The Speed of Time

Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under Awareness |

The last few weeks have been a rather astounding time; with lots of unusual experiences and phenomena occurring (parts of which I have written about here). Throughout this, I have found myself checking and then rechecking the day of the week. It seems as though I have had a months worth of experience crammed into just a few days. This of course, has again highlighted the subjective nature of time.

It’s often said that as we get older time speeds up - or some people simply claim that time is ‘faster’ now. I don’t know about any of that. But I do know that some weeks fly by whilst others drag; yet on other occasions the time is enriching and involved that each moment is without value and utterly cherished. These are the moments which most interest me when talking about subjective time. They really don’t seem to fit into the ‘time flies by’ or ‘time drags’ camps, instead they are seemingly unique.

I suspect it has much to do with where your mind is at; sometimes we are drifting away - not at all in the moment - as we run on autopilot. Maybe because we are really busy, or are enjoying something in either event time goes quickly. Whilst on other times we maybe hating every moment of something, intensely wanting to be somewhere else. The correlating factor between both sides of that coin is that we are rarely present in the ever unfolding moment.

That’s where those other experiences come in. It seems to me, that whenever I am fully present time no longer becomes a factor, and week can seem like months without so much as dragging. I can enjoy every moment without the time passing in a blink.

When I remember back, I think it was a lot like that when I was a kid - time wasn’t really a big deal. (Except of course, for those moments of relentless childhood boredom!) At some point along the line as we ‘mature’ we seem to dis-associate ourselves from our experiences. No matter what we are doing, we are always looking forwards or backwards to at least the next moment or the previous moment. Perhaps it is a form of madness, which would be hardly surprising.

Our perceptions on time - in a way - can be viewed as symptoms of that madness. Madness is ‘in the mind’ so-to-speak, so when we come out of living in our minds and thoughts, and enter the now - this moment - it stands to reason our experience of time would change.

And without doubt that is something we need to seek and encourage within our day-to-day life.