As long as I can remember I have always been a clock-watcher, constantly checking the time or racing with it, my wristwatch firmly placed on my bedside table and an alarm clock ready to start my day. This was my safety net that I thought would give me a good night’s sleep, but often left me worrying whether I would get up on time or get to work on time.
I would often feel like I never had enough time to get everything done in the day and was clock watching at every opportunity. To others I was known as the punctual, hardworking and reliable one that could be counted on to get to work on time. I was prepared and would wait ahead of time for others. As a result, I often found it hard to unwind at the end of the day and this would lead to my collapsing into bed feeling exhausted.
This merry-go-round continued for a great part of my adult life and left me feeling a constant nervous tension in my body of where to be next. I was under the impression that this was the way life was and that I just had to keep my head down and keep going. The results were leaving the feelings of stress and exhaustion that were taking their toll on my body.
The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.
That was until I watched a Unimed Living Presentation in Sydney 2015 by Serge Benhayon on Time, Space and all of us.
As Serge presented, there was a key sentence that stood out for me that I began to understand not only in my head, but it also made sense in my body…
I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.
This sounded a bit odd at first and it took me a few days to get my head around this thought. How could I be racing with time when the clock was controlling how long I had to get from A to B?
Was it possible that I was controlling and rushing the time rather than staying with time?
After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension. A big ‘ouch’ and that ‘I get it’ light bulb moment rang true.
As a practical person I decided to put this key sentence into action and started to use a clock or watch to . . .
. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.
At first it took a while as I was so driven by a fast pace of living that would see me filling in more ‘things to do lists’ when I noticed I had more time up my sleeve. I could feel that I still had a need to be ‘doing stuff’ in this extra time rather than connecting to the opportunity that became available for me to appreciate and confirm that I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before. I could feel what was true in my body but the levels of drive and momentum I had built up over my life were still very strong and overrode my ability to stay settled. I was looking for a way to find a marker that felt true in my body. My only experience that connected me to this was an Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy session I had a few months prior.
The decision to delve deeper into understanding what I was resisting led to regular sessions of this modality with a local practitioner. I was able to feel the natural pace in which my body moved. There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.
After a number of weeks I had noticed gradual changes in how I was working. These included:
- Less tension in my body and trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time
- Letting go of the alarm clock and working on a nightly routine where I made sure I wound down before placing myself in bed
- Ability to work longer periods of time without feeling exhausted
- Appreciating the changes daily that build a foundational support level to connect to.
A year later, I have started to truly feel what my priorities are in each day. My day starts with a connection to me first and then where I need to go next to support others. The tension in my body has led to physical changes where I am more settled in my walk and have an increased sense of self-certainty. Physical changes have occurred in my face, arms and legs due to the release of tension, and the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!
I am deeply thankful to Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine for offering the opportunity to truly understand my relationship with time and the support that is provided by the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy modality. What was offered was paramount in supporting me to return to my natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time! I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.
By Anonymous
Further Reading:
A Race Against Time
Time and our perception of it
So Long Sciatica – Thanks to Universal Medicine and Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy
The Truth about Serge Benhayon 
Working as a carer I have a set amount of time to be with the client and to get to the next one. I thought I’d be strung up and pressured but I find the more in the moment I am the more space I have, the quicker (with no pressure or rush) the tasks get completed. Often I have time to spare!
Time is an illusion that takes us away from focusing on the what is true movements in our bodies, for it is only then that we can tap into the volume of what is possible in a natural flow within ourselves.
This time that we have adhered to as it being the dominating force leads to a way of living that is constantly on edge and anxious because you don’t feel you have enough of it and live your life by it. Turning it around and letting time come to you gives you a sense of space and then things can flow in the day. When we allow it to be like this it is remarkable what is actually possible to achieve and the quality that it is delivered in.
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.’ These two choices may look the same on the surface, but are worlds apart. The thing is 1 second, minute, hour etc is the same the world over, and their values dont change from day to day, but yes, your observations about our relationship with time are spot on. Rushing just gets me stressed and anxious inside. I no longer want to treat myself in this way, and I too have noticed the positive physical changes in me since dropping the race.
‘Racing time’ so many of know how this plays out in life. Yesterday, I was in traffic jams, a lot, I had an event to be at, I could feel there was a push to try and rush to get there, but I know now, that this is a false economy, by choosing to rush I am not as connected to my body and this causes a sense of anxiousness that does not support me or anyone else. Being open to that fact there is something I learn in every situation, yes even a traffic jam, supports me every day to be with time and not react to it.
We can make life all about time, not having enough or sometimes too much. I agree life is about living with time not racing against it.
It’s amazing how much time we can waste being worried about time! I find that if I let my mind go into worrying about time it gives me a block on where to start or what to do next rather than simply being totally present with all of me and knowing what to do from that quality.
When we come to the understanding that we can rush as much as we like, watch the clock repeatedly or even go into slow mode, it is not going to affect time in the slightest but it will affect us in many harming ways. We have no control over time but we do have a choice as to how we are going to live in harmony with it.
There are times when I have looked at the clock and got caught up in thinking ahead of myself about going home after work, and immediately when I do that I feel the tensions start to build in my body. It’s so lovely when I catch this and remind myself to be present with my body because this moment with me, holding that quality and moving in that, is what its all about, As soon as I feel that truth, my whole body realigns back to true purpose and i feel the enjoyment of the spaciousness this has created.
There is nothing worse than when you have an awesome day and you’re going at your own rhythm in your travels and at work and then just towards the end of the day you feel this clock thing happening. Just moving that little bit quicker to get the next train. I catch this and remind myself about the amazing day and it doesn’t matter what time I get home. Which then allows me space to chat to someone and connect instead of racing off and getting out of there.
I found that the more I am focused on the clock the faster time seems to go. I love your sharing and it totally makes sense.
I loved your mention of . . . “Physical changes have occurred in my face, arms and legs due to the release of tension” . . . as it is very telling the affect stress has on our body, particularly our faces. We cannot hide stress in any way try as we may.
There is a to be said around time, we can certainly be slave to it, watch it, not allowing ourselves to get into a flow. I have found that when I am not living or moving in a way that is in alignment with that flow, everything is off, how I walk, talk, eat, what I feel to eat, everything. I clock watch, feel like I am not contributing to anything meaningful and it all just feels awful. So I understand firstly what is happening and bring a quality back to how I am moving, this helps a lot.
I have found that since committing to making my life about quality first my relationship with time has shifted, as I am no longer a slave of time but have now developed enough awareness in my body to create space where everything is done in the flow of what is needed and with a quality that has true purpose for the good of all.
‘I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before’. I was just appreciating this yesterday while I was driving and then when I was walking around during shopping. I felt very still, very calm, very with myself, which was lovely to feel and a confirmation of my solid foundation of self-care and self-worth.
How we are with time is huge for who we feel in life, I would play games, push resent time rather than be me with it. Space for everything feels very different, when we try and control time we are imprisoned by our ideas around it.
Great blog and looking at the number of comments and reading through some of them, it is a big topic for many! Time – when I fight it, there is tension, when I surrender to it, there is not. It is that simple yet I can make it so complicated as well!
Isn’t it amazing how we physically change when we let go of the whole game of fighting against time and the belief that we don’t have enough time….. being fully present in the body there is no space to play this old game.
There is certainly an enormous difference between LIVING life, and experiencing a measured existence when everything we do is ‘on the clock’. Both can look the same in terms of what activities get done in a day, but the feeling and quality underneath are starkly different; one is spacious and joyful, and the other very tense.
I love how our body will tell us when to finish something, when to move on, when to continue etc. It knows that energy is provided for everything that is truly needed and we can either obey and respond or resist and reject.
With focus and purpose, so much gets done without the stress or the drive, because you just know what needs done on any given day. With focus and purpose, very little time is wasted.
When we are in our natural rhythm, this is such a support to allow the space for our day to flow and in the flow, whatever we need is already there.
There is a lot of fuss made about scientific discoveries – like the experiments conducted at CERN. But what’s certain to me is that what Serge Benhayon has presented today on time, will in due course be seen as the world changing revelation it truly is. Like someone pointing out that the world is not flat, we will look back and think ‘of course, how obvious is that?!’ but the simple fact is we have geared so much of our life around escaping these minutes and hours. To heal requires us to retrain ourselves in a day-to-day way to live in response to time, instead of as its slave. Thank you Anonymous for sharing your journey with the clock here.
We treat time as if it is a thing, an object that exists in its own right, when it is nothing but a marker, a tool, to track the cycles travelling through space we live in.
If we operate on nervous tension watching the clock all day, it means that it is difficult to got to sleep and get restorative sleep.
We have built in to our bodies cycles of stillness that are always there for us to build a deeper connection with ourselves, each other , and the universe.
There are so many times in my life when I’ve allowed the stress of thinking everything needed to be done by a certain time… feeling a pressure building up and inevitably an overwhelm, only to find that actually the world did not end and things did eventually complete actually it did not matter as much as I had thought. This is a classic where I see that time can limit things… whereas if I simply feel what is to be done next then there is always enough because I allow space in and around it all.
Things need to be done by a certain time, oh I know this one well, and the stress and pressure I put on myself with the drive and the push that then comes with this, not forgetting the tension I create in my body. I am letting go of this old pattern and this feels so much more spacious and open.
‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life’. This is such a contrast from rushing one’s way through life as opposed to living and being in your own natural rhythm which supports bringing presence and focus to all that you do, so you know what needs attention on any particular day. So things get done. Thus there is less tension in the body as we no longer waste time.
We can’t race time because we arrive at the same time wherever we go and whatever we do; but we certainly behave as though we think we can beat time into submission and get ahead of it. Serge Benhayon has unravelled our delusional perception of time and when the world is ready, it will benefit all and change the way we live.
When I am leaving for a journey I have a certain time in my head that I want to leave at. When I do not leave at the time I had set (for whatever reason), during the whole journey I feel this tension in my body and my thoughts get quite hard. For example; now I am going to be late, why didn’t you leave on time, now my day is going to be out…. and so on! So yesterday I was leaving on a journey, and I felt to be really tender with myself and this time, I decided that whatever time I am ready to leave, that is the time I will leave. Wow, this felt so much more loving (no rush and no pressure) and my day flowed.
I can relate Jacqueline and completely agree that when I leave when my body is ready to go, I feel completely at ease within myself and absolutely adore the space I have supported myself with.
Racing the clock is a big fat recipe for anxiety, tension in the body and overwhelming. I have become a lot better at this but on the occasion can feel the old pattern trying to slip in. The more I allow space for everything that I have going on, the better it flows and it all becomes a joy not a chore.
Flow is such an important word in all of this – when you feel that you know the next thing to do without having to worry.
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time’. It is such an ingrained habit of mine to rush with time in my old belief that I don’t have enough time, when this is an illusion, I have more than enough time, so I do not have to race with time, this is what I am working onto to re-imprint.
“overrode my ability to stay settled.” This part stood out and has got me questioning, what qualities within me have I learned to override? Thank you for this open door Anon. Questions such as these I find support self-reflection which leads to understanding myself more. Then I understand others as well and there is less to no judgement towards myself and others when there is understanding.
Stress is often related to wasted time and the delay this causes. It is all being felt, even if it is ‘seemingly’ being ignored.
I agree Vicky, as recently I have become very aware of the time I waste, and as a result have been making changes and using my time more wisely….. I feel tons better as a result (less frustration), and I am getting things done that I had said, I don’t have enough time to do this!
I can absolutely relate to this Jacqui. It blows apart everything we have believed otherwise.
I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time. This is such a common theme for most in life, feeling like we never have enough time in the day to do what we need to do, and as you say, racing against time. It’s so different when you give yourself space to do what you need to do, as you actually get just as much done, if not more and you’re not draining your kidneys with the rushing.
On reading your comment Julie, I just realised how much I have drained my kidneys by rushing. Now that old habit is much less, but still I observe now and again, I allow time to take over and control my day. But I am clocking this and letting it go each time.
Our relationship with time is really important to look at; it impacts on our whole life and it can feel a certain way depending on our issues with it. We can master this, and go with a universal flow rather than the tick tock of a clock…..we can pay respect to life as it is measured by society but we do not need to be beholden to it.
It’s amazing how I can find myself looking at my watch and seeming getting nothing done. Whereas when I just do what needs to be suddenly without any rush I get what I need to be done often with plenty of time to spare. It is fascinating how time can either go quickly or slowly depending on how we are with it and how we are feeling.
I have so been a slave to time in my life, so could really relate to what you were saying here. Also the points around bringing stillness to oneself and to create space in your life so you can allow the magic of love to come through not stress and anxiety.
It is my choice in every moment to be commanded by anxiety and the sense of time slipping away from me, or to be as completely present in each moment as I can and to let the next moments unfold… the latter approach is changing my life.
“I came to the realization that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.” This is a very huge realization as so many of us are caught in the illusion of time. Most of us sure know how to stress ourselves out by not living true to ourselves in every moment.
The race with time is more like a wrestle with time, as the more we meet life in this way the more exhausting we feel before we get to do anything! we have access to multidimentionality within our bodies and the more we learn to be with ourselves the more we expand and time becomes our ally and not our enemy.
I love the feeling of winding down at night, when there is no sense of time only space, and just deepening with the body – and I feel like this in the morning too but question when the shift to worrying about time occurs?
‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life’, I am living my life too, but sometimes that old habit/pattern of rushing creeps in again which feels so yucky in my body,that I can no longer move in that old energy, as my body speaks loudly and clearly.
Racing with time is an illusion which results from disconnection, for once we connect to our bodies and the quality of our movements we create space around us, and it is through our commitment to live this way that we can respond and answer to the constant pull of evolution.
Well said Francisco. Racing with time is then a clear sign that there is a resistance to the evolution that is on offer. So it’s not actually about time at all, but a reflection of our relationship with evolution.
Time is a very stretchy substance and varies enormously with how I am relating to it. I have realised in the last couple of years how I play with time in order to create bottlenecks at certain parts of my day. For instance if I find I am completing something quicker than I expected, I notice I start to slow down or even start to do unnecessary things. This guarantees later that there will be a rush and a feeling that I don’t have enough time when I am getting ready to go out. What I have found instead of focusing on time is just feeling my body. IT always knows when its time to do or not do something and everything flows seamlessly when I live in this way.
Using the clock to read time, is to me, an indication of ones own trust in self and abilities. As it is only with these qualities that we can relax and enjoy our day.
This blog has been a regular go to for me when I can feel the push to get things done and often can be hard on myself when I have set myself unrealistic deadlines. By staying steady and going with the flow I have noticed that there are often pockets in the day that give space to get those extra bits down without feeling the need to fill them up with more.
I love this blog Anonymous and the massive difference you point out between constantly pushing against time. Like a drag race we can never win, it’s just a matter of time till we crash and burn and hurt ourselves. Contrast this with the Loving way we can watch and observe life from a place of warmth, steadiness and stillness, where we are already complete within, then get to confirm this feeling in everything. What an easiness and lightness we find we are when we let ourselves live this way each and every day.
The moment I put the clock ahead of what I am doing I know I have disconnected.
I have started to truly feel what my priorities are in each day. I start to feel this too, what are my priorities, yet, I still can feel I have not enough time in the day especially when I have not had time for the things I have made priorities. However, I do have lots of space in the next few days to review and do a stock take.
I am currently finding working over my allotted work hours is becoming the norm. I can get stressed because I’m trying to fit in more than is reasonable in the allocated work hours to prevent me getting resentful about working these extra hours; or I can find a different way. Once I would have thought this was about me standing up for my rights but the industry is under pressure and I am no different to my colleagues in the extra work load being asked of us. So, for the time being, that is another matter to how I am at work in reaction or response to the job’s demands.
What I am feeling is this is asking me to work in a quality that is no different to my enjoying a walk on the beach or in the woods. That it doesn’t matter what I am doing because I am enjoying the quality I am choosing. So often I have planned a day that then circumstance, other people’s choices seem to derail. But this is me in victim mode – when other priorities come in I can feel unnerved and annoyed because my time-frame just got reduced. But what if it’s about me choosing the quality of love, perhaps working more hours and not getting other things done; but really appreciating that when love is the quality in which things are done then all things are equal, I don’t need ‘me time’ or to feel guilty because I haven’t done this or that.
This is such an important revelation and understanding when we consider how much of society is driven by time and therefore at the mercy of clock-watching and trying to beat the time. To be connected in our own true flow, we will begin to understand the science of space and be equipped to truly respond to life.
That is beautiful and very wise Deborah and perfect to take into my day: To be connected in our own true flow, we will begin to understand the science of space and be equipped to truly respond to life.
“I discovered I was racing with time rather than being with time.” A powerful realisation. Having had a busy, keep doing mentality for most of my life I can so relate to this. When I stay with myself and focus on what I’m doing, rather than thinking about all the things I could be doing, time seems to open up and there is more space in my day. Strangely – or not – I also accomplish more!
We can definitely feel the difference …. when time is short and everything seems pressured, or when we can feel the space around it all. They are worlds apart, yet available in equal measure at any given moment.
Such a great blog to come back to re-read. I find I am still allowing myself to be controlled by time, I observe this at work, it is such a n ingrained habit of mine, but I am alerted and slowly letting that old habit go. go.
I have worked shift work for many years and I would look at my watch a lot during a work shift, I then made a choice one day to no longer wear a watch to work as I was aware of how attached to time I had become. This was such a game changer for me as I was no longer in reaction to time and it allowed me to commit more to my job and interestingly I didn’t feel as tired during work.
‘I was under the impression that this was the way life was and that I just had to keep my head down and keep going.’ Yes – and what an interesting belief that is – one I laboured under too for most of my adult life, convinced there was no other way. It’s a deeply ingrained belief and one I’m still de-constructing after close to a decade. The good news is, there is a way forward but I wouldn’t have found it unless I’d found Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine – the illusion was far too thick!
‘ . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.’ This one statement alone is supportive in looking at time from a different angle.
Simply beautiful! If I bring all of me to each moment, I am not trying to beat time or racing against time and then space often emerges to allow me to bring even more of me.
True – even the notion of space is something that we may never have considered- this is a true revelation- eye-opener and needed game changer.
Our bodies are designed to be naturally spacious on the inside. They are like ‘Dr Who’s tardus’, an ordinary body on the outside but capable of divine expansiveness on the inside that is not held by the constraints of the physical form. Time is one of the greatest killers of this natural expansiveness. It creates a constraint and squeezing down of the particles, which creates tension, density and hardness in the body. Although it doesn’t happen all the time, when I do not allow time to impose, there is such a magic to the way my day flows with ease and joy.
If I find myself racing against time it helps to check in with myself why I am doing this – is it really needed? And to see if I have set myself up to need to ‘race’ rather than having moved in a way beforehand that prepared me to be ‘on time’ so to speak…
Surrendering to our own natural innate rhythm is where the true expression of who we are is ignited. Every movement we make thereafter becomes a reflection of deep surrender to our connection and our heart simply soars from its own unique symbiotic rhythm.
We can’t underestimate the effects of stress, even if it’s something we consider not too “stressful” like time, because the body is still under pressure. All the changes we make actually do have a huge effect on the body, allowing it to be at ease and enjoy the day without needing space to recover from how we have lived.
The very thought of clock watching is enough to stress me out! Racing against the clock feels like we are racing against our divine nature because there is an order and a flow to life and if we are racing around then we are against the divine order and flow of the universe. No wonder it is stressful!
Spot on Elizabeth, racing against the clock keeps us in a constant spin where we lose out on the magic of ‘the divine order and flow’.
Ha – so true Elizabeth…. not unlike a time-bomb ticking away. Such anxiety must surely be cemented early on in school if not before when we are pushed and pressed to move in another’s rhythm rather than our own and perform before the time is done.
The minute you start rushing you compromise the quality of your whole life, we can’t see how amazing the world around us is when we rush through life.
Spot on Meg, especially how we compromise the quality of every area of our life when we rush, rush, rush, we miss so much, we miss the messages and we miss the magic and the beauty.
Compromise is a great word – and why would we ever want to compromise on magic?
Its a good point Meg – we pass by the flower, sunset, street scene (life essentially) without noticing its iridescent beauty, too busy and involved in our own private squeezed moment.
Yeh I often wonder how many moments do I actually miss – it could be thousands a day…
I find the moment I compromise one area or one thing I am saying yes to less than the love I know and so settling for that in all areas of my life. So as you say why would we ever want to compromise on magic or the love that we are? It makes no sense yet we do it a lot of time.
I used to live in constant anxiety and would always be racing time. I’d work out in my head how long something ‘should’ take and then put myself under pressure to fit that so there was an enormous tension in my body. Now, I feel what needs to be done and how long to allow for it, and I’ve had instances where I’ve felt how long to leave to get somewhere, and it’s been much longer than I would have expected. I’ve gone with it and then have had hold ups which if I hadn’t allowed the extra time, would have resulted in me being late. So yes, the clock is just that, it tells us the time.
This makes a lot of sense Sandra Dallimore. I often get blown away how I may have a full day of things to get done but if I remain steady with myself that long list because a short list with space in between to support myself for the next day. It is interesting to notice that if we keep things simple they become simple.
I am finding that as I have more and more to get done in my day, the more I let go of watching the clock and simply focus on what there is to do, I am able to do what I have to with little or no anxiety and in less time than I would otherwise. Its a great and huge learning.
The antidote to racing against time is to connect to stillness… it seems from this place everything expands and time seems to move differently..it seems much slower!
I reckon our misuse of time may be one of the biggest secret contributors to illness and disease, imagine the stress we are putting our bodies under by constantly racing against time, it must be huge.
How often do we watch time, we are either running early or running late. We have deadlines on things, we have to pick up kids, do the groceries, all at times when a clock dictates. So we can be a slave to time if we allow it. However, I have learned that when we are connected with ourselves, we can create space, a feeling that allows you to not feel like you ‘have’ to be a slave to time. It allows you to feel there is a way to ‘do’ life that doesn’t feel like life is hitting you from all sides. Instead allowing you to feel you can choose whether to be impacted by life or not.
I have very much needed to re-read your blog this monring. I have a pile of assignments to complete and have let myself get caught in the time-trap and anxiety has been rearing its ugly head. Thank you for reminding me of my priorities.
When we live in accordance to the natural rhythm, cycles and impulses felt in our bodies, we realise that time is a guide for us to know the quality of connection in which we are living at any given ‘time’, as such always offering the opportunity for us to deepen and evolve.
This is huge – totally rocking the world upside down – simply by allowing space , instantly we are free of the stress we go into with time. A key to a healthier life and rhythm has just been brought into action by this piece of writing. Thank you
“I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension” I have often been a person that has left things to the last moment or arrived just on time or 5 minutes late, lately I have been allowing myself the time and space to feel the truth of time and look at whats really going on rather than continue to play the silly and exhausting game of catch up.
I think about my relationship with time and I can see how We project little ideals or goals into the future and feel as though time is running out, IT feels as though there is something I am waiting for or a final arrival – and as I read this I remember how time is eternal. We always have another chance at living our potential in full, because we will just be in a new cycle.
It goes to show that when we are truly present in our body, we are afforded space. Conversely when we are in anxiety and racing against the clock, we are not present and there is constant tension and no time.
Letting go of the need to feel like I can do everything and have it perfectly planned. Has taught me to back myself and know that I have within what is needed in any given moment planned or not.
I can feel I created so much tension in my body with the relationship I had with time which was, there was never enough time which would make me rush, rush, rush everything thus I would no longer be in my body let alone connected with it. This is an old way of living for me, I no longer live this way it just feels so yucky in my body to rush anything. These days my movements and in the way I walk are confirming the connection I now have with my body and are filled with purpose.
“Was it possible that I was controlling and rushing the time rather than staying with time?” Wow thats some question and one that I too will ponder upon. Thank you for brining this amazing revelation to my attention.
Putting the pressure on ourselves concerning time is very stressful. I occasionally have done this when I have an appointment that is important to me . I find I am constantly looking at the clock and time either seems to be going slow or too fast! Of cause this is not so . I end up feeling stressed and as though my whole day was devoted to getting myself to just this one appointment!
As I read this blog, I recalled my old ‘trick” to stay on time. I would set my clocks and watch 5 minutes fast, to keep myself under a constant state of pressure and to make sure I didn’t run late. It was an awful way to live, and a constant lie to myself – as though I could somehow get ahead of time if I tried hard enough. The toll on my physical health and psychological state was appalling.
The healing process has been slow, and exploring the way I relate to time has been crucial in the process.
When we associate ourselves with living in ‘time’ we are associating ourselves with specific movements and thoughts, and it is not just about what we can get done in a certain amount of a time measurement because after that deadline time is still going on, around and around so what quality of movement is being lived in that time? The point is time is eternal and so We eventually will learn that time is about learning to express quality of being in that time and we will see time as space, not only is there a space from 6 pm to 10 pm but there is also a quality to that space.
The more I focus on doing what needs to be done rather than being in my head about needing to get it all done within a certain timeframe, the easier and more flowing my life becomes.
This is a very poignant topic for most of humanity have tried to beat the clock at some point or other.
We are setting ourselves up when we seek to limit and control our movements, interactions and space for each moment is expansive and provides space, rhythm and a needed flow should we connect and be with what presents.
As you have shared, what is super supportive is the foundation of the rhythm that we create for ourselves, the consistent loving choices and the quality in which we hold ourselves in these choices. This is what supports us when the challenges of the world present themselves. and as we become more solid in our consistency and quality the more we are free to be ourselves in a world that would have us be anything but.
I have often self imposed time restrictions and deadlines simply because I want to get something done by a certain time. This is self imprisonment and a plug in to anxiousness.
this is something I am still wrestling with, but I know that when I am being run by time and the stress and nervous energy kicks in, i am simply becoming drained, more exhausted and less able to bring any quality to what I do, and quite possibly doing less in the process. Learning to start from connection and holding true quality, then space does open up and things flow in a different way.
Time creates the ultimate squeeze on human life. It never feels like there is enough time when you let it rule your day. I have found that I have so much more time when I let my body decide what’s next throughout the day. Things get done and with a grace that is sorely absent when I am feeling time poor.
Oh gosh, the pressure we can feel when we are under a time boundary is huge. It can affect our mood, our movements and our bodies in a huge way. I know that there are times when I have not let the time boundary bother me, and I have focussed on being aware of my movements instead of the clock. What a difference this makes. It’s like being set free.
Clock watching is a sure fire way to be anxious. When we drop the race with time, suddenly a spaciousness opens up in the body and whatever is on the clock is simply a marker of time.
We are so distracted by time and usually how little of it we seem to have, that we then ignore the very reason why we are time poor in the first place. Maybe when we feel short of time, we could be asking ourselves, why, what have I been doing up until this point? Am I trying to do too much in a short space of time?
The very thought of clock watching is enough to bring up great anxiety. It immediately takes us out of our bodies and into a sense of stress and tension. There is a natural flow within us that if we adhere to it we would be able to do things in a rhythm that does not cause stress and tension.
So true – there is never enough time when we focus on it and a to do list a mile long. Connecting to ourselves is key and enables us to flow in and with life and the natural rhythm that is offered,
Recently I notice I have been feeling tensed throughout my day and I realised it was related to my clock watching. First thing in the morning I check the time and because I have been getting up later I feel I am starting my day already running behind. What I realised was I had an image and an idea of what time I should be up and start my day instead of lovingly appreciating myself and how my body feels. This is something I recently became aware of how I am allowing time to dictate my day instead of bringing more appreciation to my day. Also letting go of judging myself and setting myself up for running with tension but learning to choose a different kind of start to my day. I am choosing to appreciate however my day unfolds and choosing to let go of the images I hold of how my day should look like and choosing to connect to every movement in my body more and more.
What a wake up when we realise that the measurement of time stays the same and it is us that push and drive and bring tension, when in fact all that is needed is to bring our presence.
Time is such a huge subject to explore so thanks for writing this. My relationship with time at the moment varies greatly from falling back into old ways of racing it on somedays and being completely with myself and time on others. It’s a big thing changing from the old to the new but a good test of how often I manage to stay present and on to it.
Before this week’s start I was racing against time. I could see lay ahead and my typical habit is to stress about fitting it all in early so I can then be less anxious at the end of the week knowing most of it is completed. But this isn’t good for my health so I choose to trust my ability to prioritise and manage my week. Yes, I have a lot of work still to complete but I am at ease with myself – surprisingly so. Sometimes I have moments of self-doubt but actually it’s quite lovely feeling the space I walk in – like it’s the same world so not at all perfect but appreciating the moments where I can appreciate being myself and the quality of this divinity.
When we finally surrender to the flow of the universe we understand that time does not exist as what matters is our constant living in the awe of the perfection of how everything in life is constellated, by living this way we surrender to what is instead of fighting time to fulfill our pictures we hold about life.
The pull of the clock is strong, but this article really supports me to build my relationship, presence and connection with myself so that I am not governed and controlled by time, but can see it simply as a measure within the cycles of our days.
If we can manage to stop and look at our relationship with time we can feel how we are always on edge nervous and as you say our quality of time we spend with people is fleeting as we are constantly thinking of something else or what’s next. In this ill rhythm we can never enjoy being with others or ourselves. Learning to not live in nervous tension and to bring quality to everything I do is another learning for me, but one I am willing to embrace as I know it will bring me greater awareness in my body. And I so love being aware of everything around me. It’s as though I am finally waking up from a bad dream.
A wonderful experiment and inspiring for us to reflect on our lives and see where woman have got stuck in habits and patterns, and have a look at living in another way. as for time, yes we all do a have a relationships with it, but has been trying to cheat it, always a bit late and resentful for what I saw as a restraint…always worthwhile considering what our relationship with aspects of our life.
Isn’t it so very revealing that an arbitrary measurement can cause so much distress indeed havoc and tension… imagine if we simply attended to the rhythms of our body and stayed tuned into that.
I feel inspired to work with this ‘. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.’
Anonymous, this is such a great article, ‘Less tension in my body and trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time’, I can very much relate to this, when I speed up my natural rhythm this feels awful in my body and I lose connection with myself and others and my day feels loveless and not enjoyable, just exhausting, I almost feel dizzy from being out of my rhythm. If I stay in rhythm and do not speed up to get things done then I feel steady, engaged with others and I feel playful and notice how enjoyable my day is and how great I feel at the end of the day.
I have recently returned to work after many months of not working. I was horrified on the first morning when I began clock watching again; and it was so easy to do so, instantly generating the old pattern of rush and anxiousness throughout my body. It’s taken a few mornings to bring myself to a place when I have stopped calculating how much time I have left but simply observing what time it is and then choosing to be with me as I get ready; no rush, no anxiousness and plenty of time to do everything I need to, with often space to spare.
A transformative and inspiring deconstruction and reconstruction of a relationship with time. Thank you, Ingrid.
Anonymous, ‘The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ I had this experience recently, I got very caught up in time and everything felt like a rush, things felt squeezed and the focus felt like it was the clock rather than connecting with the children I was with and so I did not feel quality connections only exhaustion at the end of the day and a sadness that I had not enjoyed the day or connected with the children – a big learning for me that rushing and racing with time are not sustainable or loving ways of working.
