I recently spent several hours at my local hospital’s ER. I will not go into the extent of my injury or why I needed staples in my head, but let’s just say I was not practicing mindfulness at the time.
One of the most interesting observations of my visit was the clock on the wall in my room. It looked similar to a regular clock with a sweeping second hand, only the second hand did not move in a slow methodical direction. Rather it moved in sweeping increments of five seconds. In essence, the second hand would remain in place for four seconds and then it moved for five increments at once. I cannot imagine these clocks were not created like this on purpose. By seeing the second hand move faster then what is normal, it would appear that time was moving faster. The reality was I still waited two hours for a ten minute repair.
Time itself is man-made. It is an illusion that does not exist. Even so, our perception of it and how it works drives our behavior. Our illusion of time has a great effect on what we think, how we feel, and ultimately what we do. Imagine sitting in a car on the road, but the car is not moving forward. The road is coming at and going under the car, faster and faster. Obstacles and opportunities keep coming at us and we feel that we are not in control. We start to panic and we become overwhelmed. We allow stress to overload us, we cannot sleep, and the cycle continues.
People today are addicted to “being busy” and running from thing to thing, feeling pressure and stress of a long to-do list. It is a problem that is running rampant. I challenge you to break the addiction and chart your own course. We can control our own temperament and master the time illusion. We will always fill every minute of every day with something, so choose what these things will be. Our circumstances are not hard or easy, they just are. It is our perception that is driving the illusion. Choose to seek peace and control your own chaos, and in return your life we be lighter, livelier, and far more enjoyable.