Time-Bending: A Simple Alchemy.

If we can focus our minds, we can change the nature—and the perceived speed—of time. 

Time is not real, in a finite sense; it’s relative.

You may have already noticed that the slowing down, or speeding up, of time sometimes seems to happen while you're engaged in various activities. Some examples can be: during meditation, while sleeping, playing music, doing sports, making art, during a car accident, or even when on a psychotropic substance. These are just some instances, but countless examples of experiencing time's elasticity exist.

Clock time is not universal law; it’s simply an established device that was created to commodify productivity. 

Have you noticed that time also seems to move faster with every year of life? Sometimes, it may even seem to accelerate month over month.  This is not a figment of your imagination--It's a collective truth of our time. 

The reason why time seems to speed up, even when calendars and clocks suggests otherwise, is because of the speed with which our technology moves…And how much of our attention it commands, on so many levels of our psyches. Our phones, Smartwatches, computers, Smart TVs…Even our cars, are constantly bombarding us with information. Some of this information creates somatic disturbances—constant emotional reaction, which can eventually culminate in adrenal fatigue. The amount of data that we're taking in, minute by minute, makes time tick by more quickly than ever.

Imagine how differently time must have seemed to move, even as recently as the early 1800s. Without electricity, the Internet, television or telephones, humanity's concentration could be wielded on a single task, in a laser-like fashion. This is a stark contrast from what the typical attention has become in the present, which is more akin to a grasshopper on methamphetamines.

People in the past often spent their time doing one activity at a time. Things like playing an instrument, alone, or for the entertainment of others; taking in a theatrical performance, reading deeply on a particular subject, or actively socializing. 

There wasn’t an inexhaustible wealth of choice assaulting our ancestors at every moment, so an activity at hand tended to be engaged in more fully, with presence. Therefore, the hours had a quality of moving more deliberately--causing time to pass at a slower tempo.

Taking time in hand makes setting (and subsequently manifesting) intentions more effective. It also makes us more adept at taking in information, analyzing and synthesizing, because we give ourselves a chance to think critically about it. 

All it takes to succeed at bending our perception of time is regular disconnection from interactive components of the digital web--and the accompanying "realtime" notifications--that ensnare us. 

Stepping away from these, however temporarily, helps us capture both unhurried minutes and expanded mental space...The pair of which are necessary to synthesize any information we receive, or to create anything of worth. 

With steady practice, we’ll quickly improve at disconnecting and refocusing our attention. After all, slow was the relative, natural speed of man's experience for generations. 

Doing this will allow us, once again, to mold the hours to our vision--rather than forcing our lives into ill-fitting, prefabricated frames of time.

—JLT 9/25/24

Suggested listening accompaniment: "Time" by Pink Floyd.

Further Reading: https://www.nist.gov/atomic-clocks/how-do-we-know-what-time-it