“The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.” I too experienced this for much of my life and now see how much I was holding back from myself not only in how lovely it feels to be connected to my body in every moment but also to be able to stop and appreciate every connection we have during our days too. How much magic can occur even in the simple daily passing’s we have whether that be with the shop attendant at the grocery store or the postman. When we are present in every move we make we can register and observe life with a greater sense of joy and honesty and that is a pretty cool gift we all can enjoy everyday.
This is brilliant how you have adjusted to being ready to work with time in a different way. Given that the body is the marker of all truth, it makes sense that you look and feel so much better as a result of it. Totally awesome and obviously you are worth it!
It is actually very liberating to not be governed by time, and when we let go of constantly checking the clock it is amazing how much can be done without the stress of ‘not having enough time’. I also find that I ‘know’ the time, when I have not checked it for a few hours. This tells me that our bodies are constantly in a natural flow and rhythym with the world around us and if we trust that, everything will be taken care of at the ‘correct time’.
What I really love about this is that nothing changed except you. Time stayed the same, doing exactly what it does/always did, but what you changed, is your relationship with it and look at the miracles that occurred.
It feels like this example could be utilised by many all over the world, as quite often we blame the outside, i.e. like your time example – there is never enough hours in the day etc… You have shown us that we can change how we are with the world, by looking at our relationship with it.
I work as a flight attendant on international flights so I am often work shift work and very long hours on flights. Years ago I stopped wearing a watch because I was constantly looking at it and I noticed how this affected me from just being in the moment and I would feel tired just knowing that it was say midnight and I was up working. I now just allow myself to let my work shift unfold without being too aware of the time and it has been very freeing and also allowed me to stay with my body instead of reacting to the time.
I reckon clock watching and using time as a pressure is a way we can occupy ourselves and not feel everything we don’t want to, or attend to all that is before us. If we also consider the rhythms and cycles of life and the greater rhythms and cycles of the universe, all of which we are a part of, then occupying ourselves with time keeps us reduced and out of the expanded state we could live in as part of the greater cycles.
Thanks Elizabeth, I can really relate to this. I have mostly allowed just enough time to get to appointments etc, and I recently realised that this doesn’t have to be a rule, that I can allow more time to enjoy the travel and all that comes with the journey. It’s a different way to experience life because by cutting it so fine time wise all the time there is a drive, tension and pressure, instead of the ease and enjoyment a little extra time affords.
“. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” This is so very true, I know that I get caught up in time ‘all the time’, Reading time, what a wonderful concept, to not be a slave to it. We are constantly or can be constantly chasing time. But if we choose to read it, that we can detach from it more and not be attached to what is presenting in life.
We have become very good at managing life and not feel what is there to be dealt with and have used time as an excuse to distract ourselves from focusing on our connection to our quality within and live from our bodies in a natural flow to the universe.
I think it’s really interesting how you describe that as your relationship with time has changed that you’re able to work for longer periods without getting exhausted – it makes me think how when we’re racing against time that it makes us want to find ‘time-off’ because that way of being is just not sustainable or harmonious…
We have created a world of deadlines and pressure in so many areas, and are now slaves to that tyranny, at enormous cost to our health and relationships and quality of life. I am learning that it is possible to live differently, in a way that allows greater space rather than the confining demands of time – beginning steps as yet but I can see that there is indeed a different way to live that restores a greater dimension, depth and quality to life and to the world that has been so profoundly missed before now.
Having spent most of this life ruled by time and the pressures, anxiousness and nervous, that come with deadlines for work, study and projects. I realise now just how much it robs us a) of our own vitality, health and freedom to live truly ourselves, and b) the quality of connection with all others and with ourselves. Every interaction is diminished if we do not bring our whole true selves fully present with the other person or situation.
This is beautiful – learning how to live life rather than pushing / rushing through it – is a necessary skill for all to develop. To not be ruled by time but live in its flow and impuse.
Leaving things to the last minute has never served me and it has puts me into a rush with time so that time always coming out in front of any prepared schedule.
For more on time go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=TIME
My relationship with time is an ongoing journey. I have a small baby now and I am starting to observe how before I leave the house I prefer to complete things. If I don’t then I can be as early as I want but I’ll be there in tension. So for me it about allowing the space to get things completed and in doing this it has changed my relationship with time and how I am with it – knowing that space really supports me.
Every now and then one reads an article and the first thought is gosh this should be everywhere… Woman’s Weekly… Hello etc – we can see all around us the results of time running us… this refreshing and revelatory perspective is definitely what is needed now.
I find watching the clock really stressful – when I feel this way it show me I’m not feeling my normal self.
I wonder if our dis-ease that we experience with time partly stems from the fact we literally waste so much time. So when we rush we’re trying to put this right but essentially just changing our dis-ease with time from stagnation to excess – but still not truly using our time for what it’s made for.
Racing against time is a great way for us to avoid being present and feeling our stillness within.
Its quite an eye opener to experience just how much ‘time’ you have when you go about doing your normal usual activities in connection with your body…
I’ve discovered clock watching is a futile and anxious-making activity. With always lots to be attended to I’m shifting my focus to deepen my presence and quality instead of focusing on how much I can get done.
When I started to read the book “Time” by Serge Benhayon it was amazing to realise just how much I took racing against time for granted, as in how much it was just a normal part of how I lived my life and through recognising this it’s helped me to be more aware of the quality in the way I am living, how I am approaching tasks and everyday life, the kind of presence that I bring to whatever I am doing…
Anonymous, this is really interesting to read ‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life’, in the last week I have discovered that I was anxious about time, that I was trying to do certain things at certain times and that I would get anxious if these did not happen at the ‘right’ time, since letting go of this control and of constant clock watching I feel much more relaxed and at ease and life feels much more fun and flowing, interesting how I was caught up in rushing against the clock and was not aware of this until it was pointed out to me.
The clock watching and pushed against time feeling never goes away until you build a relationship with allowing yourself space for everything and letting it flow.
When we watch the clock and base our entire lives by it, we are really making time our enemy instead of seeing it as a marker in space that shows us how much space we have to work with.
This is a great reminder to stay with our body’s natural pace and not compromise this to fit in with what we think the world requires of us. When I stay in the flow everything feels more spacious and a lot more gets done!
The more stressed I am the faster I race against time to get things done, but like a hamster in a wheel end up going nowhere except exhausting myself.
There are so many things that we can choose to hold onto that create underlying stress and tension in our bodies Living like that every day has a very real physical impact on our bodies and our hormone levels.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy has been so supportive in helping me to reconnect and feel where and when I carrying tension.
I really like this line –”I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” I find that it is easy to slip into that pattern when we have a lot to do. The thing that is helping me the most to not do that is to deliberately be with everything that I am doing moment by moment which then creates space for me.
There is so much here to digest and I can feel how much I race with time trying to pack as much in as possible and always anxious and scared I’ve missed something (and yes it is exhausting). There is a huge drive in all of this and I feel how in fact there’s no settlement in me with this and no allowing of space to even consider it – so to prioritise yourself first and then feel the world and what is needed is absolutely huge, so thank you for this blog, it’s hugely supportive as I consider how and where I spend my time.
I have worked through a lot of ideals and beliefs about Time and have got to a place that even where I am working late nights I don’t rush or cut things off and do them by halves. No matter what the quality I work in is the priority then Time becomes a lot more spacious.
My relationship with time is linear. It reflects the relationship I have with the world – all my insecurities, hurts (e.g. being asked to do more things than I can within a certain time upsets me), defenses – control, needing things to be a certain way, upset when they’re not, etc. What I’m starting to focus on instead is my relationship with space, with God, just through how I breathe, keeping it simple and noticing what gets in the way.
This week I’ve had a few extra curve balls at work which is the nature of the job. But I’ve remembered that the quality I hold myself in is more important than getting derailed by my need to control and have x done by x time just because I want to avert feeling overwhelmed and feel all is in hand and comfortable. What has come in has needed to take priority. Normally I would hit Friday afternoon a broken woman after doing a part of my job that is very unpredictable but necessary. But what I’m appreciating is that no one area in my life is any less important, no-one person deserves anything less than love.
But this is exactly what’s happened when I’ve got irritated by someone needing support and my schedule of what I need to do by x has been disrupted. It’s not an ideal set-up with not enough workers dealing with the issues that present themselves, but to be irritated, judge or go into protection and with-hold, saying no to what is presenting itself- then I’ve got to just work my case load because I am held directly accountable for it – only harms- greatly! So I’m just learning how to work differently and Monday I have many tasks. But it’s not reacting and staying connected when tasks come in that is key to quality of what I bring and others’ can receive if they choose to.
To the best of our ability things complete in there own time we need to only allow the space so our quality is deeply felt by those around us, and this allows for the appreciation of everything being unified around us.
Living life instead of letting life live you takes away any time related pressure. This is so simple when it is felt from the body and it is as if we are blessing our-self to create space, which takes away any rushing to complete things.
A look into space as part of my Livingness, time has lost it’s way so I am feeling much more spacious!
For more on space go to;
http://www.unimedliving.com/search?keyword=SPACE
Living each moment and honouring what the body feels allows us pockets of space to continue with what is needed in the day. As soon as we are caught up in the ‘things to do list” or “box ticking’ we are allowing a drive to take over that often sets us up to feel exhausted rather than naturally tired at the end of the day.
Agreed Natalliya, when we are caught up in the doing of things and ticking boxes we lose sight of our connection to the divine. So being connected and not being empty is the simple answer.
When we get a true understanding of what emptiness is all about then we get an understanding that if we do not get to the root cause there is a simple replacement. So what is emptiness? When opened up to our divine connection their is a full-ness that is felt in the inner-heart and when this is maintained we become re-connected to the Soul and this is a complete lack of emptiness.
So is emptiness in the being or the doing? Could it be in being connected we live a life that is being decent and respect-full, thus we are being-full in a life with true purpose, so we are in a flow from one moment to the next? If we are caught up in the doing then could it be possible that it is just a trying to please others? Then are we being of service, or are we doing service and which one feels energetically true?
The time, or date is a great marker for checking in with ourselves and seeing how we are. often I find if writing the date and I am rushing, I think hmm what’s going on?
Looking at my watch every five minutes is a sign that I am anxious and trying to race time. I now purposefully don’t wear a watch and don’t keep checking the time. Its amazing how slowly time goes when I am not checking it as often.
I sometimes think I don’t have enough time to complete everything I need to do. What I am finding is that when I stay steady and do one thing at a time, not allowing myself to get into my usual anxious state, everything gets done and I have plenty of time.
When we introduced time it feels like we introduced something that effectively takes us away from feeling the all, the everything around us. It’s like the mobile phones we have these days. We check them all of the time and we are not very aware of what is actually happening around us. It’s possible though to have a relationship both with time and the modern gadgets. If we stay with ourselves – and yes there is a true self, contrary to what many social psychologists theorize about. There is a true self to connect to and in connection it’s easy to walk through life.
Appreciation is the key to making changes, when we don’t appreciate we slip into self criticism and giving up. When we deeply appreciate even the little changes we make we inspire ourselves to build on our choices.
Speeding up time is a clever trick on our behalf to afford us an excuse to rush through life skipping bits and therefore seemingly not be accountable for the gaps we create by not living true to who we are.
That is so true Liane, rushing against time is an avoidance of responsibility
Yes speeding or rushing makes no difference and the quality that is taken on at that very moment is far from living with the body in any form of harmony.
Just at the weekend I observed how easily time can distract me and create tension in my body and then how I go into worry mode because I start thinking I do not have enough time…..this is such an old and ingrained pattern, but I am catching it quicker these days.
Time is something I am also changing my relationship with. it is funny how we can set time up to be against us – but if we allow ourselves the space, then it changes how we are in our day.
I was an avid clock watcher for most of my life, but much prefer to stay connected to my body and my movements as much as possible. From this connection to my body time melts away and the space to get what is needed to be done in that day simply unfolds as it needs too. It is always a forever expanding and enjoyable process and one that I continue to learn more from everyday.
Connection to our bodies is the key as I find when this connection is lost all hell breaks loose with time. I have to leave the house in the morning at a certain time to avoid getting stuck in traffic, I have never used an alarm clock as I always wake up naturally but if I sleep a little too late and try and speed things up and break my routine things can go quite wrong and I can feel the unnecessary tension build which effects the way I drive and everything. Sometimes it’s a while before I can pull myself back from that and reconnect.
I’m writing this from a train and it was amazing to observe the speed in which people from all around the station stood up and rushed to get seats when the platform was announced.. the train wasn’t even going anywhere for another 15 minutes! People were standing on toes, banging into each other and swerving in and out of the crowd, and it was interesting to notice how (myself included) we all had our own missions and races happening with time, wanted good seats or to sit down, get on as fast as possible and that many people totally lost their sense of community or respecting others because of this.
Late night clock watching is always an interesting one – where your pushing how much longer you can watch something or do something before you need to go to sleep, or calculating how much sleep you’ll get, rather than following your bodies own rhythm
That’s true Rebecca, we make time our master instead of our own body.
I agree – and we place far greater worth on those ‘5 more minuets’ which in my experience become more like an hour and suddenly all my good intentions of an early night are gone because I didn’t place myself are the most important in the equation.
Commitment and purpose show me how to spend my ‘time’.
Its revealing to recognise just how much nervous tension there is in the body if one is in the habit of clock watching.
Yes johannebrown and this nervous tension is what feeds one of the major plagues of our current times -anxiety and stress. How often do we stop to register that the nervous tension may not be as obvious as mentioned in this blog but could include the simple movement of rolling in the shoulders or tensing the back and neck when speaking?
This is a great blog to return to as I can still feel tension in my body when it comes to time, and what I have to do in my day. The thing is I am observing and catching it quicker!
When I have an issue with time it is a greater marker which tells me I have lost my connection.
It’s beautiful to read how honouring our rhythm can release us from the constrain of time. And there may be a way to be “punctual, hardworking and reliable” without all that pressure and overwhelm, after all.
When I re-connect with myself and my own rhythm and let go of my insecurities and control issues around the demands I place on myself to get certain things done in any given time frame the space to complete is there. I often still need to remind myself of this.
Concsious presence is the key to be in time and not race with time. Concsious presence exposes how often I act from ideals and beliefs which throw me out to being concsiously present as they bring me into stress.
When we are able to be consciously present with time, there seems to be a ability to create space to complete things. Racing against time involves a different feeling, it may involve using nervous tension and our capabilities to rush and complete things.
When we see that 100 years ago we are in the same space in the same position, not moved anywhere apart from circles it exposes the illusion of time that it is linear, and that we are on a journey with a start, middle and end.
Racing with time is ridiculous if you think about it. If we are always trying to get on to the next thing we are missing out on the moment and what we are actually doing. And where are we ultimately trying to race to? Death? Surely the quality of life is more important than just getting through it, therefore we need to slow down and enjoy time instead of treating it as the enemy.
‘. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.’ Reading time, rather than fighting with or worrying about time is a completely different relationship that allows us to stay open and in our own flow of movement rather than reducing ourselves to the ‘limitation’ of time and rushing or going into function.
I find that I have to keep a balance between doing what I am doing and keeping an eye on the clock as I tend to start writing something if I have say 15 minutes before I have to leave for work, and then I go on writing just a bit too long and end up having a tight clock squeeze with getting to work. Watch the clock but keep spacious.
We all know that time is a slippery concept that changes based on how we feel about what’s going on, sometimes time drags along, and sometimes it disappears.There is definitely more to time than meets the eye.
Racing against time – we may as well be chasing our tails – an endless pursuit that keeps us fully distracted from the spaciousness of Universal Intelligence.
Racing against time is exhausting, and it is an impossible race that creates a feeling of anxiousness and overwhelm as you ‘try’ to complete the task at hand within a set timeframe. I certainly haven’t mastered it, but my relationship with time has changed to one where I get a sense of how long I need to do something, and where a task doesn’t feel possible to meet a deadline, to adjust the task so the quality is maintained but the output may be slightly less.
The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment. This used to be me some time back, and everything that I did was according to a check list and I was always thinking of what I could get done is small spaces of time so I wasn’t wasting time.
This proved to be a very exhausting and not very enjoyable way to be.
Serge Benhayon’s observation that time stays the same and that we all arrive at the same time regardless of what we have been doing, in other words how we have filled that time, is a game changer if we allow it; it takes time (again!) to take in, digest it, experiment and work with it but the results make a world of difference in everyday life.
This is life changing – I’ve been chasing deadlines the last few months (if not my whole life), and robbing myself of that opportunity to connect: with what I’m doing, with the people in my life and with what is really going on with the world. Its a very two dimensional experience that leaves me wooden and unfeeling as compared with the richness and depth of true connection that comes when I stop racing time and flow with it.
On the note of rushing and hurrying up to stay on time, in my experience this is when I usually mess something up and then it ends up taking far longer than it should have in the first place! Not worth rushing – though it still happens to me on occasion, at least I am better at catching myself earlier and earlier and putting a stop to it.
Anon, I love how you have called this blog clock watching! It is very much what I used to do, and still catch myself at times doing…It is like living under the Lords of Time and having to bow down to the first and second hands of the clock with each tick and tock. When I finally decided to stop wearing a watch it helped hugely to let go of some of this, but I still kept checking the car clock, the oven clock, the microwave clock and the phone clock etc etc. So it still took some time to ‘wean’ myself off this habit. Of course I still need to keep track of time because of commitments, but I am less governed by the clock today…having said that I have to go now as it is time…:)
After reading this blog I changed how I looked at the clock. I look at it to simply tell me what the time was and placed no pictures on anything else about the time….it was simply 1.54pm for example, not omg, I have 6 minutes until 2pm and I still have do XYZ, I just went OK, is 1.54pm. I really enjoyed it, thanks for the inspiration.
The moment time becomes more important than quality, the whole body is placed under an unnecessary pressure.
Thank you Anonymous. Yesterday I was driving home and thinking about the dog I was looking after. I was so focussed on my next step (getting home and being with the dog) that I went to pull the keys out of the car ignition while I was driving. It was as though my thoughts were so strong that my body had decided I had already pulled up in the driveway and parked the car. Thankfully I caught myself before I made this mistake. I wonder how many people have accidents etc because they are focussed on what’s next rather than the present moment?
Our relationship with time is very significant, how we approach, what we feel about and how we attempt to run our life by it – impacts on everything we/all experience.
How many people are lost without their watch and phone? You can include under ten’s in this group! Clock-watching has become the treadmill of life we had created for ourselves. We have complete control over the incline to make it harder; we can speed it up or slow it down but find it imposable just to step off! When we step out of time, it becomes so apparent to the motion with no movement we have been living in!
Anonymous, this is a great article, I am aware of how we get caught up in time and I have noticed lately how I can be in a slight rush, always trying to get somewhere rather than going at my natural, steady pace – hence why my legs have been aching, thank you for writing this.
“Appreciating the changes daily that build a foundational support level to connect to” learning to appreciate in my day to day is still something that I am building, ensuring that I feel my quality and acknowledge that quality and bring that awareness into my day.
Each time I catch myself rushing against time pressures, I have the opportunity to reconnect fully with my movements, bringing my mind back into union with the body and space emerges to complete things.
I have spent most of my life dominated by time and see the young people around me doing the same, rushing through life rather than living it. This blog is a great reminder to be present with myself, to feel where I am at and what is important in each moment.
As i’ve commented on this blog post before, I am still noticing when I read this how much I tune out and read the words without listening to the words. I can feel a huge resistance to wanting to let go of the clock watching despite the fact that it definitely does not serve me, as in truth it owns me for as long as I allow it.
What a great blog exposing how if we let it, time can control our every move. I love that you have shared how you beat the time demon and instead are ticking to your own clock.
A great blog to read again, to remind me that I don’t have to race against time but to use it to support me instead of using it to create stress and tension. Like everything else in life, we can use it in a loving and supportive way or not.
For me lately I have been seeing time as, I have this much space to do this thing in, as if I look at it like this, there just is more space to do what I need to do within it.
Our relationship with time is an interesting one. We need not let time run the show and bully us around, but at the same time we need to respect time, be aware of the time, and show up on time. There is a balance that is required to be able to live responsibly in the world without falling into being battered around due to the pressure of time.
Also I realise time is like everything else in life we have been offered, they are like tools. If we are irresponsible, be it related to time, technology, money, etc. we get affected by them because of the energy we use them in not because of the nature of the tools but our level of responsibility and the energetic quality we use them in that can affect us and everyone else. So, I see all the stress, tension and disharmony in life is pretty much self-created. Therefore, we have the ability to re imprint what we have created and to bring things back to its true purpose and harmony.
When we take charge of time, when we don’t allow or encourage time to change our breathing, how tense we are etc,, for example by preparing properly, then something changes – there is enough time to do what is necessary and in my experience life becomes more harmonious.
There were so many times in my life when it was a struggle simply to get by and looking around me at others who were living this way I took on the belief, as they obviously had too, that “this was the way life was” – so just get on with it. I can see now that my relationship with time had a huge part to play in the struggle as I always seemed to be watching the clock and regularly ‘running late’, the stress of which of course added to the struggle. Like you I have been coming to an understanding of what time really is and how it doesn’t’ change, ever, it is simply the way we relate to it, or not, that will develop the way that we live and these days with this understanding slowly growing the old way of struggle is slowly making its way out of my life.
” . . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” What a great way to perceive time newly.
To not clock watch and to work with time rather than against it takes a whole different shift in the way that we live; working not with our heads but feeling and connecting to the body and making choices from there; a whole paradigm change in consciousness.
That is true, it involves listening to a whole lot of new messages and finding out how well that works.
Recently I have been noticing just how much I am rushing in my day and what a negative impact this has on my body.
It is articles such as this, talking about the very real and practical aspects of our lives that we often do not give much attention to, that offer us the inspiration and invitation to bring more awareness to our habits and the impact of them… thank you.
What pressure we put on ourselves in this life. Somehow we all seem to be on a mouse wheel continually going nowhere fast!
Our body clock is more accurate than any clock or focus on time will ever be.
Waking up and making it about connection first is something that I have been really committing to and it makes the world of difference in how my day rolls out. You can feel the how things come to you and that this rhythm supports you to be in connection with ourselves then naturally all other relationships have this connection as well.
Isn’t it interesting how there is the possibility to not appreciate a moment with someone and instead be distracted or overly concerned with the passing of time, when that moment with that person is an eternal connection with another soul, and time is a fleeting concept that bears no weight on how monumental we truly are.
Owning time has been a life long pursuit – it has never supported me and there have been very few moments in these 46 years where I can claim I have got it. The notion that I can walk myself not bound by time has only been possible to see and experience ( if only fleetingly) through the presentations of Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon. I have much to master on this – but amazing how conditioned we are to relentlessly pursue time as if we are constantly in a race against ourselves.
When we start with a commitment to connecting with ourselves first and foremost then everything about our day changes and more space is created for us to do what is needed. I am learning this myself at the moment and it is making a huge difference. It is so easy to get trapped in racing against time but this is so harming for our bodies.
I wake every morning without an alarm clock for several years now and I wake early around 3 or 4ish. This is just normal now for me, but I do so remember how it used to be….how I used to live, constantly rushing around, staying up late, and waking up exhausted in the morning and not able to wake up even with the alarm. The Way of the Livingness presented by Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is the way I live now, my life is super simple, I work long hours and because I truly self-care and self-nurture, I have so much to bring to others, thus the quality in which I do my job is richer and more expansive with a greater understanding of how to truly serve others.
I used to be a big fan of sport, but one in particular used to leave me cold – the Motor Racing Grand Prix. Cars hurtled around in a circle, bashing into each other just to be first. There seemed to me to be very little in the way of finesse, skill or teamwork, just an absolute drive to succeed at all costs. Now I feel, thanks to your words Gabriele, that they way we are in life, is little different. Even if we are languishing back 252nd place we seem to be obsessed with the idea that we can catch up and ‘get somewhere’. If we can speed up, we are proud, and if others clap our achievements, we are pleased, yet all we ever do in reality is still hurtle around life’s turns and curves. Could it be, as you show, that this race is not the real game, but a distraction from the true purpose of the human ‘race’? and if we just stop and look around, that there may be a better way? The first step seems to be to realise that the ‘great prize’ of beating the clock is not true and that times itself does not exist. ‘Time’ then perhaps, to pull over into the pit lane.
It is fascinating to me that time is completely relative to the quality you are living in at that moment. It can either run away in the blink of an eye or it can stretch out for miles. It is a great marker for the quality one is choosing.
A clear testimony to the fact that it is quality over quantity every time!
The anxiety that enters my body when I am running with attachment to time creates mayhem – whereas if I simply stay with my body, feeling presence and connection with everything I do, an amazing harmony fills my body and all is done with perfect timing. We enter the flow of the Universe.
I love to let go of the clock watching behavior and allow jobs to get done in the time they take. What I find is that some things take a lot longer than I would have planned and others take a lot shorter than if I had allocated a specific time and there is always sufficient space when we allow it.
That feeling of space and time stretching out is so gorgeous. The feeling of time racing away just feels ‘yuck’! The fact that we are in control of which one we choose is revelatory…yes, it is a choice.
Time brings a constant feeling of going somewhere, of being ahead or running behind time, creates a constant tension in the body. The feeling of going somewhere and not being in the timing or grace your body would choose to move in, means there can be no inner stillness. Therefore we rob ourselves of one of our greatest gifts in getting caught up in time.
‘I still had a need to be ‘doing stuff’ in this extra time rather than connecting to the opportunity that became available for me to appreciate and confirm that I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before.’ It is so interesting you sharing this as it’s exactly what I do, only I hadn’t really clocked it. Appreciation is key when we want to make changes and I have not been appreciating all the pockets of space I have created and instead focused on whatever isn’t working.
I would never have put time and physical wellness and being so interlinked as often this is a factor that is least focussed on but boy oh boy it should be!
“The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.”
I can feel how much I have tended to cut people short and not really engaged as deeply as I could have- I have allowed business to dominate my interactions for too long. This blog has inspired me to change that.
Connection first. I have found it makes a big difference to the amount of space I have within the time I have for any given tasks or day for that matter.
It seems so silly to worry about time, and yet this is what I do every day, and in that worry, and anxiety and stress the actual time stays constant. So it is my perception of time and supposed race against it that leaves me feeling shortchanged in life and accepting a lesser way of living. And because of this it is also my choice to make a different decision in how I relate to time in my life. Each moment can instead be spent appreciating the quality of each task I am doing. Not easy initially but something I am committed to exploring. Thanks Anon.
I love the fact that you are now LIVING life rather then life LIVING you. I can so relate to that. I now have the space in my day to choose how it will unfold rather then always ‘racing against time’ never feeling I was in control of what next, thinking life was just happening to me.
I find that whenever I am wrestling with not having enough time I can usually trace it back to a point when I delayed or wasted time in some way so time feels a bit like an elastic band to me sometimes where if I try to distort it with my own agenda, there is a ping back or correction effect somewhere down the line which I do not always enjoy!
Anonymous, I have really been aware of this lately, ‘I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ I have noticed at work how I can get caught up in time and clock watching and going into panic and rushing, thinking there is not enough time to get things done and I have noticed how this affects my enjoyment of the task and my connection with people. If I stay steady and do not keep thinking about time and whether I will get things done on time, then the task is much more enjoyable; the connection with people is there and usually what needs to be done gets done.
I too lived so much of my life “under the impression that this was the way life was and that I just had to keep my head down and keep going.”, so much so that I put up with many health issues for way too long at huge expense to my body. To break through this damaging belief has been life changing to say the least, with my understanding of life, time and me growing deeper and deeper every day.
This mastery of the truth about time takes a little time. The most difficult part of my life to gauge time in and so be able to keep appointments and work time is when I get on the computer to write articles or write comments. I think I will just do something in this clear moment and before I know it 15 minutes has passed, not 5 minutes. More observation needed.
.”I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” – This also keeps happening to me! But I swear I will get it this TIME!
The joy of simply being with time rather than racing with it is something Serge Benhayon has taught so beautifully and is life changing and makes all the difference to the quality of our lives . It is a gift,a study and a revelation all in one bringing us back to feel who we are and the love and sacredness of this.
I have been given the blessing of a couple of weeks holiday to rejuvenate.
The race against time is something most of us can relate the exhaustion the stress, anxiousness and frustration it comes with the race is something I have become very aware of when I go into the race. On the occasion I stay present with myself the stillness and flow in my day results in me being able to focus on the purpose and completion with high energy levels remaining by the end of a long days work.
It is so supportive to keep returning to this blog, as I expand the awareness of my own relationship with time and space in everyday life – thank you, Anonymous.
‘I would often feel like I never had enough time to get everything done in the day and was clock watching at every opportunity’ It is this belief and approach to time that that keeps us trapped in an anxiety with time.
I have realised that I am often trying to beat time….”I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” a step ahead, faster, not slow, I am realising that I need to go at a more intuitive pace and be okay with being ‘still’ in my energetic quality in movement, not with any push or drive.
This article is an amazing invitation to consider our relationship with time. Are we governed by it? Or is it simply a marker in the passage of our cycles? I still oscillate between these two but my body is coming to know the latter as a normal and natural way to be.
Understanding our relationship with time is super important as we are either racing against time relying on our nervous system and creating all sorts of issues for our bodies or we are taking responsibility by living our lives more from sensing what is actually needed at any given time without any stress or tension only the surrendering of our bodies.
Often we have periods where we are so rushing against the clock and so defined by time pressure that when we have “spare time” we don’t truly spend that time developing a rhythm and being present, we use that time as relief and don’t prepare for the next time.
Watching the clock never feels good and either creates a tension because a certain time doesn’t come quickly enough so then there’s a sense of ‘wasting time waiting’, or it creates a sense of rush because I think there isn’t enough time to get something done. Staying in my own flow and keeping steady, which are synonymous to me, is what allows me to get to the end of a day and feel like it was productive and good.
Interesting how we can use tension as an opportunity to read a situation and evolve from it rather than resist and try to escape it. Learning to ‘read’ life rather than battle with it is a golden understanding in my experience.
Interestingly I can feel how creating delay so that there is more to than is possible in the time remaining is a trick to make time irrelevant so avoiding the tension in the race against it.
This article is full of a whole lot of light bulb moments that are supporting me in my current exploration away from my unquestioning servitude to time… thank you.
Nightly routines, as you’ve mentioned in your blog, can be so supportive and a really incredible way to end the day. A daily ritual can bring everything together and re-kindle order and flow that we may have lost during our busy day, sometimes even just lighting a candle or reading can totally transform the state in which we go to sleep.
So true – for me it can be these moments of order or rhythm in my day that can anchor me when I am feeling off or bring be back when I have had a stressful or full on day. Sometimes it can feel like time stands still or is no longer so important when I focus on my night time routine, because it takes me out of the clock watching and time chasing and slows me down to be at my pace.
‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life’, same here, however, now and again that old ingrained pattern likes to creep back in and I find myself in rush mode…. however, I catch it pretty quickly and then change my movements….
There is a lot of nervous tension in constantly clock-watching and of always being blown about by the activity of life as this way of living lacks presence in the moment and because of this creates more nervousness. When in fact time is not the ruler of our days but a welcomed companion that assists us in learning and in living responsibly.
