Time is both beautiful and third class
A tremendously useful tool that is now overused
Before Time
Imagine this world a little bit: It’s 30,000 BC. You’re some sort of a humanoid species living in Africa. The concept of time does not exist in this world. Sun rises, sets, night happens and then it’s day again. After many of these repetitive meaningless events, the environment changes. Rain, flood, autumn, cold. You live, caring not about what this all is.
You wake up at some point during the.. what do we call.. uh.. the point of the Sun coming up and then it is still up? That point? Then you do whatever it is that you do. Sitting, observing intently, picking berries, napping. Then slowly, after an extremely long.. uh.. this thing, the Sun is going down and it is getting cooler, darker. Ok is this is cue for lying down and sleeping.
There is no concept of “time”. The very idea does not exist. In this world, stress is caused by survival related incidents. Animals chasing, getting infected with something, fighting for resources, etc. Let’s contrast this with..
Today
You have a meeting at work that begins at 10 AM. The previous night, you set your alarm to make it to the meeting. The phone that is pulling time from the networks and satellites, with atomic accuracy, rings at the set time. You miss it anyway and miss the meeting but that’s besides the point. This is just a simple everyday scenario so many of us live through.
Trains, planes, meetings, astrology, sports matches, contests, exams, every practical aspect of life almost, has some relationship with time. Time is everywhere. Even our language has constructs built around time.
Is this.. a problem?
Yes, yes it is a huge problem. Because it is also a huge source of stress, anger, disappointment and worry. Alarm clocks, metro timings, TV programs, internet video timestamps, sleep time, wake up time, premature birth, wrinkly skin at 30, diabetes at 25! It’s endless. It keeps running in our mind constantly.
Yet, the most memorable times in our lives were.. timeless. When time seemed to stop for a bit. When you were immersed in a moment of being. It was just you, existing in reality without needing this tool.
Can we have more of these moments?
A small example: Modern day.. you’re hiking up a mountain range. It’s sunny, but pleasant. You’ve already climbed quite far up. You are very, VERY tired already. You’re panting, sweating. Legs screaming in pain. Your back barely able to support you. But you are now able to see the summit. So you keep pushing. One step in front of another. Panting. Sweating. You go around a rock, climb up an incline, reach a flat area and just collapse. It’s the summit. You sit up, throw your backpack, walk to the edge. Massive mountains ahead of you. The Sun lighting up the scene as far as you can see. Winds whooshing away.
Other than that.. silence.
You stand there in awe. Tears stream down your face. Time stands absolutely still.
You created this moment. We all can create such moments.
But you don’t always have to go on a treacherous climb to do this. Here are some simpler ways of how to create timelessness.
- Flow States: You would’ve heard of this idea of the “Flow State”. Where you’re performing a skilled activity and so engaged in it, that you don’t sense time.
- Leave Clocks Behind: Leave all clocks behind. Phone, watches, whatever. Live somewhere aloof for a bit, like a forest camp. Or even take a walk without any devices. Just this activity alone will destress you quite a bit.
- Meditate: Set a long timer (like 30 mins), and sit down to meditate and be immersed in the experience.
So what is the point of doing all this? It’s simple — when you step away from time, from time to time, you destress, you feel at peace for just a bit. And that bit is absolutely needed to counter the tyranny of time in our world.
Time is only a tool. Set it down sometimes, it’ll be awesome.
