TIME


Steve Taylor (2009). Making time: Why time seems to pass at                                              different speeds and how to control it.


The first part of the book covers the 5 laws of psychological time (pp 1-182) while the shorter second part discusses methods for changing our perception of the speed of time, making it either faster or slower. The methods to change time include external methods (which Taylor suggests we don't really need if we are adept at the internal methods) and internal methods of mindfulness and meditation which are described below. 

My opinion: clock time is an artificial human invention while nature time is a cyclical recurring rhythm that we need align with...all things grow/mature by their own nature with the seasons...in some sense we remain the same, in another sense we evolve...what we ultimately evolve into is an open question. Best not to "control" this evolutionary process as the title of Taylor's book implies, but let the process naturally evolve...perhaps we can facilitate or encourage certain kinds of growth (as in pruning a grape vine to produce more grapes but it would be most difficult to turn a grape into a radish!).


Practically, external methods to make time pass quickly: become fully absorbed in whatever one is doing, avoiding looking at clocks, and avoid stressors. Conversely, to make time pass slowly one does the opposite: avoid activities that lead to states of absorption, keep track of the clock multiple times an hour, note all the stressor of life. 

For internal methods of changing our perception of time, making time seem to pass more quickly in most cases, mindfulness of everyday life can be cultivated by paying attention, performing our actions slowly with intention, noting/labeling our feelings, and savoring our experience....meditation can lead to absorption, stillness, and sometimes transcending our sense of time...examples of meditation include: breath awareness, relaxation response, centering [i would add centering prayer and passage meditation].



 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Image
SPIRITUAL SOLUTIONS Wayne Dyer (2003). There's a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem. Dyer earned a Doctorate of Education in Guidance and Counseling, and is a prolific author. His first book that i read in the 1970's, Your Erroneous Zones, profoundly influenced my thinking as a teen.  The theme of this book is that there is a spiritual solution to every problem, that problems are illusions created in the mind by incorrect thinking, and that the solution to these mental problems is to change our thinking in light of the spirit (defined as an energy/intelligence that is the source of all life, i.e., God). Some might call this "spiritual bypassing," ignoring the body in favor of the mind and spirit. The first half of the book is lessons from Patanjali's Yoga Sutras. Dyer suggests that low frequency is associated with the "negative" and faster frequency with the "positive" [for me, at least musically, lower frequencies don't imply negative emo...
Read more
Image
TURN ON Timothy Leary (1965, 1999). Turn On, Tune In, Drop Out Leary was a University Professor at Harvard who is best know for his experiments with LSD. The book is part lectures, part interviews, and part essays. Given all the media hype about Leary, i was surprised at how much common sense i encountered, and how much he speaks to learning, hope, and love.  He begins with a chapter on how to start your own religion (to invoke the rights of the first amendment in US law) with family and friends, a tribe of people living together in community with their own laws...a place where sacrament is consumed (it need not be LSD, but anything that is spiritually meaningful to the community, something that binds the community together in ceremony)...a place preferably in nature where one feels protected and nurtured.  The BIG ADVICE is to drop out of society's robot world/mind, and turn on to God/Goddess (the Spirit), nature, and the body and mind, and tune in (dropping back into socie...
Read more
Image
BODY WISDOM  Therese Bertherat (1989).  The body has its reasons: Self-awareness                                                           through conscious movement.  Berherat takes us on a personal journey in learning body wisdom /awareness using Ehrenfred's method which is radically different than the medical model/method she learned at University. The story unfolds as "sessions" of practices, and the end of the book reveals several "preliminaries" on how to cultivate body wisdom. Among the many practical lessons are:      pause after exhaling to let the body use oxygen before inhaling again--this allows the              body to rest/relax with every breath.      because all parts of the body are integrated, working with one par...
Read more