I know racing against time is a sure fired way of me not being with myself and how I use nervous energy to getting the job done regardless. I also notice how much I get distracted whilst doing a task with other tasks that i remember i need to do. So now I’m being more disciplined and doing them when it is their time – otherwise it’s like what I imagine being surrounded by 100s of reporters asking questions: overwhelming as they all clamber for attention. It’s either shut down or answer one question at a time.
“CLOCK WATCHING – A Race with Time” – is equally and also a race with oneself, which is exhausting. When i’m with myself, i’m with time and in space.
Watching the clock definitively leads to living in more nervous energy to get things done, something which just ends up depleting the body rather than living energetically in a more sustainable harmonious way.
I have just started a new job that is very time pressured, and I have made a point of re-visiting this blog after week one to remind myself how important it is to simply stay with time and be fully present in the moment.
Once we start to let go of time, this opens the doors to the many different parts of our lives.
It is in allowing the day to move at the pace that it does without getting caught up in holding on to our own sense of insecurity or control. When we let time just be the marker that it is we will truly feel in sync with our own rhythm and not the one we created governed by the confines of time.
Time as a marker not governor… hmmm, loving this.
What I find interesting here Benkt is how the willingness to let go of control offers us the opportunity to experience this. I still get blown away with the simplicity of this and can still feel how I will look at ways to numb this – not wanting to recognise the pure grandness that is on offer in every moment.
“There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.” – And living or moving like this we could say is everyday medicine for us as the movements we make and way we live our days surely have a compounding affect on our body and being and all those around us too.
Learning to not race against time has been and still is a work in progress. It can foster behaviours that usually result in feeling tired, anxious, stressed and always frustrated, when you are trying to meet or get ahead of time, it just does not work.
I had an amazing day at work today. There were a zillion things to get done and attend to, and I went through the day steadily attending to one thing at a time. Even if there were three or more things I was attending to at the same time I did not let my attention waver from the thing I was actually doing, and I did not watch the clock all day. It was a surprise to come to the end of my working day, and I realised I had thoroughly enjoyed myself simply because I had been totally committed. It felt amazing.
Very inspiring, Rebecca, thanks for sharing about your super spacious and productive day at work.
Beautiful Rebecca, and I can feel that your commitment was key.
I recently had it shared with me that being just on time was not living in a way that supported connection, it didn’t allow space to meet people etc. My just on time habit is really hard to break and reflects to me the lack of space I am giving to myself to connect to myself otherwise it would be easier to make this shift.
I’m so glad you shared this Vanessa, I have observed the same and it’s something I’m working on breaking. I’ve realized that it’s a bit of a game as it’s not that I’m disorganized, but that I know that if I arrive somewhere with space and grace, I’m arriving with all of me… A bit nuts but something I’m realizing I avoid doing.
I feel overwhelmed then I get caught in the race against time…when this happens I breath myself out of it and become more steady and able to think more clearly.
To race against time is exhausting as there is no such thing. What we are really racing against is ourselves and that doesn’t support or evolve anybody. Far from it, quite the opposite in fact – it creates delay.
I love the days that are filled with purpose and not a fixed deadline insight when clocks are just markers of time that has slipped by without notice.
So true what you said in the beginning, that you could be the one on time and be punctual but there need to be a very strong strive to achieve that all of the time, a constant alertness that takes its toll. Being alert is great but not when it’s done to tick boxes just because.
This constant playing with and of time. As this article is asking what is time to you? Is it a thing we are constantly chasing or running out of or is it simply a measure for where the sun sits in relation to the earth. The relationship with time or with yourself is an ongoing and ever expanding one with more and more awareness of how we run ourselves. From what I see we are often in a rush and so as is said here we are never actually with time but pushing ahead of it, which is impossible. We can never be truly ahead or behind time but always in time it’s only our perception that changes. Where are we pushing to be?
I am rehabilitating my relationship with time, slowly but surely.
It is so cool how i used to resent having to be on time, and now I truly wish to honour it more in my life. No more do i think nothing of being in a stress or tension when enroute to work. I know that impacts so much if i am in a huge rush- i don’t want to impose that on my clients or myself so I am now much more aware of the need to be in harmony with time, which is harmony with me.
Joy is in allowing space, not time. And it is in being present with our body as it moves from moment to moment.
I can really connect with your list when you stop the clock watching, this has been my experience too. When I surrender and allow the changes, the reduced tension in my body is palpable and the way I work changes completely, with a flow about what truly needs to be done. I feel my body understands this and it becomes more harmonious as a result.
Time is the ultimate form of illusion as we are constantly thinking we are going somewhere. What this actually physically creates in our bodies is anxiousness. Always working against the clock and only getting the one chance. Remove time and things change dramatically, your body is given the grace to be and knows exactly what is needed next. I am learning to let go of the fixed idea of time and allowing myself the space to be and it feels completely different.
Our misconception about time massively contributes to allowing stress to enter our lives and multiply like a plague.
It’s great to read this again this morning. I had an experience yesterday where I had a deadline to complete a piece of work and I could feel how there was plenty of time and space to get it done. I didn’t let anything come in around needing to get it done, i simply stayed with what I could feel was needed. It was a great experience where I delivered what was needed, stayed with myself and had it done well within the deadline.
It is extraordinary to consider that time will be what it will be regardless of the level of tension in my body, and that it is in fact my choice about this tension which gives me the experience that I know time to be.
No two moments are ever the same and from one day to the next life has evolved and moved to a different level of appreciation of life, so that life lived by clock watching only keeps us second guessing to what is the next minute, day, week or year going to bring. This type of living only contributes to the deepening disconnection to our inner-most or divine aspect.
When connected to our divine aspect time becomes mastered and it is used as a measure during the day to keep us to our rhythm and schedule.
Learning to truly work with time is really seeing it as spaces where you can get things completed in, but more from a rhythm or impulse from a body that is more in tune with what is needed at any one point, and it is way more enjoyable for the body done this way.
Energetically the wrist is very connected with the divine, hence with a specific way of relating to time and space. Isn’t it interesting that we place on it a watch, which brings a totally different way to relate to time?
Recently I lost my watch,or at least I thought I had. In this period I thought I would have to buy another one as I would not be able to get by without it. The truth was quite contrary to this and I really enjoyed not having this timepiece around my wrist. Since finding the watch again I have a much more relaxed relationship with time. It’s good to have a back up but it’s also great to realise that we have an inner knowing too.
The ‘merry-go-round’ is such an apt description of the kind of life that so many of us have led. It is a mechanical round driven by a machine – we are being taken for a ride that that we in fact ‘pay’ for. Compare this to the beautiful rhythmical round of the sun and the earth, which holds us as we surrender to the possibility of living Soulfully.
It’s amazing how sometimes we think we are running to time, to a deadline or in a stretch of time, when if we give ourselves space to be still we feel we haven’t gone anywhere and it is simply our perception which is changing.
Like many of us, I tend to cram too much in by making lists so long that I need to rush to get them done. And yet when I go over the list at the end of the day I see that the things I didn’t get done didn’t really have to be done that day. The list becomes an imposition and interrupts the natural flow. When I let go of the list and allow myself to do what is being presented to me to be done, it gets done with an ease and a quality of love and so much more gets done.
‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.’ – I too have noticed that when it totally drop the time thing and live from my rhythm within that I get to enjoy my days and my body is a lot more at ease and relaxed. Trusting what we feel inside and acting on what we feel is super important.
Someone wrote here once on the ‘tyranny of time’ and that is what it can feel like – but the more we get into the pressure of deadlines, drive, nervous energy the more we have entered into the denseness and control of being ruled by time – robbing ourselves of the gift of space and the awareness that it brings. Start with the quality of presence first and we can find the space that is there in each moment.
Racing against time is a race we will never win as it is endless and perpetual, while being with time and to use it wisely will bring prosperity and wellbeing to our lives.
I know when I get in a rush or into not having enough time in my day, I have gone back to an old pattern of clock watching that used to rule me. It gives me an opportunity to see it for what it is, notice it and return to a flow and order in my day. Then the day completes at the end, whatever has happened.
One thing that really makes me feel uncomfortable is being late. I get very anxious, find it hard to relax, and the feeling stays with me long after I’ve arrived at my destination. This happens even if I’ve missed the first 10 minutes of a movie. The reality is my anxiousness does not slow time down, or make me go any faster, so I’m focusing on not leaving getting ready to the last minute, and if I do happen to be late, slowing my movements down and focusing on my breathing so I don’t get into that rushing panic state.
Your list of things that changed for you with regard to how you were working is inspiring and shows that by bringing our full attention to what we are doing and how we are doing it rather than focusing on the time we have to do it in, has the potential to change our approach and the end result to everything in our lives.
As a person ages, time appears to speed up. When in fact there is no change in one’s life, one day is the same the next and then months, years fly by. Treating every day as new fills every moment, and time becomes a reference marking past events.
I often catch myself literally competing with myself, seeing how fast I can do something and feeling the tension rise in my body as I do – the other night I rushed my dinner not even bothing to reheat it and standing as I ate, all the while thinking somehow this would give more more time to get to bed earlier – in the end I had less time, because it was not time I needed but space.
Have I got time in the day to read a blog on this web-site and write a comment? In theory, no. But yet if I am present with myself and connect to the true purpose of expressing about such subjects, then there is the space for it to be done and furthermore, it actually creates space in the rest of my day. How does taking time to do something extra actually create time for the rest? Well it doesn’t in fact, in that time can never be changed and is a permanent and very-constant measurement. But what we can change is us in time, and that is the key to it all.
Is it possible that the reason we fight time is because of the undeniable and unwavering reflection that it offers us….which for many is a reflection that they don’t want to see.
It is a futile game we play to try and race against time that leaves us feeling anxious about what needs to be done.
‘I still had a need to be ‘doing stuff’ in this extra time rather than connecting to the opportunity that became available for me to appreciate and confirm that I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before.’ This sentence stood out for me this morning, as I am seeing how often we miss an opportunity to appreciate and confirm and how often when there is a space, we fill it with doing rather than being with the space and drinking in what it has to offer us. It provides such a nourishing drink for it offers us a moment to deeply connect and receive guidance as to what our next loving step is to be, so the doing comes from that love within and not from any mindful imposition.
Whilst as children, time seemed to stretch forever it could be fair to say that as we grow we are brought up with, ‘constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment,’ that feeling of spaciousness disappears to a ubiquitous rush.
This is a very revealing observation. How often do you ever hear kids complaining about time? Mmmm…maybe there is something we can learn from them?
So true Rachel. Time did seem to stretch forever in childhood. It was a completely different relationship to time. The ‘doing the next thing’ is an enormous trap for me – accomplish, accomplish, accomplish. I have to consciously surrender many times in a day to what is presented to me as the next and not have some rigid plan to adhere to – though priorities must be kept in sight. The main thing is responsibility to the quality of vibration.
Learning to understand the true meaning of time and space is a forever unfolding journey that has a great impact on how I see life and myself in it.
It’s interesting how our fight or our struggle with time actually lives in our body and actually has physiological effects. Could our relationship with time in fact make us ill? Nothing makes me more tired than being behind time, the strain it must put on my body to make it run overtime to the point that I feel exhausted must be huge.
I had the most amazing experience yesterday that showed me that watching the clock and trying to run my life based on the clock not a flow in the day actually means I have less time. So yesterday I didn’t look at the clock and felt what next to do, I kept doing this and then after completing everything I looked at the clock and found it was just 10am and I had completed everything and had space to then arrive early at my next meeting.
To live life in the flow like this is an art…it makes so much sense and is worth making the choice for. Imagine if this was something that our parents or school taught us, how life would feel?
How much time to do we waste looking at the clock and worrying about time! So daft, when it is never going to change, stop, slow down or speed up.
Time is such a big one, it can so easily take over your day if we let it. Being able to let go of time and allow ourselves to be with what we are doing and trusting that in this rhythm we are totally in sync with what is going on and what is need at that time. Not making it about the time but how we get there.
When we choose to join in the rush life feels stressful awful, life can seem quite empty and boring, When we are with time rather than against it we are able to connect to ourselves, each other and God.
I am a self confessed clock watcher. I have come back to this blog post a few times now, and I find it fascinating how every time I almost get to the end, and realise I have read the words but not really read the words. It’s as if I don’t want to hear about the remedy to the clock watching to keep me in my stubborn obsession with time. It’s so awesome to clock this happening over and over again. I will give this blog another go another day and see if on that day I’m ready to receive the message. Until then, I’ll laugh at myself.
Having been away recently and living in a different rhythm, I found that my relationship with time changed and my body was not forced to cope with any anxiousness or stress about meeting deadlines etc. This has inspired me to look at the choices I make in daily life to honour my body and feel what is needed, rather than get caught up in the confines of time and giving my power away to it.
Watching the clock is really dodging responsibility and not bringing quality to what you do, and it’s also not holding others and what we do as important.
If we were to see the impact of fleeting exchanges I’m sure we would very quickly re-choose how we are with each other. We have a ‘sense’ that allows us to feel the impact, but the trick is when we are ‘thinking’ time is running the show our ability to feel the impact of our actions is greatly reduced.
Reading your blog Anonymous has made me realise just how wound up like an old fashion clock we can allow ourselves to be. Highly strung wound up robots obedient to the master clock! Giving our power away to sometime that has been totally misinterpreted.
The release of tension I feel when I stop letting myself be pulled about by the movement of the hands on a clock is incredible. I am coming to understand that this alone actually makes more time (or ‘space’, if we want to have a fresh understanding) simply because I am not wasting time and energy in the tension.
Ignoring the clock does not work either – we have a relationship with time through the impulses we feel and the cycles we are inextricably a part of so when we race or try to slow time we feel the tension with or without the clock.
I’ve noticed as observation there is also a weekly attachment to time, for instance already deciding how the week ahead will be and living in a way which decresendo’s towards the weekend or an end point.
This blog makes me consider multi tasking, the belief that we can work on and do several things at one time – thinking that we are getting one over on time in some way. Yet all the while we are trying to handle the cooking, the phonecall and keeping an eye out on the little child in the room, we are in fact not only exhausting ourselves (which makes us less vital and efficient in what we do) we are also ‘doing’ for the sake of ‘doing’, ie there is no quality or true fulfillment for us – or anyone else, in that space of time.
We use the clock to confirm a reduced form of life rather than what is possible from space.
I really appreciate the last line you share here “I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” I had no idea there was a difference till I too took a moment to consider if I was being dominated by time. Sure enough I became aware of the constant rush. It takes dedication and consistency to choose to see yourself as worth that extra space in the day yet, looking back now it is the difference between living life and existing.
Time and our use of it, is a huge thing for most of us. We are constantly racing against it to do as. Uch as we can so that we can feel we have achieved something or we can get recognition. It’s so great to have more of an understanding around time and how it is really just a marker or point in space that we put a number to.
People often say I don’t have enough time – but we all have the same amount of time, it is a question of how we relate to it and use it.
So true Nicola. Two people can have the same amount of work to do in the same amount of time, and the eventual result of what is achieved in the given time can be very different for the exact reasons that you give here, along with the quality of how we are with ourselves and what we are doing.
To watch the clock is to miss out on life.
Your time to evolve slips away every moment you are marking time while watching the clock!
Time and watching the clock is one way I sabotage myself, to make the pace of the outer world my pace instead of trusting and following the rhythm of my body. How narrow and rigid my body becomes when time starts to be the ruling factor is awful to feel, having the marker of flow and space in my body I know the way back is connecting with this innate rhythm in my body.
There is a rediculousness when I stop and consider that we try to pitch ourselves against something that is a manmade measurement, when in fact we wake up each morning as a part of the entire, boundless universe.
The simple practical changes made can have such a profound effect that they should not be underestimated.
Part of clock watching can be being a perpetual motion machine – not honouring the need for the body to stop, keeping going to keep up with the clock rather than our own measure.
My relationship with time, and the resulting anxiousness, is quite a challenge for me. Slowly and steadily I am learning to let go, let time be and let myself flow. What great lessons you have presented here Anonymous, thank you.
Reading this again I really appreciate the wisdom you share. To read time and not to complete with it, makes so much sense. I realise I use stress/time to disconnect from myself and others, and use time as an excuse to create issues and stress. It is our relationship with ourselves and our choices that ultimately affects how we behave and react.
Lately I have found that when I think I don’t have enough time, I do what feels to be done in that moment, and everything else falls into place – either they get done later, or aren’t actually needed to be done for now – it was a distraction or avoidance of what was actually needed to be done!
Our natural and innate rhythm has a harmony and a flow all of its own that naturally supports everyone.
Reading time – I’ve never understood it as I’ve understood it reading your blog today Anonymous. I now see that reading time has nothing to do with clocks, watches, sundials or any other device that tells us the ‘time’. Reading time is feeling what is true in each moment and from this we can read what we need to do next.
Something I have observed is how much time I waste thinking about do I have enough time. It’s crazy but has led me to procrastinate most of my life. When I see something that needs doing and simply do it, it gets done without all the stress amd effort it takes if I leave it till later! I also find then when everything is in its place the quality I come back to supports me further.
Great observation James. I too have done this many, many times. It is a classic delaying tactic. It allows things to build up which then tends to lead to overwhelm and disconnection.
It is fascinating to feel how my body physically changes as I change my relationship with time. I can feel the relaxation of tension I was completely unaware existed. But the body gives me a very different reflection, so our relationship with time is something that is very relevant to unpack in our daily lives.
“CLOCK WATCHING – A Race with Time” – every time i clock-watch, i know my rhythm’s out
Dealing with time is quite deep – I have known for a long time that I stress myself by arriving exactly on time with the attending uncertainty near the end of the journey but I still engage in that pattern too often.
Every time I make time more important than me and how I feel the whole day goes strange and I feel unsettled. As you said too, there is no time for connection with others just the schedule and this never leaves me feeling right. A great lesson to learn.
Yes, Lieke, and if I acknowledge and appreciate what that sense of feeling unsettled and strange is telling me, there is the opportunity to review and change.
When I let go of worrying about time, my body feels so much more at ease and relaxed and my movements are more natural and there is a feeling of more space in my body and in my day.
I am appreciating that how we live our life whether it be the food we eat or the anxiousness we are carrying ,that all of this is reflected in our body shape and how we walk. Our bodies are a marker of truth and thus our bodies will express this in a multitude of different ways.
I agree Anne, the more I treat my body with the love and respect it deserves and the more I listen to it the more obvious the communications it is giving me becomes. The question here is how willing am I to have a body that only lets love through and says no to anything and everything lesser than this quality of vibration.
I used to be a clock watcher too- trying to do as much as I could fit into the day, before going to bed.
I believed this was what good time management & efficiency meant, and I felt identified with this.
However, I was left feeling drained and exhausted at the end of each day.
I had been in this momentum for a long time, since 1981- through my nursing and midwifery training, on the wards, at home before and after having children. What has stopped me in my tracks has been chronic exhaustion. Thankfully, it is changing after attending many talks, workshops, with Serge Benhayon and Natalie Benhayon, and receiving esoteric healing sessions and chakrapuncture.
It is interesting how there are times when I don’t look at the clock and yet have a series of things that need to be done, and in the movement of doing them i have experienced no rush or push, then when the jobs are completed, i have actually been surprised that it has not taken so much ‘time’. There must be something about not pushing, or rushing that alters the flow and movement – not working against ‘time’ but with time… the saying …’..less haste, More speed..” certainly rings true.
Reading time rather than worrying about time is a great support and i too have found by changing the quality and way i move with my own natural rhythm rather than constant clock watching allows a flow and way of being and time seems to expand and allows a harmony and magic to occur.
Yes, there are two rhythms – the time based, pressured one we are all familiar with and another, truer rhythm that is very harmonious and we often have a choice between the two
I can remember how clock watching really kicked up a notch when sitting exams and test where you had to allocate a certain portion of time for each question to make sure you answered everything. Unfortunately, when applied to living life it can become a compulsion where the nervous system becomes way overstimulated in order to meet a deadline.
My relationship with time is still defined by a contract I know is restrictive and untrue – in that, I am still bound by time and its clock-ticking. But saying that, I have noticed more and more lately, that in my day I feel like time stretches when I simply let myself be fully and wholly with me, enjoying my presence and what I’m in the midst of doing. More and more I notice that in these moments of presence time expands and I’m beginning to feel the fullness and magic of being in space.
I can really relate to how racing against time constantly creates nervous tension where even sleeping doesn’t stop the clock. Whenever I’ve got really caught up in this race I’ve felt how relentless and overwhelming life seems, a claustrophobic mess. But coming back to my connection with me breaks my hold with time. I can let go and surrender back to me and the spaciousness that I am where I can walk alongside time’s path but not put it as something I am beholden to.
My relationship with watching the clock in the past has been one of anxiety and added pressure, especially when I do not want to be late for something. So these days I give myself more than enough time to get from one appointment to the other – it is just not worth getting tied up in knots and feeling stressed by making myself late.
I can relate to what you have said here Anonymous about keeping the momentum of work and fleetingly let in the human race: ‘The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ I have, this year, been surrendering to all my human interactions and seeing them as equally important to the line-up projects happening. It is glorious to let go and deal with what is coming up joyfully.
So much of society is based around time and it is as though it has some control over us. We need time as we live in a world where kids need to get to school, appointments are made and so on but perhaps we have misused it. Perhaps it is there to support us as a measurement yet we let it rule the day.
With all I have on, it is easy to get swept up with the “Oh my god!” factor of tasks galore. However, when all these tasks have purpose and are a commitment that I have made, there is space for all and equally so.
Our relationship with time is always askew whilst we perceive it as linear in nature as opposed to being a measurement of cycles.
I love the simplicity and clarity of this, Michael. Time as a line ahead like a race track or as a marker and support in our cycles.
It is interesting what you point out about the alarm clock being your safety net – I used to live by the same so called safety net myself. I was more concerned about whether or not I had set the alarm than checking in with myself on what quality I had been living my day with, and hence what quality I was taking with me to sleep.
Time is a bit like a ruler that runs alongside life. It is a measuring device rather than anything that truly defines life. When I look within myself, I sometimes feel the apparent battle between being with time and being ruled by it. It seems there is a way of being that uses time wisely and another that chases fixes and solutions in time. This latter way appears to be heading somewhere but in truth is more like a hamster wheel of endless pursuit.
When I woke up this morning I habitually went to check the time on my phone, I knocked it and it fell onto the floor… I let it stay there and rested some more 🙂 a moment of relinquishing my fixation with time and a really cool start to my day.
It always amazes me when I stop and consider time, just how much I am run by it and how anxious I can get over time. Even if its in the background. What I also love is the times when I am not run by time, when space opens up and everything that needs to be completed is. It’s a staggering difference and not only far more productive but I actually feel far more energised.
There is a definite dishonouring when we don’t honour time. It sounds easy to say and write but living it is another story. The head tends to take over and before long the race begins once again. What I love about this blog and have now put into action with my own living is to observe when I go into reaction to get things done. Stop and let things unfold and surely enough everything moves at a pace that is more loving to me and leaves space for quality in all actions from this point in time.
Finding how to slow down and spend more time doing things in a loving rhythm is proving a miracle for me, as the day slows down so to be aligned to where I am or I simply have more space to do things.
The science of human movement and health is one we are only just starting to discover and explore but one that will reveal much about life and why it is how it currently is.
I have also discovered that my body has its own ‘clock’ and natural rhythm of movement that feels very much at ease when I am in harmony with it. The trick is the world is often running at a different speed or rhythm which can be very tempting to join in with. Listening to how our body is really feeling is key here for knowing when we are with our natural rhythm or not.
I have not experienced anything more beautiful that being in open, respectful communication with my body – there is a sureness and relationship with life that is so much grander than just me.
Yes me too Matilda, I can schedule my day to the minute but there is always something that happens that can make that not work. Yet when I feel my body and what to do next the timing is perfect – enough space for everything.
And this is something that we seem to forget – our body has its own clock.
Yes when I reflect on it, I too have compromised the quality of my movements in order to get things done for most of my life, but I now can see how dishonouring it is of me, my body and all that surrounds me to live in a way that is lesser than the stupendous love that we are all held in.
“I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” What I have noticed is that when I am with time that it expands and there is plenty of time for everything. This is because when I am with time I am with myself.
I often find myself racing with time at the end of my day. What I have realised is that if and when I bring all of my focus to everything that I do through out my day, there is no room for raciness as everything gets completed as and when it needs to be done.
When you think about it on a grand scale it makes no sense at all to race against time. If we take a ginormous step back and look at the world from outer space, where exactly do we think we are racing to? There literally is nowhere to go! Our little day to day dead lines that make us stressed are tiny in comparison to the bigger picture, and we make them so huge and give them so much power. Time to slow down and take the time and space we need in order to live life in rhythm with the universe.
An insightful observation Rebecca Turner. What are we racing from and when will our stop moment come to remind us that the choices we are making are not so loving in the long run?
I remember a lot of times on my way to work whilst running through my head what I head to do that day not remembering the drive to work at all. I got in the car and then I was at work. I had moved from a place I had lived for 18 years and on the way home if I was in my head, body memory took me to my old house. You can’t beat something you can’t control, time. But, you can create moments within time that can last forever
Lately I have found that if I focus less on time, but instead focus more on making sure an activity feels complete then even if it takes longer than I expected there is something in it that feeds me back energy and space and in some ways time so that I get to experience what I call ‘time warps’ – you know those magic moments when you think something is not possible but then it happens anyways – such as running late to a meeting but deciding not to rush, and then finding out the meeting has been cancelled, or that everyone is locked out of the venue and waiting outside. I love it when I am confirmed in my feeling about things like this.
Very cool Henrietta. I have felt these spacious moments when I make it about each movement or moment at hand no matter how small it may be. But in that fullness of being completely with me and in that moment then the grandness of who we are and what we are part of is actually there with us in that space we feel.
So magical Henrietta for sure- i love exactly what you describe, and yes its entirely plausible to me
I have been feeling like I am running life in a clock that I am not that keen on, like I have a picture of time that is narrow and does not offer as much space and freedom as it could and it is laced with duty….there is much to ponder about how we observe our lives and what runs them, alongside the choices we make.
I realised as I re-read this blog that I clock watch in a different way – for me it happens at bed time, suddenly the time becomes all important – counting down and never feeling there is enough time, constantly measuring how much sleep I can get if I got to bed now, or in an hour. It puts a pressure on the wind down to bed and the sleep itself, already ahead of myself thinking about tomorrow.
There are two days a week where I have to pick my daughter up from school at 3.30pm and living in London and mostly working just outside of London, because of traffic I never really know how long it will take me to get to her school as traffic can be horrendous and can get gridlocked. On these day I can feel myself slipping into a stressed out state, rushing looking at the time every few seconds but this only happens if I haven’t allowed enough time and have time up my sleeve. I can see that it is only a choice to not let time rule us instead of just flowing with it and avoid the stress that is never good for the body.
I can feel and observe the tension in my body when I let time be the ruler, and noticing this is a great way to get me back into going with the flow of my day. Then it feels like time opens a space up and it allows whatever is needed to happen, happens in the space of the day.
I love the saying ‘time flies when you’re having fun’ but as you’ve shared when we truly commit to and enjoy something it’s getting into the flow of space that feels very natural and can go so fast, and we’re moving at a frequency even greater than time.
Yesterday I got to the airport with three minutes to spare and the last 20 minutes of the drive were not enjoyable. I remember the four hours prior to getting to the airport and everything that happened and I had ample time to get there. It was a very valuable experience.
A very simple approach that gets amazing results, thank you Alison and I also find that when I am connected, which gives more space at the end of the day I simply can complete more tasks even if it is over the scheduled finishing time without being stressed.
I so relate to being controlled by time and never having a true understanding of what my body clock, which is a silly name for what is actually a part of our clairsentience, that is only sharing how simple life is when we connect with and stay with the rhythm of our body.
I am finding that stepping up a routine of exercise and staying present in my movements, to the best of my ability, enormously supports the onslaught of pressure and the racing with time.
Focusing on and being with the job at hand rather than the ‘to do’ list, is far less stressful. I find that when I don’t make my focus the definitive ’list of things to be done’ within a certain timescale that, the jobs tend to drop into a more natural order and things get done that aren’t even on the list, simply because I’m not prescribing the details of my day.
Yes and when there is no more work at hand then it can be a signal to do something else.
When you share that you would often feel like you never had enough time to get everything done in the day and were clock watching at every opportunity, I could recognize this too, but what also occurred to me was how we make time into a ‘thing’, a commodity, something that has a measure and therefore boundaries. So to not make ‘time’ the focus is very freeing.
As I re-develop trust within my body and in life, I am finding it easier to trust in surrendering to the spaciousness which is available and everything flows in harmony, rather than the anxiousness when getting stuck in the old rut of rushing about to keep up with time and get ‘the list done’.
What was offered was paramount in supporting me to return to my natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time! Yes anonymous, when we uncover the truth around time and how held we have been within its false truth, everything changes for us.
When we are doing things that have a purpose, time expands and allows us to accomplish much more. Without purposes, like that last half hour or even five minutes at the end of the working day… time seems to crawl forever!
It is our connection and settlement in our body that determines the quality in which we live. Time is completely seperate from this.
It is our own tension and control that keeps us stressed. It is about letting time be what it is a marker, not making it a way to measure our productivity and the guardian of our day.
Who could have imagined that it could be such a challenge simply to stay with the moment, fully present all of the time? I have recently been asked this question – just why do I not want to be fully in the moment and bringing all of me to it.
I find it fascinating that we live on a giant sphere and as such are contained within a series of cycles that are literally ‘clocked’ by time, yet we compress, twist and distort our sense of this measure and use it to track lineal movements only. It is as if by making time linear, when in-truth it is a measure of spherical movement, we are trying to ‘leave something behind’. This gives us a clue as to how we have come to all live in the mess that we do because no one is truly taking responsibility for that which has been walked, if what has been walked is not true to the love that we are. We simply have adopted the arrogance that says we can leave it all behind, wipe the slate clean and start afresh when in-truth to really begin again we need to honour the cycles we live within and make sure our movements are in accordance to the universal rhythms we are bound by but at this stage are still largely ignoring.
It is interesting that we have made time somewhat our enemy while all the while it is simply saying what moment of day it is, never going faster or slower but always ticking away at the same speed.
Our history books are full of great scientific breakthroughs that changed the way that we live our lives. It’s my feeling that in times to come we look back at what Serge Benhayon has presented on time and space as a huge change for the human race. To know time does not exist in the way we think it does, changes absolutely everything as you show Anonymous. I’m glad I had space to read this blog.
It is crazy how we can allow ourselves to be controlled by time, maneuvering ourselves from one moment to the next in line with numbers on a clock, in absolute denial of any true rhythm or flow… It is not only the connection to ourselves that suffers in the tension this creates but the quality of the interactions and relationships we have when met with this tension that in truth can be avoided should we just surrender more in life.
