we moved here, but it was still an adjustment. I have yet to remove my watch, but because I'm not time oriented anymore in the regular sense, I don't refer to it unless I am out somewhere. This allows my day to unfold at it's own pace instead of the pace I would normally set (out of habit). At its own pace, and my mind clicking at its own pace, there's been a door, in my head, that opened (don't say it Phil) and I can make this trek thru the day based on instinct and not pressures. I no longer worry about "wasted" time, because now, for me, it's about living in this moment. I'm under mega stress right now concerning crap from down south, but it's a stress that I can detach from when I'm flowing with the day, instead marching to it. Make sense? It's like , okay God, here's this new day, do with me what needs doing" and I'm allowed to be more open to my feelings and what's going on with me. No feelings of rush rush rush to make decisions. I can listen now, to my HP, because there is no pressure. Not a life style for everyone, but it sure works for us....wren
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"Never argue with an idiot... They'll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience..."
Well have to admit, I am going to fail this exam today. The mental was there first, body just trying to keep up with the stuff that I need to do, about 4 items down from the mental list.
And the emotional Time, well it is sitting there, somewhere in the middle, scratching my head.
Some days are good days, and this is not a bad day, just do not feel like I am in sync with this reading.
Have been using Prayer to bring them all together, and have a very Loving God in my life, that is just there, watching as I try to put everying in the correct prospective.
Just powerless over this feeling of not being very centered today, and This Too Shall Pass.
Hugs to all, I will read this a few time tonight Carol, and maybe get back into sync.
Feels like nap time tho....