Time

An experiential illusion or reality

Photo by Jeremy Thomas on Unsplash

‘Time, time, time, see what’s become of me,’ sang Simon and Garfunkel, and later the Bangles. But what am I talking about? How do our bodies experience time, not just our minds? What does time do for us? Why do we abuse ourselves in the name of time?

I will attempt to draw some insight into all these questions.

Being present means your full attention is on the immediate moment, not the commentary in your mind about the moment that just passed, while you’re already missing the one that you are now living through by thinking about the next one that just passed by unnoticed. And then the following one you just missed, for the same reason. It quickly becomes impossible.

If we are not present in the present, we miss out on our lives more than can be measured. You never get time back. Not squandering it is important. But how we spend it is not the only thing to consider. Understanding time as we experience it is equally beneficial. What exactly is time and how does it affect our bodies and minds?

Never enough time
One of the most common explanations I hear for why people do not learn mindfulness is lack of time. Yet time is limitless. We function as if it is fixed due to our adherence to a time-measuring device called a clock. But that clock may go wrong, or it may be switched…