Clock watching may be one reason travelling can be so exhausting. A lot of focus can be put on the ‘scheduled departure’ time of a flight, train/boat etc. and we all know we don’t want to miss it. (The more irregular the journey and the longer the distance the more pressure I have put myself under to get it right). So there is an intensity around this that I can feel takes me out of being fully with me leading up to this moment. The same does for the arrival time, again anticipating a scheduled future time so diluting fully appreciating each and every moment in between.
Watching and racing the clock has turned out to be a futile exercise for me. Getting over tired is one of the key indicators I’ve let go of my connection to what is true for me and supportive for my body – for the sake of keeping up to some image of how I think it should be.
“. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” – this is a powerful thing to experience, and happened to me again the other day. It felt amazing to actually just read the time and yet still just continue on with what I was doing and focus on that. When this happens, it is like time stands still to allow you to do exactly what is needed and even though the seconds tick on, it seems to be in slow motion. I cannot say I experience this all of the time, but in those moment when it happens, I feel like it has been a ‘magic moment’ when in truth it is simply a moment when I have been more in tune with multidimensionality than I realise.
Your expression “being with time” is intriguing and revealing; it makes me realise how often I check the time, don’t really fully register it but in a split second, use it as background and a basis for a judgment and assumption, mainly that there isn’t enough time and frequently, that I better speed up or get on with it. And that feels like a reaction to time rather than being with time.
This is great Gabrielle, thanks for what you have shared. When I read “use it as background” The immediate connection that came to me was thinking of time is like ‘background noise” a continuous hum going through my mind and affecting my body, creating unnecessary tension, and actually taking the focus away from being fully with the task at hand.
Absolutely brilliant what you’ve shared Adam!
It is very interesting to notice how many people have a similar relationship with time. Often feeling we never have enough time and feeling like the race is always on to beat time. Your blog offers us another perspective on this and supports us to understand what time really is, we can use it in a way that creates stress or as a support.
Anxiousness about time takes you out of connection with your body and into your head. When we drop any anxiousness we have about time and stay with ourselves, every day feels complete in itself – and so do we.
Our relationship with time is closely related to our relationship with Delay. Delay = knowingly avoiding making choices and acting on impulses that are there to be made.
I know when I go into worrying about time and how much there is to do or fit in a certain time then my nervous energy goes up a lot and I get stressed and unsettled and less present because I’m worrying about something rather than being connected. When I’m connected it’s not that I ignore time – I’m still aware that there are deadlines or timings that need to be met but it’s like I don’t entertain thoughts of worry I just work with the timing that’s needed and stay connected, and if I find myself going into worry then bring myself back and recognise that the worry is a distraction and not helpful.
When I first stated working full time in retail I used to glance at my watch every few seconds. I was finding it such a challenging environment that I just wanted to escape. Of course, glancing at my watch didn’t make the time go any faster, it just made the situation worse for myself. As I learned to love my job I looked at my watch less and less. Actually living and loving the moment made me forget about the time. My watch is now simply a way to keep myself in check throughout the day depending on were I need to be. I no longer use time as a way to escape.
It has just become so normal to wake up without an alarm clock, but actually it is something to greatly appreciate if I consider all the self care choices I have made to truly nourish and take care of my body, that now my natural body clock wakes me up.
It makes no sense to rush around in tension when we could be humming along in our natural rhythm, really in touch with our hearts and bodies. What makes us go there in the first place? There is a certain tension that is there is life because of the state the world is in – people are not living in their natural rhythm and so we feel that tension and quite often make an unconscious decision to join that dominating vibration. Yet we only have to for a moment re-establish our own connection to ourselves and we can free ourselves from rushing and offer another way for others to come back to.
Getting stressed about the so called lack of time in the day, has been such a trick for me. So now I am seeing my relationship with time has been quite warped and unrealistic, and placing a great deal of unnecessary stress on my body. Now when I feel that tension and stress start to build, I remind myself, to give myself some space and work with my body, not against it in an unnatural way.
I am noticing how from my mind I can want to try and cram in something extra in a day, in a morning etc., but if I listen to my body I know that it is going to throw me out of my rhythm. The question then becomes do I go with the thought or surrender to my body?
I can feel a ‘duh’ moment when I saw how it was written.. to ‘read the time rather than worrying about staying on time’. I know there is a flow and harmony to life when we allow it, and having a race with time we are always going to lose. There can be a settlement felt in the body and this is a a great marker to listen to knowing we are on track working with time.
I find the moment I start to watch the clock my body tenses up and gets anxiousness – it is as if somehow if I do not something by a certain time then the world will fall apart. The trick here is that all that I end up doing is worrying about it and so it either does not get done or gets done in a rush.
Time, the number one thing that most people wish they had more of, and yet as you’ve so brilliantly shown here that it is our relationship with time that is the issue, and not time itself.
Thanks, Anonymous, I can really relate to your comment about how your relationship with time “…left me feeling a constant nervous tension in my body of where to be next”. There is no space or any settlement in the body when we live this way, and unfortunately this perpetual state of anxiousness is very common these days, and is a big contributor to the increasing levels of dis-ease.
“There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.” This is the key. When we stop rushing it is so easy to go into doing everything slowly and feel a dragging in our movements, and the body can feel quite heavy. I love that Connective Tissue Therapy has helped you to work with vitality and steadiness which is neither rushing nor dragging. I can feel that there is much joy in this.
When we let go of time and simply focus on what needs to be done, the space that is offered allows a quality that does not exist when we are ‘racing against the clock’. A deep rest of just 20 – 30 mins can leave you more rejuvinated and vital than a whole nights sleep when it is taken with the true intention and feeling that this is what the body requires at that time.
So well written Anonymous and I can relate to this too as this used to be me in the past as well: “I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” No longer tough, as I have learnt and adjusted and now work in a way where time is not an issue any longer, and when I work or do what I do with in my fullness, there is always enough time and space and I feel not rushed or stressed, but at ease.
I always had this feeling that time was something that I had to manage and that I was either at the mercy of it or I was organized enough so as not to get too stressed, but I have come to view time as something that has no place in stress or management. When there is a solid connection to my movements I do not run out of time and get panicked, in fact quite the opposite, as things get done more efficiently and it seems in that movement anything is possible.
This is interesting as I am currently at 31000 feet and 10 hours till I arrive. I have no control over time and are encased for the next few hours in this time bubble. I could waste this opportunity and check out on the small little screen or fill it with something that has a purpose. Self-entertainment is always more productive!
This blog highlights an important point, if we are ahead of time waiting for the next thing or behind time trying to catch up, it makes sense that we would be in constant tension in our bodies and to life. Our bodies are made to be in the flow of life and we create tension, anxiety or drain our energy when we are not in the moment and fully present.
We use time to set ourselves up with a picture of how we need to live – over and over again! Until we realise we’re going around and around and not forward as we like to think we are.
Great blog about time and how so many of us have gotten caught up with it. I know for me the moment I try to think ahead of time and rush I always make mistakes and I end up feeling quite tense and anxious. Whereas when I just do what needs to be done it is amazing how much I end up doing. And the bonus is at the end I feel relaxed and at ease with myself rather than stressed out!! Plus the quality and way of what I am doing is vastly different.
Yes isn’t it awesome when we can break that cycle and readjust and start from our fullness within, the quality of all we do and engage in is so much better than anything done under stress…
Time is a big one for me, my relationship with it is similar to you but I am fare from punctual, I always manger to be at least 10mins late to everything! Not for lack of trying to be on time, the clock has been my nemesis and trying to keep up has been my biggest belief. Hearing Serge speak on time has been the most inspiring thing for me. Have I nailed it? No, not exactly but I have some days and it feels amazing and from those marks I know what is possible.
I love your honesty Sarah – I know when I am trying to push things when I calculate exactly how much time I need to get somewhere and then am anxious all the way, or speed, or get frustrated by a slow driver etc.. when all along I could have left a little earlier – it is as if somehow I have held onto the fact that if I get somewhere early then I will lose that time. The other day I gave myself plenty of space and time and ended up having a good 30mins to do things in my car before a meeting and it felt so much better than arriving just in the nick of time, being anxious and the bonus was the work I got done in those 30mins was awesome!
Great point James, I do feel like I am loosing time if I come early to somewhere, I think it comes from the belief or overwhelm of how much I have to do at home, that I don’t want to waste a second. Ironic really, when we consider quality of energy, for a day spent without anxiousness surely worth 2 with? Very inspiring response.
Thank you Sarah – I know it is crazy when we think about it! I have often found myself racing to get somewhere, driving fast etc.. and then needing time to let the anxiousness I let built up go! Whereas the more I just do things when they need to be done the less time I actually waste and the more things seem to flow in life – it is like everything is working with me in my favour rather than an uphill battle and struggle when I am trying to make life look and work a certain way.
Re-reading this blog, Anonymous, highlights to me how much I have allowed the seeming pressure of time to dominate my daily life, from the moment I wake up, always cramming life in and then feeling spent at the end of the day. Your learning experience truly shows that there is another way, and that this way can be so simple and an option for everyone.
I find that it is not time itself so much that is the problem but my perceived lack of it. This usually stems from me not being consciously present and surrendered in my body and therefore less aware and astute as to what is the next thing to be done and what can be done realistically in a given time frame. When I am consciously present and connected to my body, then life just flows and there seems to be plenty of time and time appears to allow things to be done. So how I am with myself and my body completely changes my perception of time.
Funny to consider that in order to have a race you need at least two participants but when I think about it a bit deeper, time is never racing me – it just continues at the same pace with a steady rhythm. So who am I racing with really when I am racing with time? More myself really than time itself.
I love that Andrew “…time is never racing me…… ” – that is such a wake up call I feel, after all it appears that there has to be at least one other contestant to be in a race – so who is fooling who. We don’t have to race against time at all for as I repeat your words “….time is never racing me….”.
I am coming back to this blog every day as I find it deeply supportive in exposing my relationship (issues) with time which I am addressing step by step.
It is so good to have that sharing too Jacqueline, as it is very supportive for all of us to truly check in as well, and it shows how awesomely important these blogs are as they offer so many insights and possibilities for evolution.
Anonymous, this article is very interesting, the more I read it the more I understand and can relate to what you are sharing. I can feel the difference in being with time and racing against time, ‘I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.’ I have been noticing that if I check the time and go into a panic that I won’t have enough time then there is a huge tension in my body, if I trust that there will be enough time and do not go into rushing, but simply and practically go with time this feels very different, it’s been great to observe this.
Love this blog! There are clearly two ways of handing life/time. One way which responds by going forwards, out of oneself and into nervous energy to get everything done and find solutions, and the other way to surrender within through the lymphatic system into the depth of our multidimensional being where there is plenty of space. I who have been so racy am finding this surrender a most magical thing!
The amount of moments that are available, all the time are limitless when we surrender fighting time!
Re-connect to the fact that how we are during the day, and how we put ourselves to bed, effects how we sleep, has been a game changer. Typing this it feels a bit embarrassing as it is so obvious but I realised how little attention I have actually given it. It is a vital part of our quality of sleep is how the quality in which we live our days.
A perfect reminder for me today Sarah, thank-you. Sometimes I too give this less attention, but I can feel how important the function of sleep is to rejuvenate and recharge our bodies providing us the fuel we need for the next day and that how we put ourselves to bed will be in how we lived that day.
It does seem obvious once we are aware but for so long, I was oblivious to this, not realising that how I slept was a result of how I’d been in my day. A true light bulb moment when I heard this for the first time at a Universal Medicine retreat.
So true Abby. So true.
I wasn’t even aware of the extent of how much tension and anxiousness that I held within my body by racing against time until through the teachings of Universal Medicine, I started to become more aware of my movements and began to listen to my body. Then I could feel how my neck and across the back of my shoulders tensed up and that at the beginning it was nearly a constant readjustment to let go of the stress I was placing on myself, but by staying committed to just being with what I am doing and not thinking about what is the next thing to do I now actually have more space in my day. I also appreciate the great insight the book “Time Space and All of Us” written by Serge Benhayon has given me and through this how my relationship with time has changed.
I was caught up in the constant doing most of my life, as doing was connected to my sense of worth. If I planned to go shopping i would think of all the other things I could do while I was out there which ended up in me coming home exhausted, now I pace myself by giving myself time to get ready for the day and not to be in a rush. I now take stop moments and I really am starting to enjoy, no where to go, nothing to do, just be me with me in that moment.
You touch on a couple of important points in this blog. The first is “time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension” This realisation is gold, because it gives us back the responsibility of what we are choosing and to know we can choose differently – as you have. The second is that our body thanks us!! It is not designed to be anxious, racy or pushed on ‘drive’ mode, it gives us clear signs and slowly breaks down and then we blame it!
Since reading this blog so much is being exposed around my time issues and just how much I confine myself and am ruled by the clock. I have recently observed how easily I get disturbed when for example I leave later than planned, all these thoughts come barging in, why didn’t I leave earlier, now I will be late, the roads will be busier……and so on. When in fact the time I left was perfect and the day unfolded as was the plan. A little more trust me thinks…..
My feeling about the race with time is because I have made everything else more important than me, my work, what other people think, not trusting myself to know what actually feels true. Yet, in those moments when I have made myself the priority it becomes easy to be with time and not race against it.
When I have had a Connective Tissue Therapy session, I notice that the goal posts or boundaries imposed upon us by time seem to disappear, where the body settles into a deeper state of stillness and then spaciousness. I never fail to feel amazed how the one hour session always feels much much longer… that is stillness and spaciousness is vastly beyond time.
Quite simply we can use time in a healing way or a harming way. I can often go through my day feeling owned by time which is so silly considering the space that we are surrounded by.Time is what we make it, we always have that choice.
I was very good with time – even with a four hour journey through unfamiliar territory I left at a time that meant I arrived exactly at the last moment, having a very stressful time during the latter half of the journey. It gave me lots of energy and left me exhausted. Thankfully I have found better ways but the old ones still sometimes beckon.
Time can be our ally in developing ourselves as a being in a human body, if we choose to use it that way.
I read a comment on this thread earlier and it is so true – looking at the time allows us to precisely feel exactly where we are at, and how we are.
When we try to compete with time, we often lose, forget or just skip small important items in an attempt to cheat time… ‘For the want of a nail, the shoe was lost’ comes to mind!
Racing with time voids us of building true intimacy in our relationships as it is only when we are living in connection to our bodies and being with time that we can offer another a reflection of who we truly are.
So true and beautifully expressed and shared Francisco and a perfect reminder for me to take into my day: racing with time voids us of building true intimacy in our relationships…
Ha, love it Ariana.
Clock watching allows for tension and rush in our bodies and there is never enough time but when taking things gently connected and present in our bodies we come into our natural rhythm with ourselves and the Universe and there is space for everything beautifully and appreciation can occur.
Yes, it is quite a surprising experience when everything fits and comes together even when there is an enormous amount to do.
I have always liked the comment to why something was not done, because there was not enough time… with where are you going to find the time later to go back and finish it?
Yes, quite true and the statements “there’s not enough time”… or … ‘I’m running out of time…” to do this or that highlight the momentum we are living in
Clock watching and a race with time and is an oxymoron! One only needs to observe the queue at quitting time; everyone is standing still in line waiting for the clock to hit that point in time to move.
When you clock watch it definitely gives you a sense of not enough time and you feel the pressure of not having enough time. This is one the I am still mastering particularly at work when there is many jobs that need doing and not getting into a rush mode to get it all done. When that happens it makes me feel so out of sync and there is no harmony what so ever. Each day I am working on deepening a stillness within me and to bring this in every job that is needed, the quality of how I am when working and then time doesn’t even become a factor things are just naturally completed and my body loves this way of working.
I so agree!, I find that when I am clock watching my body is living the anxiety of the future as well as trying to be present so I am not very efficient in the present and I make the anxiety of the future come true!!! Since choosing to work on not jumping ahead of where I am right now, I have found that time expands and becomes more like space. I had this confirmed at the Time Space and All of Us talk and felt such a confirmation of what my body had been telling me!
I know that when i clock watch, my body feels awful and tense; and when i’m without a time-piece, or wearing one and at ease with myself, i feel how everything has its timing, and how perfect that timing is.
This is a good insight. I have not worn a watch for at least 20 + years now, but check on my phone occasionally just to stay on top when I have to be somewhere etc. It works well for me, as I am now finding that I am pretty much on top of it feeling time rather than making things about time, and that time does really and truly take care of itself.
My way of being in the past was to cram as much in before I went anywhere, with a ‘I’ll just do this before I…’ and I was inevitably late because I tried to fit too much in. Creating space to prepare and planning to be early makes such a difference.
Carmel, same here, I know this habit really well. Cramming things in to do before I left so I would not have to do them when I came back, thinking I was ‘saving time’ always left me late and also I set myself up to be anxious and rushing to get to where-ever I was going…. Now when I arrive early it does feel so different mainly because I have not been in rush mode or in anxiousness to get there!
Racing against time is such a trap and we keep falling for it, time and time again. And as you describe, it leads to tightness in the body and our thinking and thus, ultimately to exhaustion.
I keep returning to this blog as it uncovers a relationship with life that is asking for my attention I feel I’m being asked to let go of how I order my day as I’m getting exhausted by it. So I currently look at my week and factor in slots of time to do x tasks. It’s the nature of work and life that things arise that then take priority. This causes me stress because I worry about when the other things I had made space for will fit.
On the surface it seems inevitable that I’ll get stressed as what needs to get done increases and a feeling of overwhelm creeps in. I use getting the tasks completed to feel at ease -only then can I relax but from relax from what? (Each Friday the tension eases if the jobs are done. I suspect many people live like this. People count down the week until Friday and dread Mondays.) It’s like I’ve got a bag of time and like trying to get a sleeping bag back into its tiny bag I’m trying to stuff too many things in. But there must be another way!
And this leads me to acceptance of myself. I am enough – and to really feel the truth of this because then I can trust my inner knowing of what to prioritize because I can feel what’s needed next; that what I do doesn’t have anything to do with perfection or recognition but the quality I can bring through. Conversely I know very well that stress causes me to get ill in the short and long term. I can choose overwhelm or I can choose to breathe and be with myself in space – this doesn’t mean dawdle by any means. Much to practice choosing.
When I move and feel me within that connected movement, time and what is needed within that space becomes all about feeling what is next and enjoying what I am doing, simply because I am doing it with me and the deep love that I feel as I am moving, so what’s not to enjoy?
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.’ I know this one well and what I am discovering is that the more i am simply with myself and the flow of my movements each day, the push and drive and race with time disappears. Thus choosing to be with me means choosing to be with time.
Great final realisation Jane – “… choosing to be with me means choosing to be with time.”
Thank you anonymous for your insightful blog on time, inspired by Serge Benhayon. I too have realised that how I move my body during the day makes a big difference to how I feel with time. I can move in a natural rhythm and flow that feels harmonious with my body, or I can move in a way that does not honour this. Learning to know the difference between these two has been a game changer for me.
There is a huge perception in life that if we watch the time that it will keep us on time. In reality all it seems to do is raise the level of nervous tension that is in our bodies so we can often go into overdrive to get things done which then creates depletion in the body.
A very appreciated reminder this morning – Time isn’t the ruler, there is plenty of spaciousness for all that is required. It’s an opportunity to re-connect with myself, be steady in my rhythm and then simply ask myself what it is that is setting up the thoughts to start to run to the clock for confirmation. True confirmation comes from with-in, why do I feel I need external validation?
I have always used time in relation to everything that I have to do, going into the head to plan everything that needs to be done and getting into the raciness of it all. I realise now this is an illusion and a way I have used to avoid evolution as when I let go of the picture of time relating to what needs to be done I can surrender more and more and connect to the stillness within and live from that flow in life.
There is a perception that clock watching is necessary in order to make sure we are really efficient. Yet the experiences shared in this blog show it is clearly not the case. The ability to work longer periods without feeling exhausted in itself puts the whole conversation on its head.
When we prepare ourselves for the day, time is not a limiting or restricting factor by any margin. It is there as a mere reference point.
This makes so much sense to me today Michael, as I can feel I am not giving myself enough space in the morning to start or prepare my day and hence I feel confined by time throughout my whole day!
I enjoyed reading your honesty here jacqmcfadden04. This is pretty much the case for most people and a shot of coffee or sugar for breakfast adds to the anxiousness that can spread throughout the day. The willingness to recognise when things have not gone that well and stopping to noticed this is a big lesson for us all. There is no perfection as the writer of this blog shared but a willingness to understanding there is another way to live and that Serge Benhayon is a living example of this.
The simplest little actions done in presence with space can feel as grand as and beholding of the universe as that quality is part of the same rhythm and flow.
Oh great comment Michael – ” time there as a mere reference point.” Yes indeed and the more we allow space for ourselves to get ready for the day, the more does the day flow and time is just like you said, a reference point and not something that determines how our day goes.
The choice to be just a few minutes later than I normally would be had a domino effect in all of my day, and things seemed to get on top of one another and the potential of the day was not as it could have been, it was rather racy and anxious at times. But I now realise this didn’t start with the choice to be a few minutes later it started with a choice to be anxious about something which then lead to the timing.
Timelessness can only exist when we are being led by our internal rhythm and not by the clock.
Because it is our internal rhythm that is the one that’s connected to the flow/rhythm of the universe. Anything else is a mere suppression to our grandness.
Beautifully said Johanna. Our internal rhythm and flow is either in accordance to the universal order or one that disturbs it. And we are constantly feeling it all.
I know the days when I have allowed myself to be in my body and move with it, for they flow and I am in a true relationship with time. Our bodies are designed and built to be all the space they are, move with that spaciousness and the space aroud it, and then they move naturally within time.
Wonderful blog! Brings it all back to the simple truth of whether we are living to the pulse of our own drum or beating to someone else’s.
Great way to say this Joshua. Who is behind the beats? A question we can each ask.
Reading the book “Time” from Serge Benhayon’s trilogy “Time, Space and All of Us” has made me so much more aware of how I relate to time and the affect this has on the quality of my connection in what I do and whomever I’m interacting with.
I feel that when I allow myself to be dominated by time, I feel the need to do as much as possible as quickly as I can. When I choose to be aware of time rather than dominated by it, I have the space to ‘be’ first and then bring this beingness into all that I do. Often, my day is more truly productive when this happens and I have so much more energy too.
Indeed Richard – to be dominated by time is a massive drainage.
“Less tension in my body and trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time” It’s an amazing place to arrive at, when we realise that we can still work well and accomplish a great deal without actually feeling like an overwound clock!
Similarly in daily life the sense of going or needing to be somewhere, over-rides the deeper connection we could have by being consciously present with what ever we are doing.
One illusion we have is of ‘going somewhere’. I have often felt when travelling by air, a sense of no time, no distance only infinite space and often wondered, if this plane is really moving? Perhaps we have created distance to make sense of the world, but is it true? In future with expanded consciousness this will be better understood.
“The decision to delve deeper into understanding what I was resisting led to regular sessions of this modality with a local practitioner. I was able to feel the natural pace in which my body moved. There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.”
It is great to get aware of the resistance and support the body in moving forward as every step is a move from the body which can support us or hinder us depending on the quality it is made in.
Some people will try to live life only in the moment for themselves; others see every moment is an opportunity to live in fullness and evolve.
In fact our bodies live in space and not in time as that is just a creation of our life here on this earth. Any moment we move with our bodies in time, we squeeze it in a form in which it does not belong and with that put tension on it, a tension in the body we all know so well when we start rushing to be on time for instance. But how do we live in space you would ask, as I am so used to live with the clock? In fact it is very simple as it comes when we deeply connect with our body but fact is that it will take some time to master because of the discarding of the old behaviours and patterns we have developed over time.
Creating tension for ourselves is the same as splashing in the water with sharks, both will bite you.
“There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.” It is beatuiful to feel when we can let go of the pushing and rushing to get things done, but rather stay with the simple movements that are the part of the natural rhthym and flow of the body with whatever it is that we are doing. Then time almost becomes irrelevant.
“could feel that I still had a need to be ‘doing stuff’ in this extra time rather than connecting to the opportunity that became available for me to appreciate and confirm that I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before.” That starting to feel an ease in my body is something I have recently begun to feel too since also experimenting with time and no longer filling any space I have with more, more, more, as I have tended to do most of my life.I have realised that was a bid to make me feel as though something was happening and that my life was meaningful by what I was doing rather than the quality of the way I am with what I do. Great blog.
I can relate to this Jeanette. Sometimes pockets of time become opportunities to complete one more thing. Shifting from this perspective to one that connects me to me and the quality in which I move means letting go of my relationship to time held over many lifetimes.
I was brought up with the phrase ‘wasting time’ and that has left me with a feeling of guilt if I don’t achieve something I set out to achieve by whatever deadline I have set myself. Much of my procrastination is due to my being distracted by everything and anything that serves to delay completion of a task, but then perhaps I can explore what’s my reason for the delay, what am I actually avoiding?
Its interesting that a ‘race with time’ can happen, not only at an athletics meet or in a swimming race, but also in the way we rush about within our daily activities such as driving the car, chores around the home, shopping etc… a momentum that eventually stops you in your tracks as the body wears and tears and can become exhausted… like the tortoise and hare fable, slow and steady wins the race!
There is nothing more freeing than to feel the spaciousness of one’s own space, rhythm and flow.. where neither time nor a time-piece/watch exists. Who wants or needs to clock-watch, when there is the vastness of surrounding space?!
If I ever find myself feeling I don’t have enough time it is always a message for me to stop and reconnect to space.
I used to wear a watch all the time. I remember one day waiting on the train platform for the train to come which would take me to college. I was running late and glanced at my watch. A few seconds later I glanced again. And again. Funnily enough looking at my watch continually was not making the train come any faster, it was just making me more and more anxious. It hit me like a ton of bricks: there was nothing that I could do to influence time through my watch and the measurement of time that it provided. Because our time pieces are simply that: measuring devices, whereas I had been treating them as time itself. It is sometimes as if we have given our power away to the measurement of time, looking to our clocks to give us permission to do certain things at certain times. Using them as tools to judge ourselves by (good people are on time, bad people are late), and in doing so, removing ourselves from the flow of life. Living by the clock does not allow us to feel within ourselves when it is time to do the next thing that is being asked of us to do.
It’s like time can be your ally or enemy depending on how you are within it as it seems to command us to be a certain way. It’s so liberating when you start to feel that the body’s time and what it chooses to do is a different more loving rhythm and impulse than that of the clock that can take you into stress and tension and working against your natural rhythm and make the body tired and sick.
I got an official appointment with a doctor for checking children’s ears. What was special about this meeting… That we were in time, that is – I was in time. This felt so spacious in my body, as well as honouring the people involved in the appointment. I’ve always been a person that was late or often too late for any appointment. And in this racing with time. I’ve been hard and self-bashing on myself for a long time, but honouring myself and take the time that’s needed is so beautiful and feels great!
Even reading this article I found myself rushing ahead instead of staying with what I was reading, this is very interesting, so this is something I need to look into.
‘They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ As I feel into these words and staying connected in every moment this is still a work in progress to the best of my ability and that is definitely worth my time.
The saying “time fly’s” came to me as I was reading the blog. The question I have here is it time that is flying or is it simply the momentum in which we are living? I know I have had experiences where time did not pass so quickly and then other times where it flew by in the blink of an eyelid. But the truth is that it doesn’t, it is our perception of time that alters but also how we are in each moment that influences our perception of time.
Indeed Jennifer, I do know that too. To my experience when I am completely with my body time does not matter and is just a way to measure the time of the day, but in fact is not controlling me. This is in great contrast with when I am not fully with my body, then I can be caught in time either going slow or fast. In this sate of being I do cause my body to become hard and in tension because I have taken it out of its natural habitat which is space.
When I’m feeling constricted with time it is very stressful, anxious and there is a huge pressure surrounding me. Thankfully these days I don’t stay there for that long anymore as it is unbearable. Stepping out of the race with time is hugely liberating. And interestingly, much more gets done with ease.
I stopped wearing a watch many, many years ago because I noticed I was getting fixated on the time and this was in turn making it move very, very slow… It was agony! Then I realised how odd it was to watch life and not live it. So I jumped in and gave it a go and I am pleased to say, it has worked out rather well.
We can choose to be in our own power, or give our power over to time.
It is great reading the unfolding story of turning round the obsession about time. I am a long way from living according to my rhythm as opposed to be dominated by the clock, yet I have had enough experiences of the natural ease and flow when I let lose the reins to know it is an are worth pursuing.
It is great reading the unfolding story of turning round the obsession about time. I am a long way from living according to my rhythm as opposed to be dominated by the clock, yet I have had enough experiences of the natural ease and flow when I let lose the reins to know it is an are worth pursuing.
I felt a few moments today of the sense of overwhelm coming towards me – appreciating that I actually could feel this and make a choice to stop and bring myself back deeper into my body and re-connect with the innate stillness. Immediately, everything began to settle and spaciousness normal again. The day has been very smooth since then and the clock appears to be simply ticking away and speaking its beautiful rhythm to me, rather than a speedy rushing of earlier today. How cool this is – everything intended and more, has been worked through with no anxiousness :).
I can feel that when we use time instead of being controlled by time life rhythms flows much more. It is great what you have shared Stephanie it feels supportive. ‘The day has been very smooth since then and the clock appears to be simply ticking away and speaking its beautiful rhythm to me, rather than a speedy rushing of earlier today.’
Sometimes I feel like time is a little like a river – when we are in it, we can feel like we get caught up in it, battle against the current or even be overwhelmed by it. But what if we can stand on the shore, aware of time and yet not caught up by it, living in the space that we can create when we dont chase the clock.
“I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” now that is quite a remarkable change, how many of us rush through life seemingly trapped by time when it does not need to be that way? I know I’ve been catching myself with a tension of whats next, is there time for that etc.. etc.. my consideration now is what stress is that putting on my body and health. Its why the most incredible blessing is to appreciate the fact that the way we live directly affects everything in our life.
A very revealing and informative blog on time and how we use it and the enormous effect it can have on our lives . With this true understanding of time and presence and the awareness to simply be with our bodies in a quality that allows a natural flow the pressure of time simply expands to allow the flow that so supports us in our day. This is something that i have experimented and observed with others and it really makes a difference beautifully so. “I was able to feel the natural pace in which my body moved. There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow.”
When we clock watch we are already setting up the day for a day of anxiety. There’s nothing wrong with checking the time as we all need to do this, but not running our lives by this. For we are never in the moment nor never truly with our body or the people we are with if we do this. This is deeply harming for everybody. It’s also interesting to note or ask- are there certain situations and people where we would never do this, look at the clock wishing it was over or thinking about what’s next – If so why do we do this? Why do we hold one person or event more important than other people or areas of our lives?
When we give ourselves the space to be connected and then do what ever it is that we are doing this space feels super supportive and time doesn’t come into the equation.
Racing with time is not accepting life as it is. When I choose so – which often happens – I am not with me and don’t feel my precious love. As if I’m in those moments looking for myself and am under the illusion that I’ll find me ‘at the end of time’. Rather than using the raciness as an indicator that I’ve lost connection to me and choose differently.
Yes it is us who are racing with time and not time that is racing with us. How often do we project upon something or someone the very thing that we are doing. Such a projection is a real distraction away from the truth and so keeps us from living truly.
