The Enemy of Time

Time is the great enemy of the human experience it seems. Everything has a deadline, a limit, a past due date, and an expiry date. Everything is fragile, limited, and temporary. Nothing is permanent.

The idea of time creates a finite perception of everything. The sale is only until this date. It's a time-limited offer. If you don't pay it by this date it'll be cut off. Those limitations create fear of loss. It makes us afraid of what we can't control - time.

We can't make time move faster or slower. We can't make the deadline change. We can't make the money come faster. We can't control this invisible human construct that we call time. The perception of limitation due to time creates anxiety, stress, worry, fear and even doubt.

How do we manage such limitations? How do we perceive time in a way that doesn't create more stress?

These are questions that I've wrestled with in the past. What I learned was to walk away from what I couldn't control. I just had to leave it be. I learned that I could handle the consequences of the passage of time when I needed to. I learned that I had to be okay with waiting and not knowing what would happen in the future. I had to learn how to stop struggling with time.

I still fall into it. I still get caught there sometimes because I'm impatient. I don't like to wait for change. I've done a lot of work on myself and my external world has not shifted a ton because of it. The Universe asks me for patience a lot. Would it surprise you to know that I don't have very much of that in some cases?

I'm very patient when working people as a teacher or a coach. I have all kinds of patience for being caught in traffic or waiting in line at the grocery story. I don't have patience for arts and crafts. I can't do finicky little beadwork and things like that. My daughter has this diamond beading kit and it is literally sticking little tiny beads on colored dots to make an image. That would drive me up a wall. I would have no patience for that at all. My patience is scenario specific and I know this.

Because my patience is limited sometimes, time is a struggle because I can't control the wait. I can't push it or make it move faster. I can't fix it the way I want to at the speed I want to. I can't control it. It leaves me feeling like I'm powerless even though I've already done everything there is to do. Even though I know that there is nothing wrong, it is fine, and time is not my enemy. Even though I know better, I still fall into insecurity and powerlessness at the hands of time.

How do I shift it? How do I handle it? I'm the self-proclaimed master of perception right? I should be able to figure that out easily enough. Yes, I have an answer to my own problem.

Shift my focus.

When what you're looking at is a problem that you can't solve or manage, you have to shift away from it. You can't do anything about it.

So guess what? When it's the clock you're looking at and it's causing stress, it's time to shift away. It's time to stop paying attention to time. Take the clock down off the wall. Stop looking at it.

You know the saying, "A watched pot never boils.". Well, this is that. You just have to move on and do something else. You have to keep your power within you, focus on continuing with your life, and allow things to happen when they are ready and not before.

I don't have control over the clock and neither do you. Our dependence on time and calendars creates anxiety and stress that we can't actually do anything about. There is no solution to the almighty deadline. It will be what it is. The only choice is to simply allow that and do the best you can. Just get okay with it because anything else you try to do will cause you pain.

Is that easy?

Oh hell no! But what choice do we have? If we try to do anything with it we find pain. We have to allow time to be what it is. We do the best we can with what we have, whether we perceive it to be limited or not. The limitation is not necessarily a problem. We perceive it as such because we've been taught that it is. But that's not necessarily true.

Maybe the limitation is a reflection of how you feel within yourself. Do you feel limited? Do you feel blocked? Do you feel stuck?

There is no better mirror for the feeling of being stuck than time simply passing by with nothing happening or changing. The limitation is only in your own perception. It's nowhere else to be found. The ability to shift your perception and not be afraid of what you might find, allows you to see it more clearly. Why do you think I wrote this blog?

I'm not afraid to go find what I'm missing. When I sense there is something I need to get from a specific situation I ask for the clarity and guidance that will give me the mental understanding that I'm looking for. Often that clarity comes through writing just like this. Believe me when I say that once again, it has not disappointed. Clarity has been found.

Shift away from what you can't control - including time. The anxiety, worry, doubt, fear, and stress of time make you think you have to move faster. What if it's okay to slow down? What if it's okay to not be in a rush? What if it's okay if you miss a deadline every now and then? What if the world won't end? What if life will continue anyway?

Maybe it's not as bad as we like to make it seem. Maybe it's just our need for control that keeps us stuck. Maybe time isn't as much of a problem as we like to think it is.

Love to all.

Della