I also feel sometimes in competiition with time instead of being with it.How different is it to be instead of the usual drive.
It’s interesting that time can be referred to or used as a ‘safety net’… where do we fear being without it?
Clock watching and putting myself under pressure ultimately makes working more tedious and I become less productive. Giving myself more space and time beforehand I recognise that I become more focused for a shorter period of time and much more productive.
My mind can’t quite comprehend the difference between living in the spaciousness that exists or in the pressure of time. My body, however, instantly knows the difference.
How beautiful to stop and truly feel what the priorities are for the day ahead, rather than just dive literally head first into life and to-do list completing.
‘I would often feel like I never had enough time to get everything done in the day and was clock watching at every opportunity. To others I was known as the punctual, hardworking and reliable one that could be counted on to get to work on time.’ – I can relate to this in the sense that I used to take pride in being one who was ‘on time’ however I was equally riddled with shame and guilt whenever I was not ‘on time’. It dawns on me that there is a lot of stigma related to the consept of ‘on time’.
We can place so much pressure and stress on ourselves to follow the ticking of the clock and in doing so we can stop living and instead simply chase time. What you have shared shows that we can place space between us and time so that it no longer owns us and we no longer try to own it.
I am noticing the amount of times I am run by time, when I let time control me and if I then eat in that energy how much it magnifies. I am also noticing that more awareness of this is encouraging and inspiring me to change this old engrained habit of racing against time instead of flowing and being with time.
I was in a meeting the other day that was meant to be an hour long. At 55 minutes the conversation had just ended like asking someone the time, asked and answered, it is a complete exchange. But, during the pregnant pause that was growing, I clocked the number of people that checked their watches? There was almost a feeling of not wanting to start something, that would not fit into those last five minutes. The mind was now thinking, what is next in my busy day, losing the stillness to contemplate what had just been presented and discussed. The race with time had already begun afresh!
It seems that our relationship to time is often one of control as you have said here, in one way or another, whether by bringing the focus to what we are doing or through trying to influence whether we are in front of or behind time.
This article is absolutely supportive to expose stress and pressure in one’s life and how this reflects what we do in truth, often not being present but in thoughts and this mostly creates stress and pressure.
It doesn’t matter how much we try to race time, we can never beat it. Being with time is being connected to yourself and through that connection time transforms into a space that can support you rather than rob you.
Yes the ever present clock watching trick. I was very good at continually checking the clock on my phone through the night to make sure I woke up on time. This left me feeing anxious, tense and tired as I didn’t allow my body to surrender to my bodies natural sleep pattern. I now put my phone done away where I can’t see it and the little flashing lights don’t distract me and I am able to go to bed naturally and funnily enough wake up with more than enough space to support myself and my day too.
Reading this I got an image of a person frantically trying to halt a moving train that is not going to stop because its purpose is to stay consistent and eternal. My relationships with time is very much like my relationship with God. I’ve reacted to such unwavering consistency – felt powerless, even hurt, that no matter what sob story I spun time will not change its course; I’ve gone into exhaustion thinking time has ruined me. But all along it is me who has created the issue so I could feel unloved, unappreciated, insignificant, small. I’ve used fighting time as a way of proving I am not powerful or big. I’ve picked a fight with something I was designed to be with.
It’s been amazing to work with space and develop my relationship with it, all becomes at ease when one adheres and is obedient to the laws of the universe.
Letting go of time and it having controlling over you is one of the most freeing things that I have encountered .. still there is moments where I feel I am pushed against the clock and every time I know it is when I have not given myself the space that I know I can. It is always a choice.
We wonder why coffee and sugar sales are through the roof… many are so exhausted these keep their bodies artificially stimulated to keep going – until our bodies go enough is enough, and we have to take notice of how we are choosing to live.
Our constant race against time creates the nervousness and anxiousness that keeps us going to the point of exhaustion.
This is a great sharing of how it is possible to change the relationships we have with things. Time is something I always used to test – I would be rushing or even late to things because I used to push myself and try to beat time – but when I don’t do that now and give myself space – then I too am able to read time rather than react to time.
Thanks Adele – “simply getting on with it”. Appreciating the purpose of the activity is the sure way to complete anything without the mind engaging in distraction – and I can feel how going into concern about time is an excuse to avoid committing all of me 100%.
There’s an intimacy within time, it’s like a guide, a very still guide. We’re forever able to connect to it and live life from this intimate connection. If I don’t choose the intimacy, I’m feeling stressed and actually missing the connection to my inner compass. This is all very new, yet also a feeling that is actually very known.
Most of the times that I need more time it is not that I need more time it is that I need more me – an alarm bell to connect to me rather than being pulled and pushed by the illusionary tensions of my day.
I so agree with this Otto. I have all the space and time in the world when I am being me. Step away from this and the pressure is on, there is not enough time and I start to believe there is way to much to do. What a contrast!
But what I don’t do enough of is embrace this reflection as the amazing support that it can be. I agree with everything that you are saying so therefore, if I chose to be responsible and act on what is being shown to me, then time and any tension that comes from it can in fact be my best friend – that is if you ‘best friend’ is a true friend and shows you what you need to see….but that is a whole other blog!
When we think of that saying “we have all the time in the world” generally meaning not doing a lot/no rush or hurry, I love the meaning we can attribute to it now though when we understand that presence delivers this – even when we have a full day and much to attend to, we could still say we have ‘all the time in the world’ and not be lying!
Time is a gift from God to help us see exactly where we are.
I used to love being exactly on time but that would mean I was occasionally late. I am learning now to plan to arrive early so that I am present and ready on time.
I am reminded that time does not exist, as we know it, when I am getting a healing and it feels like I have been on the table for ever and it has only been 20 mins. Or other times I cannot even put a time on it but I can feel an enormous spaciousness in my body.
As someone that realises more and more that I am run by time its great to look at how there is always a current of time involved, such as do I have time for this right not rather than simply getting on with what is needed in the moment.
It actually takes less time to get something done when we keep our focus on what has to be done, rather than going into any anxiousness about not having enough time to do whatever it is that needs doing.
Time may determine our movements and we can spend a whole life being determined from the outside. The point is that this is not natural for us and we pay the consequences. It is indeed very unsettling. If we allow our body to settle, we are empowering is/us to get in charge of our movements. So, ‘time to stop’ and start again.
For the last year (I realise this is an ironic way to start my response to this brilliant blog) I have been faced again and again with days that felt like car crashes. Objectives and goals collided with each other to leave plans and my nerves cast astray and in tatters. Looking back I can see that this all coincided with me starting to read Serge Benhayon’s brilliant book. It has, ever since, gradually dawned on me that time and this rush isn’t real, but there is a natural order and flow to what we are to do, and when I try to reorganise, re-edit and manually adjust what heaven has planned, I always get slammed. If I simply accept and surrender to the sequence of the Soul, I get the sense I will have the time of my life.
That’s a great point Adele – we do indeed use time as an excuse to hold back and delay.
With the advent of Satnav’s for cars, some people are Satnav racing with themselves in a race against time. If there is someplace that you repeatedly go, like work or someplace further away that you regularly travel to, you have all that is needed to start the race! Can you shave minutes off your trip? What is the current record from A to B, at what cost? Flying first class on a plane can be four to six times or more expensive than economy, on a plane that the front of the aircraft gets to the destination the same time as the back!
In fact the back gets there moments sooner due to the rear wheels touching down slightly before the front!
Yes indeed, it is difficult to wind down in the evening if we have been wound up so tightly during the day.
So true Alex, when we allow time to govern our lives, quality of being, movement and expression flies out of the window. When we truly understand the purpose of time, to re-visit the same spot, the same choices day in, day out, we can begin to shift our focus from quantity to quality. When we do so life becomes more spacious.
Maybe we hold onto time because we need something to hold onto in life instead of dropping into the space that is there and that has everything we need to move into the next moment. Then our relationship with time simply reflects our relationship with life and how much we accept our true beingness..
This is in fact a huge revelation Elizabeth and one that most of society do not realise that the tension with time is caused by each person who feels they are racing against the clock. The clock is the same always – always ticking second by second minute by minute and hour by hour. It is us and how we are with ourselves and the tasks we are completing that is the key – the how, not the what and definitely not the how much we do what we do. The amazing thing that I have found is that when I focus on my how and the quality allowing the space then I seem to actually do a more and it’s completed in a far truer quality than if I chose to unnaturally race against the clock. Our body is registering every time we are honouring its rhythm and every time we are not.
How we can control ourselves through time, a perfect example of how this can absolutely affect our lives and how we are with life and all we interact with. I too have noticed now when I am obsessed with getting things done in a certain amount of time, how my connecting with others comes second. Being focused on time can have a profound affect on life.
“…Was it possible that I was controlling and rushing the time rather than staying with time?…” This is a great statement that makes you stop and feel the difference between the rush and push by trying to jam everything in by the time on the clock, compared to knowing what you have to do and doing things that need to be done in a connected and steady rhythm.
When Serge presents, even though it could be to a room of over 200 people there many times there will be a something said that resonates uniquely for one person in that room like this did for you ‘ . . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.’ and that one sentence can change everything if we are willing to go there. Being able to have sessions with a Universal Medicine practitioner is incredibly supportive. Over the last few days I have felt this (not so much the race against time but how my exchanges with others have been fleeting and not holding a quality or connection) ‘The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection’.
I have at times noticed myself deliberately create a scenario in my head to get me to compete with time. E.g. I may have no reason to rush my car journey but all of a sudden I can come up with a reason to rush and the whole quality of my journey thus changes. Noticing such deliberate moments when a ‘stressful’ scenario is so obviously and deliberately self-created, prompts a question: how often do we opt for such self-created realities. And the next very significant questions is Why? What do we get out of it or what is it that we are avoiding?
For a long time I couldn’t grasp that I was the one choosing my own raciness and exhaustion. Now I can see how I actually set myself up (abuse myself) to be in constant worry of time. All through my day. This takes away the spaciousness and the connection with me. Which of course also ‘allows’ me to not feel what’s going on in the world. The question has become, why I am choosing this pattern? And how does it actually feel to exhaust my body to a great extend? Questions that I do not have the answers for yet.
The only person who puts demands and deadlines on us is ourselves! The pressure to get something done by a certain “time” is always there until we realize this . I have always thought that in a work situation the boss or someone with authority over me expected this result, but in truth we are all one so the responsibility comes back to me again!
I can relate to pushing myself and feeling I was apart of a race with time. I used to be constantly on the go, striving to do more each day, believing that the key to success was about ticking off the “to do list” every day. However, I would end up feeling exhausted at the end of each day. I have since learnt that what makes a difference is being aware of the quality you are in, whilst doing things, and reconnecting back to your natural rhythm.
There are days when time is not an issue, it is just there in the background giving me some idea of where I am in my day, enjoying being in conscious presence with my body. If disconnected from my body, the opposite occurs – time is of the utmost importance and rushing through the day following my mind, becomes the frazzled norm.
Time will tell that the time I have wasted procrastinating has never helped me solve any problems. At times I do need to step back and take in the full story so that I can re-connect to the love I am and get on with what is at hand to be done. Seeing life as a full cycle and getting to the truth that life is all about a cycle and a learning curve to eliminate wasting time so that I can evolve and share that evolution as a reflection so others can feel there is another Way The Way of The Livingness.
“I was under the impression that this was the way life was . . .” What a revelation this is – how many parts of our lives do we run because of the initial introduction as a child and then years of indoctrination. Returning to our own mastery of what is true is felt in the body not what is modeled around us. Time is not a master or slave driver that comes from our own relationship with ourselves.
It does seem like the way of life because it’s all around us – however this does not mean it’s natural and definitely not normal if it goes against our natural way.
Yes I think that letting time rule our rhythm is not very healthy. And time is really something we have invented. The clock that is.
This blog is making a whole lot of sense to me. I have read it a number of times and felt to test out the clock watching from the perspective of just that- watching. What is was remarkable was that I noticed that I could feel that I was completing more tasks in the day in a short period of time and not feeling the angst that I would to push my way through the day. Thank you Anonymous for a hugely practical way you have taking on board the teachings that have been shared by Serge Benhayon. It is when you are living this each day that it all starts to make a lot of sense. Now to bring more consistency to this new found way of clock watching.
It totally freaks me out when I try and get my head round the fact that all my life I have been going or fighting against the rhythms of our universe, I know I’m quite a strong chap but going against that flow, no wonder I still need the amount of sleep that I do.
Your comment Kevin makes me laugh. It doesn’t matter how strong we are, we can never be strong enough to resist the flow of the Universe, however much we try. But it does explain why we feel so exhausted, attempting day in and day out to swim against this ginormous flow of love.
‘I was able to feel the natural pace in which my body moved.’ – A significant awareness gained with the support of yet another profound Universal Medicine modality, the Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy.
I love what you share here and will take it into my day, I definitely need to settle into my body, walk my walk, move with and in the divine flow and bring my authority to every one I meet.
“move with and in the divine flow”. What a beautiful way to entirely change our relationship with Time, to focus on joining in with an order and energy perpetually flowing around us, one we can gracefully surrender to, or attempt to control, resist or race to our detriment.
“I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.” This is such an amazing awareness to come to and really is life changing. The opening up, ease, expansion and flow of life that happens when we are present and within ourselves in Quality simply allows space and all the time in the world in that moment and beyond. It is a growing awareness and learning in the way we live and allows real appreciation and relationships with everyone and everything to blossom grow.
It is interesting to experience how when we fall into bed when we are so exhausted from watching time and feelings the pressures of meeting deadlines, our sleep can not be as restorative and we can wake up not refreshed. Bringing presence to each moment allows us to complete each moment and go to bed more resolved.
In one particular aspect of preparing myself for the day ahead I have a ritual about the way I do this every day which has become very solid and supportive. On many occasions I have noticed that, even when I feel before this that I am running behind time, I go through this ritual in getting ready for the day and I again check the time afterwards, expecting to be late however I have actually got time to spare. I understand from presentations from Serge Benhayon that this is where we begin to have a relationship with space rather than time.
I can relate to what you say Michael. There is an order to each morning which sets the foundation for my day and is unrelated to time.
Something that really stands out is how I will “fill” time with “doing things” its almost as if when there is space instead of feel what is needed, which may be a moment to re-connect I jump into the next thing. As such I am constantly racing time, what I feel to experiment with today is in those moments re-connecting to me with no auto action of doing, then I feel what will unfold will be with time instead of against it. However its a theory right now!
‘The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment’. Ouch I still have this…its such an ingrained pattern ‘to get things done’.
Time sometimes feels slower and sometimes feels like it is racing away, and sometime I look at the clock and think, where did the time go? Something so awesome you have mentioned is that it is our relationship with presence and our body’s natural rhythm that can really make a difference, because more often than not we are denying this first and then timing becomes an issue.
Anonymous, I find this article very supportive, it has exposed for me how I can go about my day in tension and get caught up in being on time rather than going about my day at my natural pace and trusting this is ok, I am experimenting today with being with time rather than racing against time.
I have found myself in the same situation as you have Rebecca I also find it is very revealing and as you have shared I am going to give more attention to being with time. For me I feel the secrete is going to be getting to bed early to catch up on my spleen sleep so that I am able to start earlier in the morning.
Yes indeed, Anonymous. If our natural rhythm has nothing to do with time, there is an entirely different flow to connect to and live by. When I let myself ‘go with the flow’ it feels effortless and without stress or tension, yet I manage to get much more done.
Part of my work involves administering time-sensitive medication and my day is governed by a pill-timer that rings every three hours six times a day. I appreciate having this tool to support me in my work. My phone now replaces the watch I stopped using decades ago. I use phone alerts to remind me of calendar appointments. I know what my commitments are, but there are times when precision is important to ensure I’m prepared and offers a spaciousness that gets me where I’m meant to be with plenty of time to spare.
‘I have started to truly feel what my priorities are in each day.’ I agree and making obligatory to do lists are ending, replaced by a knowing in my body, what comes next.
I had a manager years ago for a short time that had checklists for everything and gave all of us checklists with things to complete. There was even on his checklist to check if we were completing ours. It was not long before we found that if we gave lip service when asked about the progress on an item on our list we never had to do them! The first week an item was added to our list and asked how long it would take and would say we would investigate it. On the second week, we said it was 50% done that was ok, on the third week we replied it would be done in days, it would then completely fall off his list and never be asked about again. He was a prime example for me even all those years ago how we allow time to manage us and accomplish nothing.
I can so relate to the ‘fleeting moments’ I would rush through in passing with another, only to realise how superficial any connection made is as a result. Allowing the space to stop and say hello properly, connecting with something that is current for that person, leaves both of us so much richer for the experience. It takes so little, but when l’m ‘racing against time’, I rarely allow the potential of these moments to be all that they could.
I agree Jenny. Allowing the space to stop and say hello properly is all it takes to connect with that person… just the intention to connect with the person in front of us creates the space for the heart to express in whatever that person may need in that moment without any trying or any thought needed. It is that simple when we get ourselves out of the way.
So true jacqmcfadden04, it takes so little to connect, the intention to do so is enough to open up something notably different. And when I walk away from exchanges like that I feel as though it has ‘made my day’. It is always confirming to me that we are made to be in connection with one another constantly, and to not allow it, leaves my day feeling flat and dull.
When I let myself be run by a clock I am a slave and puppet to life and time. When I hold myself in the space and presence of each moment I am a willing, responsible participant in our unfolding development.
When we come in the natural rhythm with time, we will find hat that time does go nowhere while in the past I treated it as being a beginning and the end of things but in fact it is just a marker of any moment in a day, a week, a month and a year we can look at to see is we have evolved or not.
I can certainly put my hand up as a clock watcher, and trying to fit in as much into the day as possible, aiming for that sense of achievement at the end of the day, but in all honesty mostly feeling exhausted. I believed that ‘the more you did, the more you were living’. All the while over riding how exhausted I was, and anxious I felt. However I too realised it was only me that chose to have this pressured relationship with time, and through what I was feeling a lack of within, never was there ever enough time to fill the gaps, so to speak. When I began to re-connect to my essence, and stay present with this connection a best I could, I found I was no longer competing with time and discovered that there is a greater space within me to enjoy just by being with me, wherever I am or what ever I am doing. And this opened up a great way of being with time, that continues to deepen as with every day brings an opportunity to learn to be present with all of me and all that is offered in any given moment.
An interesting question comes to mind – How do we have a relationship with time when it is static, yet refuse a relationship with space and it’s ever expanding and moving particles…
It is so easy to focus on what needs to be done and to lose the quality of our being, and when we focus on the quality we can get more done, because we create more space that way
Yes when we focus on the quality we hold when we do anything we start a really practical and inspiring relationship with responsibility and our purposeful place alongside each other.
There’s a rhythm to life. A natural rhythm. When I connect to that rhythm, I know exactly (!!) what to do at any given moment. Moment after moment. No time needed really. This rhythm shows me that I am part of something much grander than I can get my head around, yet I am able to feel it and am the decision maker to connect and live it or not.
Ha! That’s brilliant Arianna. I used to be owned by my watch also, until one day, many years ago it fell off and I lost it. It felt freeing for a moment….but before long mobile phones were in, and constantly in my back pocket, and so I replaced one face with another. Still counting everything down to the last minute. It is exhausting, and the more I realise just how much it is draining me the more eager I am to really start to let go.
It’s crazy how much of a hold the clock has over me. I just considered turning off the clock option on my computer so that I didn’t feel compelled to check in with it every 5 minutes and my first thought was, ‘no, can’t do that today, I have a lot on.’ It’s like a fear steps in if I don’t have the time looming over me reminding me that I HAVE to do X, Y Z.
That thing where you get everything done and realise you can actually fit 5 more things in…Yeah, I do that, ALL THE TIME. Reading this has really inspired me to not be so ‘proud’ of ticking off my to do list, and rather appreciate that time is there for me to get what I need done, and I don’t need to be in so much drive when I’m doing everything…and if there is some of the stuff left over, then use it to really confirm that everything is ok, everything is simply ok.
Just yesterday I found myself going back to an age old habit of racing against time. I could feel the tension and hardness in my body but the momentum to continue in this energy was strong. Once I am aware of what I am choosing I find it easier to stop and reconnect to myself and let the tension go. The more I practice moving with more awareness and connection the easier it is to not use time as an excuse to limit and restrict my expression and connection.
I love how you were able to deepen your rythm and support your body through Connective Tissue. It is a great tool to bring the body back into its natural flow.
funny that ‘clock-watchers’ will often end up wasting a lot of time looking at clocks and watches!
Great point Michael, this is so true. I find time often can seem faster or slower depending on how I am in relation to it. When I am feeling connected and expansive everything else also feels expansive, including time.
Ha ha ha! And lose a lot of space contracting over it.
The joke about; ‘if you want to see the dead come back to life… just wait to quitting time’ aptly fits clock-watchers!
What came first – man or time?
Making space to unwind at night is an important part of our day. It’s not something I have mastered as yet, because I still tend to leave things to the last minute and going to bed is another one of them, but on the days where I have created space to be with myself and reflect upon the day, pamper my body and allow my mind to be still, I sleep really well and wake feeling refreshed.
When we bring our full attention to how we move our bodies, and move in a way that is truly supportive of them rather than by simply moving automatically it is amazing how readily they will respond. Tiny subtle movements that do not push beyond what the body is capable of can change old engrained patterns and release tension that allows the body to open up, relax and eventually flow in its own natural rhythm.
I can remember when I decided not to wear my watch as I could feel that I was constantly looking at it and i wanted to be freed from it. This worked to a degree but it wasn’t until I started to actively create more space in my day did I feel like time was controlling or dominating my every move. Getting up earlier and how I get up has been one that I am constantly working with as this determines the quality of which my day is going to pan out.
We have tended to underestimate the effect of our relationship with time and it is a gift that such presentations and books from Serge Benhayon and blogs such s this start to bring to the for the truth of this.
I was always a slave to time and there was never enough time to do everything in my day….. but then I was in drive and push mode most of my life which became such an ingrained pattern and still it likes to creep into my day if I am not present….
Recently at work a fingerprint log in system was installed and the way our hours at work were calculated was changed. This was a much more rigid system than the one used previously and it was only recently I realised just how much I had allowed this change to impact on me. I had begun to ‘clock’ watch to make sure my time was exactly right as I resented there was no longer the same honouring of any time worked over your hours. This had a huge impact on the flow of my day and especially the end of my day where I was definitely racing with time. This week I have let this go and simply stayed with each piece of work, completing what needed to be done. Yes, I have worked a little later but the rhythm and sense of space as I worked felt so much lovelier than watching the clock to make sure I finished right on time and that space is there to meet me the following morning.
I love this line – “trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time”. My whole body settles when I listen to it and let it guide me through the day.
Anonymous, this article is really interesting to read, this stands out for me, ‘read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.’ When I read this I can feel how I still have a tension in my body if I have a busy day, that I am anxious about getting to each place I need to go on time and that as a result there is a tension in my body. It feels beautiful to be at ease in your body and not racing against time, much to ponder on, thank you.
I have also stopped using an alarm clock to wake up. The time I go to sleep is now pretty standard, and so is the time I awake. There are times as you have said that if the body requires a bit more sleep, it will adjust and because there is already lots of time built in, everything just flows.
I know that too Susan and Steve, that my body knows when to wake up for what is needed that day and that when I let go of the control on time there is always enough time available to be with me me and that there is never a need to rush in any way, shape or form as time is just a marker of any moment in the day.
I love this article and all the comments that have been inspired by it. It is inviting me to see more clearly how my relationship with time plays out in my life. Having, for most of my life, let myself be totally governed by time and used it as a measure of my worth and productivity at the end of each day, my relationship with time has changed hugely, but I still often feel the tension of using a race against time before quality and connection to the present.
I can relate to this “I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.”, my relationship with time was resentful, I felt a push with it, like I had to keep up even if I didn’t want to, I was some how a prisoner to it. I have developing relationship with time and space that no longer leaves me beholden to the ideas of pressure that I once held. So much depends on our perspective…
“There was an ease that didn’t have me rushing ahead but still felt that I was moving with the movements that supported me to work with vitality and a steady flow” – that’s so beautiful what you share about Esoteric Connective Tissue, that time is movement and flow, not any restrictive practice that we so often want and enjoy being bound by….To be with the body, is to be with-time.
Reflecting on this again this evening and I am struck by the fact that I much prefer the feeling of having a lot to do and not enough time rather than having plenty of time for that which is required when we allow it and therefore that I then create this ‘challenge’.
The ‘merry-go-round’ of rushing, watching the clock and living against rather than in/with time can be just that – a dizzying and confusing experience!
I caught myself today trying to ‘save time’ and this blog immediately came to mind. It is such a gift to have this piece of writing available, in very simple and accessible language, about the massive subject of time.
I appreciate the fact that we always know the nature of things – that a clock is round, that we call the stressed-out way we do that a ‘merry-go-round’ or a ‘rat race on a treadmill’ or with everyday day terms like ‘daily round’ means that we know that time is not linear but that we simply go round and round the sun. As you have said Anonymous: ‘This merry-go-round continued for a great part of my adult life and left me feeling a constant nervous tension in my body of where to be next.’ It is the quality of how we ‘go around’ that is the key thing.
The concept of ‘time’ keeps us chasing for a goal as opposed to staying present in each moment and with every task, which leaves us feeling held in a spacious and natural flow.
I was walking down the road today and I realised I was in drive. I noticed this and told myself to stop the drive, which I did. My walk changed from being one full of tension to one which was light and free, and I was walking at exactly the same pace. It didn’t make any difference to my time of arrival but my body was in a much better state and my stress levels dropped. I have been reminding myself of this throughout my day.
Time in the past for me definitely ruled my life and was held as so very important. Of course we need time in life, but I am finding how much potential is within space and there is so much of it around us that is full of God’s love. What an awesome reminder of the love that we are and that we are held deeply in this love, always. And moving and feeling my body as I move within this space, makes it all the more enjoyable.
Thank you for sharing Anonymous, Most of us are fighting with time live with some degree of anxiousness around time. One thing I have learnt for sure is that if my nervous system is heightened to get through what I have to do it is actually counterproductive and I don’t think clearly or rationally, I am running on emotional energy and fighting time. This is of course exhausting, and it is just not worth it. I used to think I was the victim of time and let it run my life. Now I am learning to be the master of time and to be with it in the moment rather than fighting it. I was always making the choice to fight time but I never knew there was another way.
It is so easy to slip into overwhelm when the tasks keep mounting up, but learning there is a simple way to live and move that ensures what is needed to be done gets done, and we can remove the angst and anxiousness that can otherwise become a persistant ill and burden with which we weigh ourselves down. The choice to live and move in connection with ourselves or the choice to be lived and moved by energy that is not truly us.
It’s true our bodies sing with appreciation and lightness when we don’t put them through the rush, shove and push of keeping up with time. It is amazing to observe that the same amount of things are seen to and taken care of with out the exhaustion at the close of the day.
When I go into drive and momentum I wind myself up and I speed alongside time. When I surrender to my stillness time does not exist.
Thanks Anonymous. I love your description of the ease you now feel in your body, now that the momentum of deadlines and drive no longer dominates you. Very inspiring indeed…
Watching the clock creates such a tension in our bodies – a tightness where there is no space for life to flow harmoniously. We can choose to live the tightrope of time or we can choose to flow in our bodies natural rhythm.
I have so been a slave to watching the clock over the years and can categorically say that you never catch up on time, it is a fallacy that you can indeed do this. There is more and more to be said for being present and allowing for yourself to have space. Space to stop, feel, ponder, ask oneself questions and not always be on the go. This immediately stops clock watching.
I’ve always admired people who can be laid back about time, unconcerned that they need to be somewhere by a certain time. Of course in that there can be irresponsibility if not showing due consideration for others, but somewhere in the mix is that balance of punctuality and an at ease demeanour, where nothing need be rushed, but where everything still gets done with order and quality.
My watch strap broke a while back and I realised for a start off how many times a day I looked at the time when looking at the spot the watch used to be, so I decided to go watchless for a while. I still had access to the time for I had my phone but I just wasn’t as concerned about where I was in the day as much. I realised the day didn’t speed up or slow down and I still got places on time and if anything I had time to spare.
How vital is it that we start our days with a connection to ourselves? Is it possible that vitality comes from this connection and hence it is truly vital? Having experienced this, my feeling is that being connected to ourselves is like being ‘plugged in’ to our true energetic source and if we are not so, we are begging, stealing and borrowing energy from a ‘battery’ that has very limited life. Maybe this is the reflection of all the battery run devices we have in life these days. We have to keep reconnecting them to a source of energy – just as we need to connect to our source ourselves.
This week I have extra hours at work which leaves me very little space to do the many other tasks like cleaning, shopping and my daily walking, and I observe I am a little more tired and was clock watching yesterday – so the extra hours doesn’t seem worth it in the long run.
I realize that I’ve often wondered why people were so stressful in life. My reaction has been to react to this way of life and be quite lazy and holding others responsible for my life. But, judging is easy. Being in reaction is actually the same, ignoring the stress that is inside the body because we’re not being with time. This ignorance is also stressful, only covered up with a different energy. So it might look different on the outside, both are actually equally out of sync with life and time.
I love this sentence and what it offers – the possibility of spaciousness rather than anxiousness and rushing about to get things done.
” . . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time”.
Great little choice to remind ourselves of: “spaciousness or anxiousness”? I can just feel the difference of these two choices as I repeat them in my head. “Hello Sandra today we have on the plan xyz – would you like a dose of spaciousness or anxiousness with these today?”
Anonymous, I have been pondering on your article recently and noticed at work how it is usual for us as a society to be caught up in time, I observed that where I work with children that activities are rushed through and that time seems to be the ruler rather than fun and enjoyment, that children are almost set against the clock, I felt that it didn’t need to be this way and that there was a much more relaxed way of working, reading your article I can feel that this is simply being with time rather than racing against it and I can feel how much more joy there will be for the children if this is how activities are conducted.
Reading this Rebecca it’s clear that at an early age we’re ‘educated’ to pitch ourselves against time rather than staying present in the moment and enjoying the loveliness of that.
We treat life like an hourglass full of sand that we are constantly turning to keep the sand flowing. What would our life be like if time was sand and we just walked on the beach?
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.’ – Ditto – I realised I had been a slave to time my entire life.
My clocks are often running ahead of me – I mean literally! The oven clock gradually speeds up and over a few weeks after being re-set, again sits about 10 minutes ahead of actual time. Same with the microwave clock and same with my car clock! Even my iPhone clock was doing that at one stage until I downloaded the latest updates. And this is funny and laughable…however, in it lies a message for me and I feel it is very relevant. It feels like I am being reminded to not live life ahead of myself, to let go and surrender more to each moment instead of trying to foresee things and control them before they happen. It is after all quite normal to want to plan ahead and organise oneself, however, there is a level of letting go and allowing things to come to me that I am still learning to master!
Henrietta I so relate to your comment. My phone was 14 mins fast for ages and only recently I changed it and also my computer is an hour fast ( because it is set in dutch time as I bought the computer in Holland when I lived there), point is I have not adjusted the time….. and indeed the reminder or the reading on this for me also is not to live ahead of myself under the guise I am super organised doing things today that can be done tomorrow, etc and to let go and surrender more to each moment. Thankyou for sharing this.
Great sharing Henrietta about the realness we all live each day. There is so much here to appreciate about the small details that send us huge signs in the way we are living that may “look good” yet it is far from the natural state we can live with day to day. Thank you for highlighting how the updates in life can come from us listening more to our body clocks and follow these updates rather than being drawn into believing the only updates that seem real are our phones, clocks and watches.
When I watch the clock I feel the pressure yet when I just do what is needed in each moment, at times it feels like time stops and there is enough space for everything. I love those moments.
Me too, and I know they can become my expanded version of life as I relinquish my grip on clock watching
I also find those moments tend to exist in an extended existence, so when I surrender to being in that space then the moment link up so that the day just flies. I love those days!
The day flies but everything flows. I love them too. No fighting or struggle. Just surrendering and allowing the day to unfold but being very much a part of it and in it.
Yes the day sort of raps you like a blanket and nurtures you every movement!
Once we let go of controlling how much we can fit into one day, we can actually let go of the outcome too.
When we feel into our rhythm and feel the flow, we can stay beautifully with time and let that lead the day. Then at the end of the day, we can look back and appreciate how everything was sorted out in the flow of the day with time. I have had days like this, so know it to be true. We can work on every day flowing in this way.
Staying with my body and being present with what I am doing rather than allowing my thoughts to constantly stray allows me to stay in the moment and be with time rather than behind it.
I’ve not had much energy recently and have let go of this race against the clock. Contrary to the word deadline, which implies anything that is incomplete beyond that line or has not been done prior to it results in mortality, nothing dire has happened. In fact I am enjoying how gentle I am and can observe a greater depth of surrender that I can choose in my daily work, trusting I am enough and what I do in quality is exactly what is required. That when I race the quality is eroded and detracts from what is all there ready to be delivered. There is still a tension I can feel between my need to race and the beautiful grace allowing brings. So to pause and appreciate this grace so I may feel the gold it delivers is key.
This completely changes our relationship with time, if it is not time that moves but us that is doing the moving. Our experience of time therefore would be in how we move.
I really hear what you are saying here Rosanna, makes so much sense and perfect for me to read today; ‘Our experience of time therefore would be in how we move’, as we do the moving. – is a little nugget of gold.
Being with time allows us to life flowing through us and be aware of this. Life continuously flows through us non-stop, every second in all days, yet only when we’re with life, we’re with time and we are actually living our life rather than going (stressy) through life. Leading to exhaustion and anxiety.
What a great turn-around Anonymous. I can really relate to all you have said – especially that sense of having to get through mountains of tasks, work, domestic chores, pay bills, get you hair cur, put out the garbage, get the car serviced, renew the house insurance, update and backup the computer. It always seemed to me that there were endless tasks required in the temporal that had to be got through, rushed through, and no time to ‘live’. Like you I hadn’t quite twigged that one lives and brings the innate joy no matter what one is doing – and that time is simply a measure of how many times we go around the sun until we get our livingness happening and established!
Living my life in connection with myself and my body, rather than running with a schedule that does not belong to me and is not impulsed by me, has been revelatory.
We can live in a way that goes from one activity to the next without a pause, but when we take moments to stop and feel, our next movement can be from a point of connection. For example, when we drive to a place for an appointment, or even just to go to the shops, normally it’s handbrake on, open door, get out. How often do we sit and feel, connect with our bodies before even opening the car door?
The stress in the body of clock watching and racing time is undeniable. How can you win a race when your competitor doesn’t even know there is a race going on?
This kind of conversation is relatively new to me and I still find myself fretting about time. In fact it seems more extreme as I now tend to be conscious of it when it happens! Yet what is amazing is that I have started a deepening understanding about my relationship with time as a ‘go-to’ point that helps me reflect, assess and slowly change my patterns.
Why do we, well I place so much on the time. I run my life to it and use it to see how I am going. It’s like I say to myself while ever I am on time everything is going ok. It’s not that you don’t use the clock but the way I still use it takes away from who I am. There is an awareness that we have, that I have about time that doesn’t relate to the hands on the clock. It’s a feeling, a flow, a rhythm not unlike what animals see when for examples birds are flying. They don’t need a GPS or a clock to know what time it is or where they are going to. They have a sense or an awareness of something greater, of an energy that supports much more then simply being on time or judging you life on the clock. We are far greater then we can imagine and time is just a measure of our revolutions around sun.
The controlling and rushing of time is some thing so easy to go into, but when we are with ourselves in the quality of every movement, time opens up and is with us all the way and our whole life changes.
I have found that when I watch the clock a sense of tension and anxiety riddle my body and I feel drained. But when I simply stop, adjust my movements and connect to my connection to my movements, time disappears and space reveals itself in oh so many ways.
This is a very honest sentence that I can very much relate to – “the levels of drive and momentum I had built up over my life were still very strong and overrode my ability to stay settled.” Feeling settled in the body is something I now value above all. I can feel how healing it is as it opens up the space all around me and within me.
“After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.” that is a really interesting way to look at what time is and how time works, that we are the one creating all the tension and deadlines not time itself. I’m going to have to spend some “time” sitting with that so that I can explore what leads me to feel I run out of time when sometimes I can have a full day but feel like there is more than enough time and other days there is less things I do but no time to complete them.
‘I was prepared and would wait ahead of time for others. As a result, I often found it hard to unwind at the end of the day and this would lead to my collapsing into bed feeling exhausted’ – It’s impossible to temporally fault being ‘prepared’ for the day ahead, however if we look at the underlying drive behind this it can actually be a coping mechanism to have everything planned out to a tee, to escape responding, adapting or feeling what’s true to do throughout the day – acting on impulses rather than an exhausting set list of activities.
“I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” A race we can never win, it’s like trying to out run our shadow. This is a beautiful example of what can happen when we realise that what matters is the quality in which we do something and how when we stay with the task in hand, take command of the quality of our movements, time seems to relax and get more spacious. It is surprising what can be accomplished without all the stress and drive.
When we are in our natural rhythm and present in our bodies, there is always enough space with the day just unfolding as it should.
I would often feel like I never had enough time to get everything done in the day and was clock watching at every opportunity. This used to be me all of the time, trying to see how much I could get done and feeling really good if I got more than I planned to get done, but feeling awful if I didn’t finish what I had planned to get done. The whole time running on nervous/anxious energy to get these things done. Thankfully now I am listening to my body more and making use of the space around me to remind me that I need to give myself space in what I am doing. That way I get to feel how amazing it is to move with my body while doing what needs to be done and I don’t go into nervous energy to get them done.
There are so many things about time that we continue to choose time and time again not to notice but you have nailed some beauties here, time doesn’t change, it is us that choose how we are within that time frame, which never stops going round and round until we eventually choose to be in rhythm with it and not fight, race or try to change it.
Beautifully said Kevin, “until we eventually choose to be in rhythm with it”. It is a pointless battle, when we let go of attempting to beat the clock and surrender to the rhythm of our day and night, we align with a deeper harmony, one that has been established by the movement of our planet, the sun and the stars. All time does is compartmentalise our journey back to the same spot. Trying to fight that just drains all our resources.
The last time I read this blog I could feel my own relationship with time having been about delay but re-reading this I can feel how this and the resistance I have felt is actually to the impulses I feel to act and do certain things and that they relationship I feel with time is between these impulses which I have a tendency to delay and time which keeps moving at the same rate so this is how I feel ‘behind’ time.
I have found after a lifetime of having the clock rule me, the freedom of reading time. As you have said that starting one’s day with a connection to yourself, is always an amazing way to start every day, no matter what time you awake.
It is so easy to get caught up in time as you say, I am fully appreciative for Serge Benhayon and his teachings on Time and how the Universal Medicine modalities fully support us to connect to ourselves. When we are connected time doesn’t even come into the equation, I have found it is there but I give myself so much space that I don’t have to be rushing to keep up with time. This certainly has changed the way I feel on a day-to-day basis.
Racing with time is really useful when we are tired – being late creates stress which puts adrenaline in our body and we then have plenty of energy to do what we want to do. The only trouble is that we are pushing ourselves when we are tired and going into emergency mode (adrenaline) all the time makes us more and more tired.
If we shifted focus away from time and towards the quality of our movements throughout each day, the day takes care of itself.
It is interesting how when we do things by the clock, how the rush, the push, the drive, kicks in, and yet, given the same circumstances, if you simply choose to remain with your body, in connection with that awareness of yourself, the construct of ‘Time’ seems to disappear, opening up to a spaciousness where you get done what needs to be done without that time pressure.
On being a clock-watcher, yes, i can very much relate to this Anon, constantly checking the time to then see what to do/by when etc…. because of this, I did an experiment one time and took my watch off over a weekend to observe how i would feel/how it would affect me, and i learnt that when there is no pull (of a watch), there is flow, and where there is flow there is spaciousness where time only exists on the hand of a watch wearer (!) No wonder when i was a young child without a watch, did the days seem endless, timeless.
Great experiment, Zofia, and an effective way to break through patterns or momentum of being trapped in a temporal reality of our own making.
I love what you have shared here Zofia! Your experiment shows us that we can become so reliant on the time and that it can control our every move. I remember as a very little girl hearing stories of my great grandfather and how he used the sun as the marker of time growing up in a remote community. He was raised and taught by his elders to listen to the body to adjust to what was needed with eating and sleeping times. A far cry from the obsessive manner in which we use time today and can still run late!
Superb comment Zofia and interesting scientific experiment. I don’t wear a watch, haven’t done for years. I still look at clocks to see what time it is, but I am much better at tuning into my body and feeling what time it is. My body will always tell me when to hurry up, when to go and when to stop something, it’s like I am living inside a watch. It certainly brings a whole new meaning to the term ‘Body Clock’!
I know if I’m rushing or racing against time it affects the quality of connection that I have with others too. I’m learning now to put the quality of connection in my interactions and movements first as that is what matters most, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that I get less done either.
I agree Fiona, it is interesting to see the difference between someone who is focused on what they are doing, and someone caught up and carried away in the rush of what they are doing
Fabulous topic Anonymous and one that we could comment on forever. When we treat time as an enemy instead of observing as a marker then we are reacting to it – with contraction, angst, raciness, anxiousness. Our relationship with time is yet another arena where we can look at a loving quality of relationship.
Enjoying life is only possible when we surrender to life. And it is in this surrendering that we are with time, in space. Something most natural, yet very rarely seen or spoken about. Time is for me connected to life’s purpose. We know that we’re here for a reason, yet we’ve lost the connection with true purpose. So often we get racy or lazy, stubborn or reluctant, but all are not ‘it’. To be = to be with time. It’s up to us to develop a loving relationship with our being and in that a loving relationship with time.
Since I watched that presentation of Serge Benhayon in Sydney that you mention Anonymous, I have had this image keep coming to me of a hamster stuck chasing in a wheel. Sometimes it tries to speed up thinking its prize is in sight, only to find it is hurtled round even faster, like a T-shirt in a washing machine. When I buy into time this is what happens to me. It can seem so ‘real’ so it is powerful to know it is nothing but a shared delusion.
If we are constantly clocking the minutes ticking by we are not present in this minute to feel and observe all that is being offered right now.
So true Paula, and a ‘timely’ reminder as I find myself constantly checking the clock at work!
The quality of our connections is key in relating with others… we all know when someone is ‘with’ us or if they are mentally preoccupied with something else e.g. the next thing they have to do, or the last conversation they had – or even thinking what they will say in reply to what you are saying! Our presence in each moment, or lack of it, is deeply felt by all of us.
That is so true Paula and something that I too am aware of doing with people. It can be so easy to simply stay present long enough to satisfy our own needs, but pay little attention to the needs of others, or consider the bigger picture. It’s most definitely a choice to truly be present without an agenda. We all feel it. What a gift to become aware of and to offer our selves and one another: our complete and undivided attention.
“I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment”…I keep doing this reading with this blog! And then I read this line and came back to enjoy connecting with the wisdom that you are sharing with us and could feel the tension leave my body. I keep coming back to this blog as it is such an important topic to explore – our relationship with time.
When we race against time, we are really in a movement where we’re racing against ourselves into exhaustion by controlling life. When we are being with time, we are connected to ourselves first and move with that, where moments become about quality and being present.
It is two very different ways it feels in my body when I am with time, or when l’m racing it. The latter is agitating, draining, often humourless and most definitely without an ounce of real joy. Not much to recommend it when I put it like that… but l’ll still find myself headed that way when I’ve taken on getting something done, over the quality I might otherwise do it in.
Time exists to measure the movements we have made away from the truth of who we are and thus also the movements we make back to this, our true glory.
Clock watching leads us to exhaustion chasing time because there will never be enough time in the day to fit everything in so it comes with a quality of emptiness. When we allow the flow of energy of what needs to be done being with time in any one day, it is empowering and changes the whole quality of the action.
One of the most stressful feelings is when I am racing against time. This race is set by me and nobody else. In this state I am completely disconnect to my body and I go into hardness to get things done and the consequences of this is stress, resentment and leads to disconnection with people because of the disconnection with myself. This takes the joy out of every day tasks and every day life leaving one feeling exhausted and lost. Choosing to let go of this mad race with time feels like I have all the time in the world to connect to myself and to feel the joy in my every movement.
I am increasingly finding that it does not help anything when I am stressed about time and try to push and hurry things along. There is a natural rhythm and order to things and when I ignore this the only change is the distress I feel and the agitation I spread to everyone else. Sometimes I have been neglectful in my planning and care, so I am out of flow with everything else and the sooner I own that the sooner I can turn it round. And sometimes in error I try to impose the pace I think things should move in and frustrated when it does not go as I planned – but again and again I find when I accept the rhythm everything is unfolding in it all turns out far more amazing than I imagined.
‘the levels of drive and momentum I had built up over my life were still very strong and overrode my ability to stay settled’ I am still finding this, despite weeks of recuperation after a serious operation, the old patterns of ‘must do something’ are still there and I’m never fully relaxed. I have been enjoying connective tissue sessions in the past and you have inspired me to go for more.
Since first reading your blog I have become more aware of my relationship with time on a daily basis. I don’t look at the clock so often and when I do I am more aware of how .. whether it’s to fit in with time or see what the time is. Thank you.
The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ – This is such a great point, what quality are we offering to others when we are in an internal race – goes without saying that it is not one of true connection but most likely one of constant distraction.
That’s true Eva, when my body’s in the agitation of racing time – even if I seem to be paying attention to another, there is not the steady connection that I know I can offer when I choose to be with time rather than (imagine I’m) playing ‘catch-up’.
It is a little odd to read that the tension of time was in you body but when I feel into it I do fully understand what you mean Anonymous. I do know that too that my body becomes hard, the lines in my face become deeper and firm and my arms are not relaxed but filled with tension instead and that just by my relationship with time!
Time is a great indicator of how we have been with ourselves, as in, how has my morning been, and how do I feel at the end of the day? We can use time to clock or reflect on what we are choosing for ourselves.
Something I am discovering about myself and time is that when I let work load pressure me to push myself, the thoughts in my head also increase, this, ultimately uses more time and instead of getting faster in this choice, I become slower and more unsure of what I am doing. So to me, rushing to fit a time line, is just a massive big trick.
It is amazing how making small changes in a self care routine can increase self confidence and self certainty
“A year later, I have started to truly feel what my priorities are in each day.” now this is a really interesting question to pose to oneself, in a session recently we were asked what do we do for ourselves each day and what do we do for humanity. It certainly brings a focus to each and every movement and what is our purpose and intention – safety and security or knowing the quality of our energy has the potential to deeply inspire.
“I was under the impression that this was the way life was and that I just had to keep my head down and keep going.” Yes, isn’t it incredible how we can live a large part of our lives imprisoned by a false belief that keeps us on a hamster wheel when we could easily step off?
I know that when I am racing against the clock time seems to shrink. And the tension that I create to race against it actually slows me down. When I claim the space that I need there always seems to be enough time, and I don’t harm my body in the process.
Yep Rebecca, I have noticed the same thing. I also notice the expansion when I stay connected with myself and that time seems to stretch out, expand and almost like it has stopped. But when I rush and put myself under pressure and feel like I am going to run out of time, I feel like I am being compressed and a tightness throughout my body, and I feel totally contracted, rigid and hard. Such a huge contrast between the two relationships with time.
Racing against time is a ridiculous notion when we stop and consider what it really means. Time will never change, but how we are with time can change. I am learning that the more I let go of time, and simply allow myself to fully focus on what I am doing, when I do look at the clock I am surprised at how much more time I have. I am learning to trust in myself that I can and will do what is needed in the time I have to do it when I dont allow myself to be so controlled by the clock.
Yesterday when speaking with a busy store manager, he suddenly started talking about the pressure he feels with how time rules him and every minute the clock ticks is like a drain on his life, feeling like a time bomb waiting to explode as he scurries around trying to keep up with it. We shared an amazing and very unexpected, 25 minute conversation on being in spaciousness rather than time. And, spaciousness was tangible as we talked about the Gentle Breath Meditation [http://www.unimedliving.com/meditation/free] and being in conscious presence with the body – he said it felt like time had ceased to exist as he noted the very unusual occurrence of not one person coming into the shop during our ‘time’ together. As I left, he commented upon his posture feeling straighter and taller and as if a weight had lifted from his shoulders. His last comment being, that he was looking forwards to listening to the Gentle Breath Meditation audio with his wife when he returned home.
What I love most about time, is how ceaseless it is. We continue on this endless loop around the sun, always being given another chance, another opportunity to learn. And with each new learning comes even more understanding about everything that is. Time therefore supports us with deepening awareness. How gorgeous and precious, and what a clear sign of how tremendously loved we actually are.
It’s amazing what can happen and does happen when we don’t rush and open up to people.
Time is not a task master, it’s our greatest friend, a way to mark our evolution through the ages. As we keep returning to the same spot day in, day out, time gives us the opportunity to see if today we can make move loving, true and harmonious choices than yesterday.
To live without rushing, pushing and driving is a beautiful thing and something of a complete reversal to how we all currently live.
In the past and times I have tried to have opposite relationship with time by being in delay and just as much as racing time this impacts the body I attempt to hold back and delay life, resisting the impulses I feel to be in the flow.
As we expand, so too does the space around and within us.
Thank you anonymous, you’ve supported me to see one area of my life where I’m still tied to time at the expense of the quality of my movements in the moment and relationship to another.
To understand that I have more space than material things concerning my body but equally everything around me including the universe changes the whole perception of myself , others, the world.
I have also found that being a clock watcher will always put yourself last on whatever list you are working to!. I stopped wearing a watch years ago, why have an expensive watch… when you can ask someone for free, what time it is!
Such a brilliant blog and one I can relate to very well. In the past I recall being very attached to my watch which wasn’t great as I am a shift worker and work overseas a lot as well so I was constantly converting all the time zones in my head and ended up feeling quite drained by this addiction to time. I decided one day to give up my watch and stopped looking at the time constantly and it was amazing how much better and lighter I felt in my body and could work more easily through the night just by allowing myself to bring more conscious presence into each day.
“What was offered was paramount in supporting me to return to my natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time! I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life.” Amazing how we can allow this concept called “time” just completely control our lives. It was an incredible revelation for me when l heard this first presented by Serge Benhayon. Revolutionary, in fact evolutionary. It still evades me but when l allow myself to be with time my whole day changes for the better. Indeed, no more “clock watching” and racing against the clock etc. More livingness allowed.
“… I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension…” A great realisation.. how often is it that we do the pushing and then complain about the consequence of that push as if we have nothing to do with it?..
One thing I have noticed is that frequently looking at the time does not mean that I have actually registered what time it is – when someone then asks me, I have to look again. That makes me wonder how automatic and ingrained this behaviour around time is and how meaningless, in many ways. Possibly just there to keep us enslaved?
Today I caught myself racing against the time on my sat nav in the car, I play this ridiculous a game of wanting to beat the estimated time of arrival which makes me impatient and frustrated with other car users. As I was driving I remembered reading this blog and clocked what I was doing. I let the race against time go and was able to appreciate that I had set off early and that It would take as long as it takes.
‘A big ‘ouch’ and that ‘I get it’ light bulb moment rang true.’ – Very relatable, I have lost track of all the light bulb moments I have had since I first attended Serge Benhayons teachings. They are countless. And actually with Serge they are ‘the norm’, that’s just what he does – he turns the light on.
That’s exactly what it feels like when we have left our body, it’s a race, and it’s a complicated, stressful, and exhausting one.
An appreciated reminder this morning if I try and race time – it beats me every time. But staying with me in each moment with conscious connection to all of me allows a surrendering in my body and from here the possibilities are much more magical and simple with out an ounce of tension.
We set ‘time’ up as the enemy and the constraints it imposes becomes the contraction and imposition we feel in our body.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is one of the most beautiful modalities ever to land on planet earth. Along with Sacred Esoteric Healing I have been reminded of how beautiful it can be to live in my body, and that this is something that I can deeply commit to doing instead of running away from that.
I used to say that planning wasn’t really necessary. When I look back this was completely true, but what I wasn’t honest about is that I didn’t take a lot of responsibility so I had a lot of time to do the amount of responsibilities. As I’m taking now (much) more responsibility I’m experiencing at times the push of time. Accepting of where I’m at at any given moment is for me the best ‘medicine’ to come back to being with time.
I love this line ‘I am now living my life rather than rushing through my life’ – one I and many others know well. It’s so easy to rush from one deadline to the next that we forget to actually savour the moment, and actually feel what is there in front of us.
I have tasted here and there the spaciousness and expansiveness that is there when we do not run our lives according to time. It is amazing to feel that sense of space, a completely different feeling to the constriction that we otherwise feel. Now, when I do race with time, when I’m looking at the clock worrying about getting somewhere on time, rushing, kicking in my nervous energy, it feels so so awful…. and each time it happens I long to surrender back into myself into the expansiveness of the space I know is true. Every day it is a work in progress, but one I relish at working on. One day living and working in space will be the normal 🙂
There have been days in the past where I noticed time seems to slow down, to extend, even though I am very active. They are extremely lovely days that I treasure. On other days the time seems to fly by in a whirlwind of busyness. The common thread I have learned is me, and how much space I feel in and through me. This is something I continue to work with, but without doubt, there is more to time than meets the eye.
Racing time or ‘clock watching’ creates a tension in our body that takes us away from presence and out of the moment we are in. Racing or waiting – both are draining us and adding to exhaustion.
I find the whole relationship with time fascinating as I have, as I am sure we all have had experiences of time going for ages and then time rushing past, it shows to me it is totally how we are with time that matters not time itself. I love being constantly remindered that we are just coming back around to the same point, the only difference is how you are travelling to how you will be experiencing it.
‘After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.’ This brought a lovely aha moment as I read your blog today and realised my own relationship with time can vary day to day.
This is a huge realisation to experience the expansiveness of your rhythm as opposed to abiding by the constructs and limitations of ‘time’.
As much as we fight and detest time, we also love using it to avoid deepening our quality and our relationship with evolution and the spaciousness this brings.
This is something I have been working on as well anonymous. I still have days that I get caught in the momentum, but there is no doubt in me that I was the creator of the race against time, and this being the case, I am the one that stops the creation.
Great blog Anonymous. I feel inspired to really examine my own relationship with time as I’ve never properly considered it before.
It feels very odd when we first notice our relationship with time. My first thought was that everyone has the same relationship as I do, but this isn’t the case. Some people feel they need to chase ahead of time all the time and other people are behind time, trying to catch up. But time is constant and it is fascinating to feel the rhythm of the flow of time when we allow it to simply be. The Esoteric Connective Tissue modality connects us back to our physical bodies and as we let go of tension, it makes some space for us to feel so much more about how time truly is.
I often hear people sharing how they only get things done when there is a deadline, to me I find that a really difficult concept as I get anxious, tense and what I end up doing (if I leave it to the last minute deadline) is often not full of the care and attention to detail that I would have taken. For me this ties into clock watching, as I end up doing the same working to complete items rather than seeing the value in everything I do and not always putting myself up against the clock.
It’s often at the times which are most important to hold space around us that we get hooked by the time factor, utter irresponsibility in the face of what moves through us in each and every moment.
I have also noticed recently that the more space opens up and there is not the usual drive and rushing from A to B completely fixated on time, the more accustomed I become to the sense of spaciousness, feeling a release of tension in my body and greater harmony in my movements, which means that I can attend to things more efficiently and with a lovely quality.
‘I would often feel like I never had enough time to get everything done in the day and was clock watching at every opportunity.’ I can certainly relate to this but I am learning to let go of investments in seeing a particular job done at a particular self-imposed time and rather (whilst still being organised) accepting my day as it was allowing myself to pick up a job when there is space for it.
Slowly slowly my relationship with ‘trying to beat time’ is changing.
Periodically I find myself on a train that is stalled for one reason or another and I end up arriving at my destination quite a bit later than when I anticipated. There are moments when I see clearly that time is offering me an opportunity to see the rhythm of life I have chosen. For example: it is uncanny the days when I get really frustrated are those days that I have pushed it to the last minute knowing full well that a mishap on the journey will make me late.
So if I am honest I am feeling my own lack of care in my face, it is not “time” I want to beat, it is the consequences of my own choices I want to run away from!
How different and amazing our life can be when we live our own rhythm rather than that dictated to us by clock-watching…”I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” Being in our own rhythm brings a harmony that is inspirational – for ourselves and for others.
We race to be ‘on time’, but as you’ve shared we can never be ‘out’ of time; it is an illusion to have this kind of relationship to time, however we sabotage ourselves by agreeing to deadlines and temporal markers for time and using this as an excuse to exercise the stress of being ‘late’, which otherwise doesn’t actually exist!
What if we all actually have a very intimate relationship with time. Time and our body are ‘one’. If we would honour this very dear, graceful and loving relationship with our bodies, we would not have the dismissive, abusive, blaming, struggling etc relationship with time. Time itself is gracious as long as we live the spaciousness of it. Which for me personally is still work in progress.
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.’ so how much exactly are we all in some form of competition with time, to try and get ahead or just keep up. This is in fact an illusion as time is only a measure of cycles and it’s our perception of what we should or should not do in them which creates this possibility for struggle.
Years ago when working on shift work, especially when there was a quick turnaround from a late to early shift, there would be very little sleep in those few precious hours, because of constantly waking to check I had not overslept or the alarm had failed to ring. Most of the people I worked with had this same problem – we all referred to it as ‘time and alarm clock neurosis’. Clock watching is exhausting.
As soon as I start to clock-watch and think there is a race against time, I am feeling anxious! If I haven’t allowed myself the grace of ‘enough time’ and start to feel rushed, I remind myself to focusing on exactly what I am doing and how I am moving. I cant change the speed of the clock ticking, but I can change my experience around it.
I wonder how much illness and disease in the world would reduce if we got a handle on what time really is, for how much illness and disease are caused by stress and how much stress is caused by our ill management or misconception of what time really is.
“What was offered was paramount in supporting me to return to my natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time! I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” It is profoundly simple what Connective Tissue Therapy has to offer, even with something as basic as how we use and/or misuse time.
Absolutely Alexis, as a mother of 3 young children i know this anxiousness well, however reading Serge Benhayon’s book Time,Space and All of us, has helped me to see the absurdity of this self-entrapment and to understand the greater purpose and opportunity that time is offering. For us to live like the animal Kingdom, in sync with our Universal rotations and cycles.
Living with and from the ‘natural pace’ of ones body then only naturally flows in harmony with time.
“Ability to work longer periods of time without feeling exhausted” – this is such a tangible marker of change. Exhaustion is not normal and yet it is so very common in all walks of life. It makes sense that if in our heads we are thinking ahead by worrying about getting something done on time, or about getting somewhere on time when we can’t actually change anything except be totally present.
“Physical changes have occurred in my face, arms and legs due to the release of tension,” It is quite remarkable how our bodies are moulded by the tension we create. It is miraculous what can happen when we address our self made stressors, to align to and feel true impulse rather than allowing ourselves to be governed by the clock and all the ‘must do’s’ we invent for ourselves.
“The tension in my body has led to physical changes where I am more settled in my walk and have an increased sense of self-certainty. Physical changes have occurred in my face, arms and legs due to the release of tension, and the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!”
Anon its remarkable to hear about these physical and physiological changes that have taken place, it makes one realise the significant toll that this race with time has on ones life and wellbeing.
How can we make something that we have no control over shorter, longer or stop? We are constantly attempting to squeeze in that little bit more or watch it crawl at quitting time or wish for it to freeze frame for some guilty pleasure. When we accept that time is the river we are all on it is the activity that we fill the journey with, that matters!
The clock can be a hard task master. Much better to befriend time as you have done Anonymous and go with the flow instead!
“Time waits for now man”. Yet we all try and beat it – a constant distraction from the fact that we are not living our truths. Easier to complain and battle with time, than it is to honestly look at the life we are living.
It is so true from my own observations that we all are so busy rushing about trying to cram in things to do, that we are missing out on the depth of connection that is available in all our relationships.
I had this experience on Friday actually. I was working from home and we had a plasterer here at the same time plastering a ceiling in our kitchen. We struck up a lovely conversation and had a great connection and I knew I had work to do, but it just felt natural to spend some of the time chatting with him. I could feel the thought come into my head that I had better move on and get back to all the work I had to do, but I resisted this thought and actually let go of the race with time to have a moment of connection with another person.
‘…the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!’ I can’t say that I am quite at that point yet, but I do feel inspired by your words to allow more space into my life.
After reading this blog yesterday Anonymous, I found myself running ‘late’ for a big event I was headed to. I was short and annoyed with my partner, walked in an abrupt and stilted way and insisted we take a short cut that ended up taking us much more time. And guess what?when we arrived, we discovered we had the start time wrong, so we were 30mins early and first in line. It was unmistakably clear to me how I get played by this concept of time that does not actually exist. For me what I have seen is it doesn’t matter what the numbers on the dial or display even say, every moment is time for Love.
Time is never an excuse and if ever I use it, then I know i am lost. Time never changes its rhythm, so it can only have been me who made the un-loving choice.
Beautiful, Joseph – “every moment is time for Love.” It is indeed interesting to see how we trip ourselves up with time when there is no need.
With the huge levels of stress in society, that we have come to consider normal, this article gives so many tips on how to get off that hamster wheel and live your own life. I can relate to the busyness and filling in time with doing stuff. In fact I am pretty sure most women are masters of this. It feels so effortless when I work in a way that trusts that I will know what pace to work at and listens to my body’s natural rhythms. When I get ahead of myself and worry about time, this is when I get tired.
I agree Fiona, there is almost a tug of war between our desire to be busy and live a fast paced life, and the fact that this is ultimately draining and we also want to slow down and have more control over the pace of life. It is unheard of not to be rushing all the time, let along to have discovered how to be able to live in rhythm with our bodies rather than chasing the clock, which is why this article is so awesome in what it is sharing.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy has brought the most amazing and unexpected changes to my life and along with Esoteric Yoga, has offered me the space to stop and feel, truly feel how my body is in any given moment. My body is more flexible, my tendency to rush is all but gone, and I walk with a grace that I didn’t know I had. I have also discovered that when I am moving in a way that doesn’t leave any part of me behind there is so much space available for me to do everything I need to do.
Anonymous I find your sharing absolute inspiring as I know exactly what you are talking about when you describe your were rushing through life. Is it not that many people are living like that???? With your open sharing there is a possibility to be more aware of this and that there is an other way to deal with time.
One of the best ways I have found to deal with time is to do something when I have the impulse to do it, which is usually well, well ahead of any deadline. That is by far the easiest and most effortless approach. It takes energy to resist that impulse and then to deal with the increasing anxiety as the deadline approaches.
It is quite incredible to feel the space and flow and even the abundance of ‘time’ when we let go of working to a time schedule. Thank you for sharing!
There is always a list of things to complete. Completing them correctly requires a quality that is a flow. That flow can only flow in its quality when it is honoured in the proper completion of the quality of movement. The simplest way I understand this is applying All of You to All that is in the flow of what is needed. And being All of You is being totally present with you in the moment. This way there is no pictures of what you think is needed – it just is as you in the moment.
When we are racing time then the way we conduct our whole life is imbued with raciness. This quality of energy suits our current/contemporary lifestyle very well and so is rarely questioned. The busy racy person is prized for their efficiency and engagement, but at what cost? The cost of our health and relationships which you have so well demonstrated Anonymous. This raciness prevents the stillness to be there in our bodies – a stillness that is so necessary for us to be able to truly love one another and also be able to observe and read a person or situation for true understanding. So raciness is a very effective weapon against truth!
I love what you have shared here Lyndy Summerhaze ‘raciness is a very effective weapon against true”. How interesting this is to observe through all walks of life. Add a cup of regular stimulants that we as a society consider the norm to kick-start the day or reboot during the day and we have society based on ill truth searching for truth. Thank you for your deeper insight on how racing with time is truly harming and hence why a blog like this is powerful in bringing the teaching of Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine to show that there is another way.
“The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment” – how true is this, every single exchange from speaking, walking, sitting in a chair, dressing, eating, typing on a laptop…, is like a movie scene in that at every second or take, exactly where we are at [one’s quality], is being revealed to us; and to everyone.
I agree, it is quite joyful to take a step back and to be more aware of the quality of what we are doing as we have much more choices with that slight step back, with that extra ability to observe.
Every day the clock is there as a marker for planning out our day, and our relationship with it is a lot to do with how we personally live, if we give ourselves space and value the quality we are living then time is our friend but abandon this quality and time is always an enemy.
I agree – the clock need not be the ‘hard to get’ in the relationship, it is there as a tool, a way to mark out a day and keep to appointments ect – we need to be places at certain times because thats just life. But it is when it begins to govern, to seemingly disappear and be eaten up by the moments we check out, or when we rush and loose our flow, that is when time becomes more than it is, and it can feel like the enemy
I love the way you have described this race with time, Anonymous: ‘The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ The relationship with time does hugely impact on our relationship with others. If time is an enemy or something we are in constant contention with, then the quality of this affects our other relationships. The state of our nervous system would be ragged and the impulsive true love would have trouble getting through!
‘Letting go of the alarm clock and working on a nightly routine where I made sure I wound down before placing myself in bed’ it is the quality we take ourselves to bed with that determines the quality we wake in
That is true and the quality we wake in influences our morning which influences our afternoon and so on. We can use that influence to keep doing better and better or doing worse and worse or create lots of tiring ups and downs – our choice.
I have never felt as surrendered in my body as when I am receiving the Connective Tissue sessions. These are amazing. I have also been someone who has run busy my whole life in a racey momentum and through things Serge has shared I am starting to look at this. He shared how we are often more tired by what we don’t do than what we do- I have been playing with this- my mornings used to be rushed and I didn’t get much done. Now I have committed to working on things in the morning and I find I have a lot more time and space- it is fascinating how your choice to how you use time impacts on how time runs.
As a practical person I decided to put this key sentence into action and started to use a clock or watch to . . .
. . . read the time rather than worrying about staying on time. This is such a great tip Anonymous, one that I will remember when I too have chosen to run with the time and leave my body and take it into nervous tension to do so.
Reading this has inspired me to consider when it is that I reduce who I am to fit into time frames and when it is that I choose to be all of me in space – the relationship I can always have, should I choose to, with the cosmos. And it’s those moments that I am fearful, am anxious and unappreciative of vastness that we each can be that I choose to forgo that awareness and concentrate on fitting in to a self-created prison/construct of fitting into time. So this can be got to get x done by x time today or by the time I’m x age – which is very different to feeling what is next and respecting the universal flow that’s part of us. And each choice to let go, trust what I feel builds my relationship and awareness of my natural rhythm.
This is an area I really need to develop, quality first, first not second! So important and really so simple.
We probably all know how time can ‘fly’ or time can go at a snails pace yet the clock doesn’t change its speed so what is going on? I have come to realise, so far, through experimenting that the difference in what I think I am feeling lays in how I am in my realtionship with myself and how I am with the space around as this is affected by the quality I am in at all moments. This is an ongoing experiment and that is revealing more. Thank you for a blog that is confirming of what I am realising.
‘My day starts with a connection to me first’ this is something I am learning to do every day because without that connection everything I do is of no true value. We have been provided with many ‘tools’ for checking in during our day, tender finger tips, opening doors, gentle breath, feeling our body, how we walk, as well as many esoteric therapies that support that connection. Many of us spend our lives checked out, and it feels so different when we are ‘checked in’.
“Was it possible that I was controlling and rushing the time rather than staying with time?” It makes sense when we try and push anything it often feels like there is a force pushing back. However when allowing something to be a flow can be felt. Quite different feelings and very different outcomes.
I so love this blog. I am reading it every day as it holds such wisdom about a topic that effects most people. I would think that most of us struggle with time and want more of it, and have a tension to some degree around it. And this tension, be it low-med-high level, is running through our bodies constantly and is going to have to have some wear and tear associated with it. I mean if a car had a part that was revving itself more than it should, the mechanic and you would be onto it and getting it fixed.
It is so much about working with time rather than against it – “read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” – Love it!
The concept of time sometimes feel like ‘a tongue twister’, sometimes I can’t quite get my head around it. It’s almost like we have to forget about ‘the time’ and just be with our body in each moment while completing all that we have to do and then observe the time secondly. This is a great subject to be sharing on and as I continue to reflect on what comes to me I am realising that when we are involved in the race against time many other ‘something else’s’ are dictating our lives – no wonder we get exhausted.
It is great to hear that since you have let go of trying to control time you feel more self-certain. This shows how control (setting 3,4 or even 5 alarms) does not work, instead the opposite, letting go and surrendering does.
Isn’t it ironic that we rush around from one external thing to another dictated to by a clock… when in fact the reality is that we “…return to my(our) natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time!” It is a rhythm that comes naturally from within us.
Clock watching tends to happen when I am already out of my natural rhythm. I have discovered that my body knows exactly when it is time to move from one activity to the next without having to ‘watch’ the time. Looking at the time becomes a confirmation of what I have felt instead.
Esoteric Connective Tissue Therapy is truly remarkable in the way it supports the body to release. What a beautiful gentle transition, from rush – to realising more energy, less tension and a steadily building settlement in your body.
Time is telling me that the time I have wasted procrastinating has never helped me solve any problems. At times I do need to step back and take in the full story so that I can then re-connect to the love I am and get on with what is at hand to be done. Seeing life as a full cycle and getting to the fact that life is all about a cycle and a learning curve to eliminate wasting time so that I can evolve and share that evolution as a reflection so others can feel there is another Way, The Way of The Livingness.
When you put it so simply Adam, there is only one choice! Feeling into my day it is so easy to love every aspect as it naturally unfolds before me.
Wow. This used to be me and many of these things still linger. I love what you shared about racing time rather than being with time – it is very stressful, keeps the body in tension, doesn’t allow for connection with others and life is all about function. I know from having lived this way for years that the magic of life is pretty much always missed. Keeping to a self imposed schedule makes life very rigid and it’s like having blinkers on – don’t distract me, I’ve got a schedule to keep.
I used to feel so out of control, unable to be on time, always struggling to get done before time was up but Serge has presented an understanding of time that no one else has and it has helped me see how I was allowing time to squash me. It was a horrible way to live.
Now if I feel it start to happen I know I just need to feel my body, feel ME and allow the moment to unfold knowing it is big enough for what needs to happen in it; I am able to feel what the moment is for and be with time instead of pitted against it… and this works like magic.
Time is a peculiar phenomenon. I can relate to your blog, as I often have the feeling that there’s not enough time. But what is time? I love your comment at the end: “the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!”. And each and every one can decide what we put into the day, and the clock just shows me what part of the day it is right now. It is very interesting how we put so much power into a concept.
I used to need an alarm clock to wake up because I was so exhausted, I would generally oversleep otherwise. Time does seem linked in with control issues and not being in the ‘now’, if we are always trying to plan ahead of where we are at any precise moment. I know I can easily fall back into that old pattern, especially when I have a lot of things to do, instead of accepting things will flow.
We actually have a lot of time during the day but how much do we use out of connection with ourselves and our bodies? And how much are we avoiding making time to connect, instead choosing things that support us to check out and escape from life instead of embrace it?
Much like time, if we remain steady in a current of water we will be be largely unnaffected. Fight, struggle, lose ourselves in the moment and we will drown for sure.
When we start to understand time outside of the norm of the ages things will really start to happen. The realisation that time is always the same and it is us that change to try and stay with it, race it or get ahead of it to our own demise is something well worth delving into. Using the modality of Connective tissue Therapy to help stay connected to the flow and rhythm of your body to stay in sync with time sounds amazing.
Our relationship with time is super interesting – we spend so much of it trying to be anywhere but in the moment and present with ourselves and our body through using our mind to be ahead of ourselves, reliving what has already happened or off somewhere else in a fantasy.
It is interesting to observe when this tension with time begins and when this tension of having to keep up/be on time, rush, push etc., begins. When I observe how many schools operate I can clearly see how we are conditioned from a very young age to go into this mode of operating – yes we need to commit to life and to being on time but we can have a very different relationship with this if we are ‘with time’ rather than ‘racing’ it. Being with time is in essence being in relationship with oneself and being present, ‘racing’ time is in essence lack of presence and allowing the outer to dominate one’s choices, allowing it to take the lead.
I’ve been reflecting on what you share here about “read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” if we all get to appreciate that time is a measure and a mark of a cycle, something that I’ve started to understand after reading the book “time” given that we are going around in cycles then I can start to see what you mean although for most of my life time has been something that I use to “stay on”. When I don’t worry about time but focus on purpose and connection everything changes and becomes much simpler.
It feels like there is so much that we choose not to understand about time – especially when we pit ourselves against it and make it a race. As you say ‘I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension’ – a way of living that leaves us constantly not present with ourselves and exhausted at the end of the day. When we learn to respect time for what it is truly reflecting we begin to get a glimpse of life truly lived with time to embrace everything – in it’s own time.
Yes, indeed. I find that when I am anxious it becomes all about time, and I go into an old pattern of trying to control everything, whereas when I go with the flow there is a knowing in my body that gives me authority and a sense of spaciousness throughout the day.
I totally agree Alison. Whether it is turning up for work or for a meeting, or any preplanned event, by getting there 15 mins beforehand allows us so much grace and the quality of our presence can be so much more just by our being so much more settled in our bodies.
Love what you have shared Alison and the numerology also works. I can feel that at my death I could be 15 minutes early, which I am just putting it out there so if this is a possibility I wont be late?
An inspiring read. It’s a big one for many people – our relationship with time. Great point that time doesn’t change, it’s us who bring in the tension and stress that is so often associated with time.
The joy of being with time and living with space is an amazing experience to be lived as a simple way and changes everything. Thanks to Serge Benhayon and his books and presentations on time and space for bringing this knowing alive for us all to feel the expansion and flow this allows.
“I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” This is so revealing and when we stop to consider what it really means, it makes the idea of trying to ‘beat the clock’ somewhat ridiculous! Time is time, and that canot be changed, however as you so elopquently explain, our relationship with time can change. This is a blog that is full of food for pondering on. Thank you.
When we resist the passing of time we are fighting something that cannot ever be won – and hence why we end up so drained and exhausted. No amount of speeding up will ever help us catch up! In fact the exact opposite is the case… when we stop resisting, we allow more space for what is there before us to be done.
‘….,and the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!’ Very simple and it is this simplicity that offers us space in our lives.
‘After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension.’ This is a huge realisation to come to…it does make sense that time stays the same and that it doesn’t change, but it is our relationship with it that causes our stress.
Racing against time is exhausting. It fills our body full of tension and causes nothing but stress. There is no enjoyment of life, just a rushing to get through everything. This is no way to live. I know I can get stuck in this way of living, and it takes dedication to stop and wind down from it and change the energy. The same day can feel completely different if I stop the rush and come back to a connection with myself.
Anonymous, this is great to read ,’Less tension in my body and trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time’, I have noticed at work that I can work in a way that is rushing, it can be subtle but it feels like I’m trying to get things done as quickly as possible, that I’m on red alert and at the ready, then there is my natural pace, i never used to work at my natural pace because I thought it was too slow and noticed that others rushed when they worked, I am now coming back to working at this natural pace and realise that it is not too slow, that it is an efficient and graceful way to work, that is my natural way and that I do not need to try and work at a pace set by others.
Our relationship with time is so key to the quality of our lives because so often it is seen as a battle that we wrestle with every day in order to defeat it rather than surrendering to being with it and feeling what is there to be done. The constant tension I used to feel in my body led not only to exhaustion but much ill-health and frustration. When I choose to be in the flow of time my body relaxes and I actually achieve more with much more joy and harmony as I move through my day.
We think that time moves on and we need to race against it, but what if time was just an ongoing checkpoint for whether we are evolving or not rather than being the defining currency we should all fixate and base our lives on – ‘…time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension’
The other biggie for me is trying to ‘save time’, sounds crazy, but actually I try and save time by trying to do everything today even things that could be left till tomorrow….. and the trick is I am super organized. And yes it is good to be organized but not at the expense of trying to ‘save time’!
This is such a great revelation on life – is time really the issue or is it our relationship with it that is the problem?!
Why do we race something that doesn’t care who wins?
” read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” Such a simple shift in awareness that restores our responsibility to respect time rather than abuse it by attempting to squash too many things into the time we have.
“I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.” How ‘out of time’ we are when we do this ever so common behaviour. It is no wonder that life can feel so exhausting when one is constantly trying to be somewhere other than where one actually is.
well done, this is a huge learning for all.
When I stop clock watching and give myself the space to be with me I am always surprised how much time there is.
You could be writing my life-story Anonymous, and the life stories of millions of others. You should have signed it ‘Everyman’. In my exploration of time I registered exactly what you have said here about having to fill every wonderful space that arose – which also reminds me of those houses where every little shelf and surface is covered in ornaments! ‘At first it took a while as I was so driven by a fast pace of living that would see me filling in more ‘things to do lists’ when I noticed I had more time up my sleeve. I could feel that I still had a need to be ‘doing stuff’ in this extra time rather than connecting to the opportunity that became available for me to appreciate and confirm that I was starting to feel an ease in my body that I never felt before.’
This sounds like a revolutionary turn about for Time Management Courses, especially if it leads to ‘Less tension in my body and trusting that the pace I was working with supported me and was within time.’
Spot on Adam Warburton. The rush is the disregard for the cycle that we are all living. Keep rushing and the cycle continues time and time again. The choices are here as mentioned in this blog through the presentation from Serge Behayon to stay with yourself and time will just be that- a number on a clock that keeps on ticking. What is interesting here is the cycle we are choosing not to feel that works for us all and brings vitality and joy often opting for stress and exhaustion and thinking this is the only way we can live. Think again!
Reading this article yesterday inspired me to do some writing and look at little deeper into time. It is almost constant I think that I am not on time and yet when I look at the clock I am always at the exact time I see. Therefore it is always how I am or my relationship with time that is changing. Being aware of what you perceive time, late, early etc to be is the key also. After all time never speeds up, slows down, goes longer or shorter it’s our perception that is the constant change.
It is fascinating how the drive and momentum that we choose to put our bodies in can have such a harmful affect in the way that they can erode our ability to hold a settlement within… how gorgeous that with awareness and the commitment to overcome this you have let go of what does not support you and released the tension that came with that and can now live from a foundation that is in the flow of time rather than controlled by it.
When you share about the alarm clock, and no longer needing it, it made me think back to when i was a child and how that was [always] the case for me, i never used an alarm clock, and remember the natural ebb and flow of my awakening as my eyes opened each morning. Though when i started university, and later professional life, alarms became a staple, essential and reliance, and looking back it will have to be because of the quality i lived my days as a child being different to that of an adult.. with the pressure of exams, intensity of living and expectations. As we age, that surrender [in not needing as reliance any alarm, but instead one’s natural rhythm] becomes less and less the more and more we allow ourselves to be taken by rhythm of the outside world.
This is a brilliant article Anonymous. So so simple and deeply true about the nature of time and our misperception of it. The practical benefits are astounding, simply through you being able to actually know what time is!
Yes, I wish I saw that presentation. I have the book Time, Space and all of us, and I started reading it a few months back, and interestingly, I stopped…because I didn’t feel I had time.! HA! Perhaps a little reminder to take it up again. My obsession with time drains me no end. I know it, I’m aware of it, and the habit is so deeply ingrained I find it difficult to shift, but I so very much want to, because I can feel the effects of it in how I wake in the morning and when I have trouble sleeping at night.
Brilliant Anonymous. Human beings seem to be constantly ‘at war’ with time. It’s not uncommon to hear people say that time is ‘against us’ and that we ‘beat the clock’ you remind me that the battle we are fighting is actually a battle with ourselves and as such we can put an end to it at any ‘time’.
I read your blog yesterday but did not feel like I read this line – or really took it in – “read the time rather than worrying about staying on time.” It struck me about how much we view time as something we are against and then worry about it. I will take this into my day to read the time and not worry about it. Thank you.
To not be affected by the time but just know it is there as a guide of when certain things may need to be done. It is in the anxiousness of time that can arise that I see the quality of what I do drops, either through a drive or just a tension that removes the sense of ease we can approach life with. How wrong I feel the relationship with time is, and how different it can be to not be ruled by it.
Nice one, Anonymous. Your former relationship with time is, I’m sure, one that is very familiar to many readers – it certainly rings a bell for me (so to speak!). It’s a curious thing that so many of us have developed this ‘governed by the clock’ mentality, not typical of all cultures, but probably apparent in most westernised, industrialised societies. It feels like there is much that has been contrived to keep us away from the rhythms of our own internal clocks and geared to the dictates of an external, linear and driven time-keeping system. I can hear productivity and social experts throwing up their hands in dismay and decrying the notion of working to internal rhythms but, coupled with responsibility, doing so in a dedicated yet spacious quality would, I feel, be far more productive than clock-watching and drivenness, and far more honouring of our bodies.
It is amazing that we can externally tick all the boxes and impress everyone even ourself. But if we are not in harmony with the flow of the Universe and thus our own essence, the response of our body lets us know it simple, loud and clear.
Your story is a perfect example of how so many people’s lives have been changed by one thing that Serge Benhayon has shared. The incredible thing is he has now shared 1000’s and 1000’s of amazing pearls of wisdom, and continues to do so – and is supporting others to live in a way that they can do the same.
Thank you for sharing your relationship with time, it inspires so many to see that we can have an expansive relationship with time rather than feeling we are ruled by it. On a personal level, I am about to get a wristwatch – I have not had one for years – and reading this blog has inspired me to consider how I use the wristwatch and time.
I used to be someone who always wore a watch no matter what, and I was always looking at the watch and worrying about time, about being on time, about being late, about not having enough time, about how to kill time if I had to wait for some reason etc etc. Time was a battle ground and it was a constant race to see who would win with little or no regard to the quality that I brought to the moment or moments. But then, I think it was when I got pregnant, that I decided to let go of my wrist watch – and I went cold turkey! This is big for someone so hooked on time! And after that, I have never have worn a watch again. This did not mean my battle with time was over but at least it began to deal with my obsession which I gradually broke down, over TIME… (pun intended). My focus since then has been on bringing quality back to all that I do and this had been a long practice and a continuing one still today. And rather than make it about time, I have asked myself no matter how long something may take, how is it that I want to leave something (or someone) behind. And somehow doing this, has actually helped me make the quality more important than the amount of time it takes to do something. Of course this has not happened over night, and of course I still get caught in not wanting to be late etc etc, but as a work in progress I still feel I have come a long way in allowing my focus to change from the time factor to the quality factor. But I live your perspective Anon, and will play with this too and see how things change for me from here!
Thank you Anonymous for your beautiful sharing of learning to be with time rather than racing it! I am still learning and experimenting with this, and I have enjoyed reading your perspective and look forwards to more experimenting with this.
Serge has explained that everyone’s not really going anywhere, we are just experiencing things. This gets rid of ‘time’ being the focus – or us competing with time – or thinking we are going somewhere… and instead places the focus on our continual (culmination of) choices – and what we experience.
When I watch the clock, and ‘try’ and work within a timeframe, I feel tension in my body and my breathing changes…and in comes anxiousness. But more so these days, I’m aware of the clock and the time but use it as a guage rather than ‘trying’ to fit in or beat it (which is impossible) which allows more space and interestingly, things get done on time without pushing to get them done on time.
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time’, yep, I think I am guilty of that too and I am always thinking ahead of what needs to be done next at my work thinking that I am super organized but in fact am missing the moments…. I have become aware of this and is already changing.
“and the clock is just that – a clock that tells the time – nothing more!” It is simple what you are saying here but yet so profound as we have made time quite a stressful monster, a marker to abide to, a ticking box that dictates to us. Thank you for bringing time into another perspective where it is not used as a control anymore but a companion that accompanies us everywhere we are and go.
What I have noticed every time I am rushing around and fighting time is how my shoulders and back feel contracted and I get a sense that I am being pushed from behind. Inevitably I will drop something, be more forgetful and generally less effective at my work. Also, the more I rush, the more it feels like there is even LESS time to get things done. Certainly counterproductive.
Time can be a big weight we live under, that which we can constantly panic about, not capturing the opportunity that time gives us to clock our evolution and just live along our own day. Taking the presure off racing the time will support us deeply.
I have always wondered why time seems seems to pass by quicker when you are not focused on it. Does time really change when you are doing different things? If time really does not exist then why did humans invent the word? Is time really needed?
All these questions are just my mind trying to understand something that it cannot understand. I am working at staying in my body (feel what is going on, an actual physical sensation) when my mind starts to try to figure out something. It has taken time to relearn this (I knew how to do this as a young child) but it has totally changed my life. Less stress, reduced body tension, not worrying about things I have no control of. Our minds are amazing things but they need to be connected to our bodies in order to really help us.
I have heard people say to me ‘there is never enough time in the day’ and I used to agree but now I realised this is not true. It is my choice to race against time that feeds this feeling of not enough and the quality of every second and every one of my choices is then compromised when I compete with time. Letting go of this mad race with time and choose to connect to me, my essence feels exquisite.
Beautifully said Chan, for it is true quality and presence that we bring to time that breaks its hold on us.
What a great revelation this is Anonymous – no longer at the mercy at what was perceived as being a rush against time, but remaining with time as a marker, not a driver.
“After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension”.
I was the ultimate clock watcher. That drive to get things done on time. The stress to my body was awful which led to food and sleep issues. Fast forward today I have a foundation that allows me to get on with my day without the need to be ahead of myself. Creating time and space to Stop regularly throughout the day. I don’t feel the need to rush anymore.
“…racing with time rather than being with time…” What a transformational statement that un-wound the pace and pressure of time. Time is on your side when you live with it rather than against it, and I agree, this is definitely felt in the body with the modality of Connective Tissue Therapy. A great blog, thank you for sharing.
For most of my adult life I have worn a watch. If I left home without it (which was very rare) I would always go back for it. And yes I was constantly looking at it, always calculating how much time I had left to do x y or z, or how much time i had spent on something. It was more than a preoccupation; probably a bit of an obsession. Anyway recently I have not been wearing a watch. It wasn’t a decision, but it just seemed to be OK one day to not wear it and I haven’t worn it for some weeks now. Reading your blog again this morning I realise my relationship with time has changed. It doesn’t mean I get to places late or don’t care about time, but that obsessiveness has gone. I can appreciate that I feel more with time than racing against it.
As I was reading I could feel that I’ve placed myself often ‘above’ time. I can now feel how arrogant this is and actually often put me into stress at the end of the day, not having done what needed to be done. In fact when I’m honest, this tension was (is) with me all day.
When we connect with ourselves, our perception of time is one of togetherness. When we disconnect from ourselves, we create a state of being inside us which creates a relationship with time based on anxiousness and tension. In such state, there is nowhere to go. And, we go nowhere.
If ever I go into rushing now, I feel it instantly and it feels awful. Interesting not rushing means that I am doing whatever I am doing slowly, you can still work quickly, but not rush. You are correct in that it’s all about the quality in which we move our bodies, one with which we move in a way that deeply caring and nurturing of ourselves first.
“Letting go of the alarm clock and working on a nightly routine where I made sure I wound down before placing myself in bed.’ – such a simple practice that makes a mountain of difference to how I sleep and how I wake the next day. I set an alarm as backup but mostly wake before the time i’ve set it for. Waking naturally is so lovely with no sudden noise to bring me out of my sleep.
I can very much relate to your blog Anonymous. The race against time is often what causes a lot of stress and tension in my body. Reading your blog really supports me to let go of this and appreciate that a clock is only to tell the time.
It is amazing how the more presence we build and less focused on time we are, space naturally appears and the tension of deadlines can lessen.
This blog is very true. Whether we stress ourselves always being well on time or being exactly on time or always late by a certain amount, we always stress and drain ourselves. Time won’t change so we may want to start with ourselves.
What Serge Benhayon presents on Time and our relationship with it is deeply healing! It’s something that I’m developing my life – being more aware of when I go into rushing or trying to race time, and in that feeling like I’m out of rhythm or flow, and also not wasting time. I’m learning to give myself more space to get things done ‘on time’ so that I can put the quality and connection in the way I do things first.
Yes Fiona what Serge Benhayon is offering here is the gold and missing ingredient everyone is looking for to cope with the stress and strains of the world today. We just have to make the link with the increase in the consumption of caffeine and sugar as stimulants to keep us going on a merry go round that is as simple as what is presented in this blog.
The thoughts that there is never enough time has certainly fuelled my clock watching in the past, like it could run away form me if I was not constantly watching or monitoring it. I have been the person that was always five minutes late because I was always fitting just one more thing in. That all leads to the anxiety of ‘too much to do and not enough time’; like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland stories. It is a great journey when we let go of those old patterns and know there is always enough time and feel the flow, and everything seems to fall into place.
So much of what you share I can relate to, with a day full of things to do what stood out is that in the times of space I often want to fill them rather than allow that space to appreciate and confirm, i’ve certainly made massive changes in how I am living and like you the frantic clock watching has changed and become far more purposeful about connection and being at one with what task is to hand. Reflecting on it now I can see how I end up completing many more things than I ever did and whilst there is always more to do, there is far less of a race going on. I’ve found that if I let go of the needing to tick everything off my list then naturally I complete everything that needs completing. The only exception being when I react and loose connection with myself which sends my entire day into a spin.
I can relate. I remember trying to fit in so many things before a certain time, so I was racing to make this pressure I put on myself. I at that time did not listen to the rhythm of what my body was asking for or adhering to the way my body needed to complete tasks. Therefore at the end I would end up in pain, racy in my body and exhausted in a heap just wanting to check out with food or television. Now I listen to my body and move with honouring it which still allows me to complete what is needed but in my own way not against the clock. And if something needs to be left till tomorrow then that’s ok too.
‘I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.’ – It makes so much sense when you put it like this, it is almost ridiculous. How could we possibly enjoy the moment if we are already way ahead of that moment, i.e. not at all present in our bodies?
I’ve found that the more I allow myself to surrender and be aware of my body – I feel more content within myself as I am present with myself – then this allows me to fully be with and enjoy each moment and not look to the next as a way of keeping busy or in the doing of life. It is the doing of life and the lack of presence we can have with ourselves that I feel is the opening for us to forever be in the catch up and race against time/the clock rather than be with space and in the moment.
Indeed Johanna – the doing of life simply makes us slaves to time.
‘we use ‘time’ to distract us away from God.’ – Indeed Mary, the moment we dis-connect from ourselves by distraction etc., we simultaneously shut God out.
I too have found that it is in all the details, being aware of the opening of doors, how I am in the kitchen, putting away shopping, how present i am when I brush my teeth. These types of things have helped enormously in reimprinting how I have lived in old habits and being a slave to behaviours that have not been very loving.
Details allows us to be with space. I feel this too.
What a great saying ‘being a slave to behaviours’ I can feel how true this is in my body for certain patterns and old habits. The re-imprinting by being in conscious presence as you describe Raegan has been a savior for me in eliminating a lot of old ways that were no longer loving for my body.
‘How could I be racing with time when the clock was controlling how long I had to get from A to B?’ – And this is the trap we fall into; we give all of our attention to getting from A to B, and measure our worth/success/efficiency on how long it takes to get there, with no focus on the journey or intermediate stage which is actually the ‘life’ bit of it! For some, A is life as a child and B is death – crazy to think that all in between is seen as the ‘intermediate’ stage.
Good point Susie, we completely forget to have fun and enjoy life to its fullest.
We do attach so much to this don’t we. How crazy is that that we can attach our self worth to how a clock ticks along because of the xyz tasks we have or have not done. Definitely something to be looked at and feel. When we are with ourselves there is no issue with time and we feel complete and content.
I agree, and we dont consider that the way we feel when we arrive at ‘B’ is determined by the way we travelled from A – the end result is not as important as how we got there, because the end result will be taken care of by the quality of the journey.
I have also always been a clock-watcher – racing time was something I have also felt acutely…not knowing there could be a complexity different relationship to time if I allowed it. Being with time rather than racing it is a whole new way of living.
Thank you so much for this blog. ‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time’ How awesome to ‘clock’ this, but how even more awesome it is that you have found a way to be with time rather than race it. The marked difference on your health is totally apparent and what you have learned here needs to be public knowledge!
The message in this blog is pertinent to most of humanity. I think of all the professions such as teachers, those in the corporate world, all business and mothers and fathers who all seem to be fighting, twisting, trying to manipulate time in one way or another. But we can’t. Each second is just that and each minute is just that. How we are with our selves and movements in that is the key. Time can only every be a marker on a clock just as our bodies are the marker of how we have been with them. When we understand how to be with space we get to feel the universality and rhythms we actually are able to be with – no rush needed but much purpose.
I love this blog, it is so true and so funny how we can watch a clock and it never seems to move, or it moves super fast – the saying time flies when your having fun, or time waits for no man give time an almost alive personality. But what I have found is that time is only a slipperly substance when I try to grab it and make it work for me. I have disovered the power of space, when a day feel spacious, unrushed and without stress even with large workloads and lots to remember and get done.
These sayings are very much in our language and do show that on some level we do know about how time plays with us and how we play with time. But space on the other hand is a total different ball game that allows everything to happen in its true and right way.
I agree – time has become a well known and familiar partner in crime, always playing hard to get because it is not ours to hold
Trying to race time is futile and will always leave us feeling exhausted but it is something that I did repeatedly for many years. Many years ago I made the decision to leave for work 5 minutes earlier and was amazed at how time seemed to expand and the journey flowed so much more smoothly. Unfortunately I did not take this into the rest of my life and continued to feel frequently exhausted until attending Universal Medicine presentations and recognising how much I had abused my body by being in constant motion trying to justify my existence by getting ‘stuff’ done. Allowing my body to settle into its natural rhythm has made me much more productive and no longer a slave to time but willing to feel into what is needed next with much less use for a clock.
I grew up with a parent who was always anxious about time, and if we were ever going anywhere we had to be on time or they would get really angry. The tension I felt from them was far reaching, and as a result I became rebellious about time and consequently I was often late, or at least would be the last one to arrive places. What I have discovered since knowing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine is that the more I fully focus on the moment and what I am doing, the more I let go of ‘time’ and space opens up allowing so much more te be done in a quality that has no push or drive, but more of a support that allows for the next thing to be done. It is extraordinary, but it is true.
I find that the ‘race against time’ is really a race against myself. It is like a dog chasing its tail. I go around and around trying to catch up with myself, when in truth I could simply stand still and just be me.
‘At first it took a while as I was so driven by a fast pace of living that would see me filling in more ‘things to do lists’ when I noticed I had more time up my sleeve.’ I can relate to this very much. Filling in more things to do is now like a red flag to me asking me to look at ‘am I in the’ being’ or ‘doing’ of life?’
It seems to me that most of us relate to or use time as some form of controlling our lives, and as a way to hold onto the world, instead of surrendering to the natural flow of life. When we’re hanging on to time in a controlling obsessive way, we sever our connection with our natural knowing of when to move on to the next thing and what is needed next. Trusting that there is always enough time for whatever needs to be done next is part of re-defining our relationship with time and allowing things to flow again.
I resonate with what you say when you say you have short encounters with people because you are always watching the clock and moving onto the next thing. If we are truly in the moment we would enjoy every encounter and engage fully with people without the feeling of having to move on. Serge Benhayon is an amazing example of this. He is one of the busiest men in the world, but he always has time for everyone.
Getting into the anxiousness of rushing to be on time feels awful for the body, and goes against any natural movement, but when we drop that and give ourselves the permission to stop and walk or drive without the tension, quite often we find ourselves arriving at our destination on time.
‘I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.’ I wonder how many of us do this? I certainly recognise it but am now much more familiar with ‘being with time’ and my body appreciates this hugely.
A really awesome blog! The moment we shift from checking the time to then thinking we need to have enough time or worrying about what we have to do, the sequence and being somewhere on time is an entry for nervous tension which sucks! It has taken a bit of getting used to but a combination with a personal rhythm which is supportive and not putting things off then time can be our friend.
Anonymous, this is a great article, I can feel how I can be racing through life and thinking about all I have to do and there is a stress and anxiousness in my body with this, when I stay steady and choose to not get caught up in time and instead go at my natural rhythm this feels very different; life is much more enjoyable; I connect with others; feel at ease in my body and feel joyful rather than stressed, very different ways of being.
As a long time clock watcher as well, I can also feel the release of tension in my body reading this wonderful and timely (haha) blog. Universal Medicine brings practical yet life changing revelation to all aspects of life, freeing us to return to a natural and harmonious state of being.
Thanks for writing this blog it reminds me of how much unnecessary stress we cause ourselves when we race against the clock. I have set up my life to avoid this where possible but it still gets a bit out of hand when I have to pick my daughter up from school and I am miles away and the traffic is particularly bad. I have only started back wearing a watch resonantly as before I used to look at it too often but I am now far less concerned with how much I get down compared to the quality of the job in hand.
“Was it possible that I was controlling and rushing the time rather than staying with time?” I certainly used to do this – always feeling stressed and trying to beat time! – (as if that were possible!) It’s good to reflect and realise how much my attitude to time has changed since attending Universal Medicine presentations – and how my daily rhythm has changed too. If I start to feel anxious about time I clock it (pun intended) I come back to my body and make different choices.
In the past, I was also the dog fighting lead in relation to time. I had also spent periods of trying to wag the tail of the dog to do more at the same time. It’s funny that often older people can have regrets about not having time to complete things. I am in my sixties and have no regrets or in no rush. I enjoy every moment of every day. My current job with commuting is 12 hours of my day in clock time, but full of thousands of moments. Time is just a history of when things have happened in the past!
“The race with time was evident in the quality of my interactions with others. They were fleeting exchanges rather than moments of quality connection, as I was constantly thinking of what needed to be done next and never enjoying the moment.”
Thank-you for sharing how you have been inspired to re-imprint your relationship with time, for this a topic that many can relate to. It’s confronting to reflect on how we as a society have normalised this daily anxiousness and drive, as you say “I was under the impression that this was the way life was and that I just had to keep my head down and keep going.”
Being a continual clock watcher for most of my life I am loving coming to the understanding of the true meaning of time, presented to the world by Serge Benhayon. I can see that I had almost made time, or the lack of it, the enemy, instead of allowing myself to simply be in the moment. When I began to practice this I slowly began to feel that at times space would open up where I had thought there was none. I still have the habit of trying to squeeze as much as possible into the time that I perceive I have, but this stressful way of being is slowly being dismantled, and with it the anxiousness that I used to live with.
It is paradoxical that when we rush chasing time endeavouring to ‘make’ time we always feel we do not have enough time, while when stop trying to make time and instead flow with it it feels like we gain time.
Actually stopping and connecting with who ever is needing to talk with me has immensely changed the quality of my connections with people and we both walk away feeling met. In the past, often, I would be distracted with what I needed to do next or even who I wanted to talk with next who I deemed was more important…. no meeting each other in this attitude
Great point Mary-Louise! If I feel I was not fully with someone in a conversation because I was thinking ahead and ‘wanting’ to be somewhere else, I have noticed how this really taints the conversation, and I walk away feeling lesser and I know this affects the other person too! When we are not fully with someone, there is not the same quality in the interaction – and this is not acceptable to me anymore. Though having said that, I still often get this internal battle happening where a part of me kicks up a stink saying ‘hurry up I don’t have time to talk now’ and the other part of me stops to say ‘this is important, so I will stop and listen and talk’…I am learning each time when and how to handle things, whilst all the time still keeping the quality the focus and make it the same in all that I do.
You talk about how your ‘race with time’ affected your interactions with others. For me it is slightly different – I will use time as an excuse not to connect deeply and be utterly transparent with someone – as a form of protection. A true connection is not remotely dependant on how much time is spent together.
Serge Benhayon’s presentations and teachings on Time are revolutionising our entire understanding of its purpose and function in our lives, most importantly establishing the fact that time in not lineal, but spherical, a perpetual loop that keeps us returning to the same spot. I love how you have allowed your natural rhythm to emerge by cutting the rush and frenzy. Something I realised a while back is that time always keep pace with me, if I rush around, so does time, if I stick to my rhythm and work with efficiency, purpose and focus, time settles down too and a spacious quality appears. Time provides a framework for our day, how we choose to live within that framework determines the quality of our day.
“took the time”, “buy time”, “made time”, “found time” and many more expressions like this…all imply that we have some kind of control over time, that it is a malleable, flexible variable that we can manipulate. As long as we have this view of time, we will always be missing the bigger picture.
Thanks Anonymous, you’ve given some practical insight into what is otherwise a bit of a mind-twister. The understanding that we can be ‘with time’ and not ‘racing it’ is one I can begin to grasp from what you’ve shared.
Time is a tool by which I try to maintain control…. if I am on time, I believe I am in control. A total illusion, a total misunderstanding of time and a total denial of the reflection that time offers me – which is simply a marker as to whether I have evolved since the last ‘time’.
Wow, a very revealing article. I also feel often pushed or push myself but in the same way have a big resistance against it. So it is like a struggle in my body. To let go of time and start to build a rythm feels much more playful and light.
What a difference it is to live in the rhythm of our body instead of from our mind as the mind is only after recognition and reward, therefore reckless to the body and pushing it to extremes until it collapses while when we live in accordance to that natural rhythm that lives within, we live in accordance with that grander order and the universe and therefore everything we do will be in accordance with that and be finished on time.
I love the approach you took to understanding what racing with time as opposed to being with time meant in your life. This is such an empowered way to approach things rather than simply dismissing what it might mean in your body and just carrying on as before. This is inspiring because it is how we change things that are not supporting us, which is to feel it in our own bodies first.
Thank you Anonymous – I’m going to read this blog repeatedly as I can feel I am still a slave to time and I have not been able to see through it the way you have at this stage. The words you have shared make absolute sense and I can see that living them is life changing.
Thanks for sharing this quote of Serge Benhayon’s; “I discovered that I was racing with time rather than being with time.” There is a very different feeling to the quality of these choices, the out comes either enrich our life and those we connect to, or keep us in a cycle that only offers disconnection and exhaustion.
“What was offered was paramount in supporting me to return to my natural rhythm that funnily enough has nothing to do with time!” It is super supportive to read this Anonymous. What can be achieved naturally is where you are at with your quality of flow – this can be easily related to say if you were sick your flow is slower so to speak, but it is just natural to where you and your flow are at. Essentially you know when your in your natural flow is when things become simple.
Time and not being ruled by it is something I can feel I am still far away from accepting for what it is, but I liked the part about doing work in our own time, that there is a natural speed and flow that suits our bodies, that is something I can strongly feel when I work, efficiently but not rushed.
Thank you for this beautiful reminder that by choosing to be with myself and taking care of my body with much love and nurturing prepares my body for whatever and how much needs to be done in my day, and the way I experience my day only depends on how I am with myself, and nothing else.
Yum! I totally get that. I look back on the way I lived my life and it was one big rush – I am sure I missed so many amazing moments and would never have known because I was caught in the thrill of rushing! Burnout was a very good and honest reflection of where the thrill of rush and living life to the absolute full was actually detrimental to my body. Now I live life in full but actually at a pace which my body dictates, not the clock or my head.
.Such a great topic to consider because it’s huge! how I relate to time reflects how surrendered I am to life, to myself in my day. When I go into overwhelm and the fear of not enough time everything about me changes, the way I move, how I relate to others with definitely no time to ‘be’. When I let go and surrender what gets done gets done and most importantly I get to live each moment, not chase time (which is a little like trying to save sunlight in a box!)
Pesky old time always gets me when I’m not being with myself. Totally agree, when I make it about clock watching I’ll always be rushed, late, expecting, disappointed, etc and when I make it about me first I’m always pleasantly surprised at how things turn out so well (and on time). There’s a commitment, but no drive.
I like this Nick, ‘ There’s a commitment, but no drive ‘… then time is not the ruler.
This is fantastic to hear Anon, and also to read too, and i love your helpful realisation on time: “After a few days of experimenting I came to the realisation that time stayed the same and I was the one pushing and driving all the tension” – time stays still, and it’s us that moves, though in what quality, to make us either fractured and ‘time-short’, or connected and in rhythm with ‘time to spare’.
Time is one of the biggest causes of stress and exhaustion in the world. You just have to have a conversation with anyone you meet or a catch up with friends to ask how they are going and the first sentence that comes out is “there is never enough time to get things done”. What is interesting here is that we hear how there are more demands at work, in the home, with family and other commitments but never is there an understanding that this is not about the workload but how we are with ourselves. The presentation of Serge Benhayon and the published books of Time and Space are a true gem to ponder on what is truly going on in this world. A blog like this is a HUGE marker of how we can start to understand that time in not the “bad guy” here but the choices we are making to not look deeper in how we are living and the simplicity that is offered if we choose to make life about us and not our wrist watch!
I felt my body let go more after reading how your body let go of a lot of tension 🙃 and I realised and appreciated just how much my relationship has changed with both myself and time since knowing Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine.
I agree and wish to add that it is amazing just how much there is to learn and understand about time.
You described this race very well, I could feel the familiarity which I recognised as an anxiousness in my whole body. – Self inflicted and planned, to do exactly what you hinted at, to avoid something. It’s a real tell tale sign, not nice to feel but appreciated that these days I’m aware of it and can make different choices, whereas before I would have just run (literally!) on with that anxiousness.
Great blog to read at any time : )
I love how being with time, offers an expansion of space and it feels so supportive within our body. It also has a knock on affect to our movement which then holds us within that space to allow our expression to be honoured in full. Racing against the clock diminishes our natural and full flowing movement which stifles our expression, leading to stress and tension I find too.
When I try to get things done within a certain time or by a certain time I find there is a rushed feeling and tension in my body but when I go at my own pace staying with my body and what I am doing rather than being governed by time everything gets done anyway, in a natural flow, and it doesn’t tire me.
This is a truth to me too ruthketnor, when I connect to my body, it feels like a am part of a grander organism that has a rhythm too and when I am in that rhythm everything falls in place, is supportive and make things flow, while when rushing with time, my body suffers the tension that it brings with it, because I am out of the rhythm and the natural flow of things.
Yes I agree trying to work within the parameters of time can be very tiring and although we might have a sense of relief and even self gratification at a job done within a certain framework if that job has been rushed and does not hold the quality we know we can bring to it then is it really worth it?
I also find when I am constantly watching the time like when I have to get something done at a set time, I seem to create more stress for myself. Whereas, if I use the clock to just take note of the time and then go back to what I am doing without worrying about the time, I seem to get more done and have more time to spare before I have to do the next thing.
The race against time way of living is so common and so stressful creating tension worrying sleeplessness and a whole array of symptoms of not being with oneself ,ones natural connection rhythm and the flow of life. However it can otherwise by being simply in the moment with oneself allows space for all that is needed in a flow and purpose with the responsibility that really serves and invigorates us all. Appreciation of every moment is the key.
In time (!) these presentations of Serge Benhayon on the simple fact that time does not exist, will I feel, be seen for the huge life changing revelations they are. They should be front page news in our world today. I remember when I first heard him talk about it and how it felt like someone had taken my life and turned it inside out. This shows to me how invested in this crazy time race we all are as a society. Thank you Anonymous for sharing your experience here.
I agree Joseph. There is something so freeing about not being tied to time as well. I honour it and know the importance of keeping appointments but how I set up my day has changed since hearing some of the wonderful insights Serge Benhayon presents.
Beautiful beautiful Anonymous. Showing us that in fact time is nothing but time and that it is in our hands of how we move in our everyday life. The greatest of all is to live in a way indeed that is not bound to time, but acceptive of it , but always moving from the movement of energy that is from our Soul. Never time-related, even though this movement absolute respects time and goes with.
A really gorgeous blog about relationship with time which is something perhaps that is, for the most part, taken for granted as is the tendency to rush and panic. And whenever I get caught up in this, it does feel dreadful in my body, like an overwhelming tidal wave of fear. The Way of The Livingness however, has taught me and continues everyday to present the fact that how I approach time is in my hands, as time continues on it’s path – regardless of what state of mind I am in…
Changing our relationship with time in the way you describe is a life changer…feeling the difference between the two examples is inordinate…but simply down to a choice ‘to be or not to be’!
All life in our Universe moves in cycles and these movements are measured on Earth by time. The key for us is to move in harmony with these cycles and not against them. The issue here is that since day dot we have known how to move accordingly to such rhythms but despite this have got caught up creating a way of living that sees us live out of sync to this. This creates an unsteadiness and tension in the body because deep down we know that we are moving out of beat to all that truly governs us and so instead adopt our own discordant note that does move in tune to the greater flow of life we belong to.
Being ‘able to feel the natural pace in which my body moved’ is something not many of us stop to feel. We are usually going at a faster rate than this – no wonder we burn ourselves out! Once we reconnect with ourselves and feel our natural pace we start to put ourselves first before the clock and see that a clock ‘tells the time – nothing more’,
‘Time’ – we place so much on our ability to manage and control time yet instead of feeding us and holding us it exhausts us. To be with time and to hold ourselves in each moment is a new yet very old understanding but is loving of what is true. Thank you Anon for sharing the changes you have chosen to live and how your relationship to time has supported you.
I find when I’m doing something the moment I make it about the time space caves in and I find myself in my head. When I stay with my body space is created and the things I was worrying about getting done no longer seem like an issue.
‘Racing against time’ – yes I do, that’s exactly what I do, not always but often and I end up exhausted in a heap at the end of the day after pushing and rushing against the clock. When I am with time space simply opens up, I feel light and in a flow. It’s a million miles away from the feeling of the battle against the clock.
“Being with time” – these three simple words say so much. For if we are not ‘being’ with time, just what is going on for us? There are momentums and ways of abdicating ourselves that we have so deeply accepted as ‘normal’, that we do not realise how much we are ruled by external forces…
Thing is, it is really ‘time’ that we feel ruled by, or when we feel so ‘ruled’, have we given ourselves over to something else entirely…?
This is a great question. Most of us hide in blaming time or complaining about time or not having enough time etc….Is it really possible that a simple repetitive rhythm can have such power of our lives – or are we denying ourselves the truth of a much bigger choice that we have made. Is blaming time the ultimate act of irresponsibility?
Great point extending the conversation ottobathurst. We’ve so normalised ‘blaming time’ that to do so has become an easy convenience… a way out of considering a deeper responsibility – or we may even say, ‘our innate potential’ – to actually explore what’s going on, far deeper than this convenient throw-away…
For myself, I’ve found that my struggles with ‘time’ are actually founded in embedded beliefs such as: ‘The world will always ask more of me than I have to give’ / aka ‘There must be an element of self-sacrifice.’ and ‘It’s not possible to truly enter a flow where all temporal commitments in life can be met in full, whilst maintaining a deep sense of personal order and attentiveness to detail, that I know I intrinsically need as a foundation for life.”
The breaking down of these beliefs and their hold upon me, is what is actually allowing for far more ‘space’ in my life, as opposed to the ‘push for time’…
The deeper we go and the more honest we become, the less and less it becomes about time – which, makes total sense – in that how can something as ‘inert’ as time actually have an effect on us. Time is our friend, reflecting to us deeper truths from which we can then evolve.
The impact of trying to fight time, like it is the enemy, can be quite harmful on our bodies… when in fact a clock or watch is just measuring space. If we feel that spaciousness there is so much room to do what is there to be done.
“I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” How awesome to appreciate the choices we make in our lives, and to feel the confirming effect of those choices in our bodies.
Indeed Paula, that’s a simple fact – every choice we make causes an effect. It is up to each and every one of us to discern if that effect is confirming or dishonouring.
You offer the reader much here to ponder upon thank you. My takeaway from today is that it is not the actual thing (in this case time), it is our relationship with it. And quite often we blame the ‘thing’ (oh, there is never enough time etc…).
But when you take a moment, and with a good dose of honesty and a good dollop of self-reflection, and are open to a new way with your thing, miracles can happen, as you share with us right now. Your relationship with time has changed. Time has not. It is still the same 24 hours as it always was.
“Your relationship with time has changed. Time has not.”. Such simple but very wise words Sarah, ones that I can now relate to much more easily than before the truth of time was presented to me. I feel that there is still so much more to understand, but the difference is, now I know that I have the “time” to do so.
Time and how we appear to be ruled by it. The watch on my wrist or clock on my phone use to be a gauge of how good a person I was. If I was in time then good if not then bad but as we can see time never changes. There is always exactly 24 hours in the day, it never changes and the second hand always ticks at the same pace and yet our pace with time always changes. My relationship with time is constantly changing and even to read this blog this morning has again changed my perception of time which I welcome. I love seeing presentations of this quality on topics like this, they awaken something inside that has long been asleep and from that when you now look at the clock you can actually open up more time. The clock never changes as we have said but your quality does and this opening opens up everything else.
The absoluteness of time is actually an invitation to us all to learn that we are the ones that create space. Time never changes yet we have all experienced “not having enough time” and feeling like we “have heaps of time”. Yet in both of those examples, time never changed, so something else must have…thus (as with everything) the choice is with us, not dictated by time. This is the beautiful lesson that time offers us.
It’s almost classical and comical to say it like that, I never have enough time or I have more time today than I did yesterday and yet the clock has never changed. I don’t know what I use to think happened when I said things like this, did I actually think the clock had changed?, no I didn’t. But what it reveals is that I didn’t see it as how my relationship was with time. I saw that I just wasn’t good enough, I had to be better or more efficient or similar. I thought I needed to be quicker, stay longer or shorter, in other words I had to do something differently, with the emphasis on do. Yet here we have my relationship under the spot light, my relationship with time or the quality of my relationship with time. It’s a completely different angle and yet it’s the only angle to see time for what it is. This understanding was sparked from only one place, Universal Medicine and Serge Benhayon. More and more I am seeing time for what it is, a simple measure for how we circle around the sun and like any circle there is no end or start just a circle. So if I am going round and a round on the same spot the only thing that is changeable is the how I go around and around, the quality. ‘Time’ to deepen the quality.
And thus it is in fact very supportive to ‘watch’ time – not to see whether we are on time or not, but to see what it is showing us. Time is in fact a beautiful gift, a super supportive tool, a never changing benchmark, by which we can always get an accurate reading on where our evolution is.
Yes it is a bit weird that we are racing against something that actually is not moving- not very intelligent of us really! However I can relate to everything shared in this blog. I now find that when I am not rushing to meet deadlines (usually imposed by me) that there is always more space to do things than I imagined and then I appreciate and can feel the support that the universe has given me at that time.
It is amazing how our relationship with time is what determines whether we are in or out of rhythm with it, or with ourselves. Being in the moment we are in, and not ‘a-head’ of ourselves we always have ample space.
Living in rhythm, listening to my body and not trapped in ‘linear time’, so to speak, actually gives me more ‘time’ and space. Sure, I still plan and make appointments but that is within the beautiful spaciousness that occurs, and everything feels complete.
I find that if I prepare, plan and make appointments then this supports me to feel spaciousness as it’s when I leave everything to the last minute that I get caught up in a perceived lack of time.
Time is an external measure and I have become a slave to it’s false demands. Now I know that I am responsible for the rhythm and flow of my movements, time becomes the guide that I can use. This is truly profound when fully explored because time itself does not even exist!
There was a period of time when I didn’t wear a watch nor got caught up in time and everything that needed to be done got done ‘in good time’. There are times I create an issue with time, being driven by my watch, giving it the role of a harsh task master rather than the supportive guide it can be.
‘I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.’ – Thank you Anonymous, I think a lot of people can relate to what you have said here, I know I certainly can – it makes a huge difference when we learn to see time for what it is, as opposed to letting it control each and every move we make.
I can very much relate to this very functional style of life with the attempt to controlling time. What I learn since I am able to let go of this bit by bit is how to enjoy life and go with the flow, as even when I think I can calculate how long it takes to do this or that task, it just takes as long as it takes and often there are unforeseen things happening that can prolong or shorten the amount of time needed, so I might as well let go and enjoy the moment.
Making enough time versus allowing space. Which one feels more supportive? Pick that one.
I remember listening to a presentation in which Serge talked about how a person running a marathon who finished the race at 2pm will not have gotten to that time any faster than someone lying down and taking a nap who gets up at 2pm – one is doing a lot of physical movement and could be said to be going somewhere and the other isn’t moving and yet time is the same for both of them. So therefor do we need to race against the clock and try to fit everything in or can we flow with time as it never actually changes pace, only our relationship to it changes. When I drive from A to B it will take me the same time whether I am calm and relaxed or stressed and anxious, but my perception and how I feel when I arrive, the way I drive etc will be completely different.
A to B is a straight, one dimension thing in time, a flat line. But, like sound when seeing it on the screen and the complexity of waveforms it is made of, it fills the line and makes it come alive!
Thank you for sharing this – I had never thought to look at time in this way!
No matter what time or what the modality the stillness that I have found through the Esoteric modalities has been remarkably deep. Now it is up to me to use these markers as my next point of evolution and make this superb level of stillness my normal daily rhythm of choice.
I love the point that we are the ones that make time something tense or to fight against and that it is not time itself that is ‘the bad guy’…
I hugely appreciate Serge Benhayon’s presentations relating to time, as well as his book on the subject that introduces a shift in our current perception and relationship with time. It is enormous. Thank you for this blog and sharing your inspiring experiences of putting aspects of this into practice.
I have found that when I feel connected to myself and feel that I am enough then time is not an issue. It seems there is never enough time to compensate for not feeling we are enough – but this is because it is not a problem with time but with our relationship with ourselves. Once I deal with my beliefs in my own inadequacy, then time is no longer a problem.
Spot on Richard; within us is the stillness and potential movements that are universally aligned. Connecting within makes time the marker that it is, not the master it appears to be when we disconnect from this truth.
That is a great point richardmills363, if our worth is based on how much we get done in a day there will be no amount of time that can fill that gap.
The need to be busy has been a great distraction for me. I have perfected the art of creating so much to do and achieving not very much. I often thought of time as something working against me. There were definitely days where surrendered time was plentiful. It just depends on whether I wanted to take responsible for how I was or indulge in reaction.
I used to be a clock watcher and hence my own personal time keeper, a race I could never win just like you. Makes me wonder what beat we are trying to beat to when it is obvious it is not our true natural rhythm from our body. Rather it is the ideals, beliefs and perceptions we are trying to desperately uphold.
Good point Joshua, I just had not concept that it was even possible to be any other way than a slave to time. Only in recent years, inspired by Serge Benhayon presentations on time and space, did I consider another way to look at rhythms and life.
It’s so easy to get caught up in clock watching. But as you say, it makes the focus on the time rather than living the moment. Clock watching actually ruins the day!
I like how you describe to be with time rather than on time, it shows that nothing is against us, that we just need to allow for a rhythm that supports us.
It’s a great expression isn’t it, being with time. A cool way to see things.
‘Nothing is against us’ – by blaming time as the perpetrator of all our stresses, we avoid taking responsibility for the stress that we create ourselves. Time does not create stress, it’s our relationship with it, and with our responsibilities, that does.
When watching the clock or rushing to fit in things that I have to do my relationship with myself and with other people becomes strained. Like the white rabbit in Alice in Wonderland because theres so much focus on the time I become scatty, irritated by anything ‘slowing me down’ and theres no quality. It’s beautiful in those moments to stop and reclaim the fact that I am the one trying to cram in activities that theres no space for in this particular moment, drop them and focus on just one thing in that moment because then I can come back to being aware of the quality I am in. Whereas the rush goes for quantity rather than quality.
Great point Leigh, the quality that I breathe on a daily basis has always been a good point for me to focus on rather than the time.
Alice in Wonderlands “White Rabbit’ is a character that brilliantly reminds us of the involutionary cycle of angst that chases time and in truth serves no one.
Absolutely Lucinda!
I can so relate to the fact that we have to run in our own rhythm as opposed to unnecessarily racing against time. We can do it for so long but exhaustion or illness will eventually be upon us. I often find that when I let my rhythm slip, I am so much more tired at the end of the day and I haven’t managed to get as much done.
As I am reading the book ‘Time’ in the moment this blog come right in time ;). What I learned (and be aware of) till now from the book is that time is there, as a marker to reflect to me changes/my learning. So the quote from Leonardo da Vinci makes now sense to me: “Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.” Your blog about time is also supporting to get a deeper understanding how I use (or misuse) time for and what for it is truly good. It gives us a marker – where we are at that moment. Next second I can choose differently. So I can confirm who I am and where I am coming from – or go against it – and so waste some time.
It is we who push the boundaries of time. Time does not control us but serves as a marker that identifies exactly where we are. A funny concept to wrap our heads around however this is testament how conditioned we are to time being a measure of our worth as a contributing member of society.
I too was a clock watcher Anonymous, and would try to fit in as much as I could so that I would feel better about my day and what I thought I had achieved, but never once stopping and checking in with my body until I would feel exhausted at the end of the day. I am still working through this process also, but learning to go with how I feel to do things as opposed to, doing everything from a to do list within a set amount of time.
I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day. This is so great to hear Anonymous. So many of us feel pressured by time when really we are the ones ‘pushing and driving all the tension’.
Its amazing how we’ve created this battle with time rather than allowing it to pass through us.
Over the past couple of months it has become more evident that when I allow myself to think time is running short, or that I don’t have enough time that my body feels immediately unsettled and stressed. All from a thought, that may prove to be true or not. Really it doesn’t matter if I run out of time or not, I am coming to learn what matters is how I be with my body and as I go about the task I am doing.
I have always liked to be on time, and feel quite annoyed and anxious if I am not. I find it frustrating when others are late so I guess there is more to this subject of time for me to discover.
When we are constantly thinking about what needs to be done next we cannot be present to what we are actually doing in the moment….without presence there can be no true quality in anything we do.
My whole life and way of thinking and living has been completely transformed by reading the book Time, Space and all of us – Book 1, Time by Serge Benhayon. In this amazing book Serge exposes the huge lies we have been fed and contribute to about time and exposes the truth about time which is completely different to how almost everyone lives – it is a wonderful, revelatory and liberating book that I highly recommend.
Now some months after reading Time, Space and all of us – Book 1, Time by Serge Benhayon, I am reading Time, Space and all of us – Book 2, Space. and…. WOW I don’t even have words for that other than there is so very much more to life than most of us ever even glimpse and yet we all know. These books are an absolute blessing and truly life changing.
thanks for the tip Nicola – I’m going to get my hands on a copy of this ASAP.
Funnily enough when I started reading Time, Space and all of us – Book 1, Time by Serge Benhayon – I thought I would not have enough time to read it. I made a commitment to myself to simply read 2 pages every day in the morning after my shower. I found that some days I read more and it was not long before I discovered that I had read the whole book and my life had changed. Now I don’t doubt I have space (pun intended) for book 2.
Absolutely agree Nicola, this book exposes the falsity by which we have built our entire way of life and delivers the common sense that returns us to the cycles from which we naturally belong.
“I am now living my life, rather than rushing through life, and I can feel that my body thanks me each and every day.” – what a testimony of how making loving changes to how we live has an impact on how we feel.
When we work against the clock there will always be this huge tension between us and our competitor, but as you’ve shared there is the possibility of working WITH time in a flow and appreciating what it offers us in terms of an evolutionary marker.. When we work with purpose and commitment – with evolution – it can support us rather than distract/stress us out!
I like the way you refer to ‘placing’ yourself in bed. It expresses the idea that there is no rush, but a caring attention to yourself and how you do things.
Hello anonymous, my relationship with time has many parallels to yours. Just this morning I have taken time to prepare for a trip I am going on. I used to get frustrated that it took me so long to pack a few things. I am always trying to get things done quickly. This morning I was able to appreciate the time I took to make sure I had everything I needed and that it was all packed with care. My relationship with time has certainly changed over the years, and its lovely to now honour my natural pace of doing things.
Much food for deeper pondering here – once time is not seen as the enemy any longer, a whole different rhythm develops that encompasses everything, from the movements of the physical body to the way we work and sleep and beyond.
I agree Gabriele, what starts to make sense when we realise a different rhythm that’s in line with the order of the universe, we then no longer have the dis-ease in the body from that previous lived dis-order.