As editor Jay Walljasper says in the Mar-Apr 97 Utne Reader cover story, "More and more it feels like our lives have turned into a grueling race toward a finish line we never reach." (p. 41) We're in a race against time, and many of us feel like we're losing.
Where does the pressure come from? Most people believe it's built into the fabric of time, but think we can improve our lot by leaving the fast lane, either periodically or for good. They believe that modern speeds cause the experience of time pressure, and so we're limited to two options--slow or fast--as depicted by the illustrations on the Utne Reader cover and within the cover story.
Still others say the pressure is a direct result of unnaturally speedy technology that surrounds us--this belief is presented repeatedly in the Utne Reader cover story. Some people, Dr. Dean Ornish, for example, believe it doesn't depend on the speed of events in the world, but on the way we experience events. I also believe that our feeling of time passing depends primarily on our perspective, on how we relate to the objects, people, and events in life.
But you can do much better than depend on experts for knowledge about where time pressure comes from. You can investigate yourself: Have you watched time drag as you resisted working on something you didn't like, then decided you really needed or wanted to get it done, and ended up getting into it so much you weren't aware of time passing at all? How did the time pressure disappear? On the other hand, have you watched time drag as you resisted working on something, then kept resisting to the point that time was dragging even more? How did the extra pressure arise?
Investigating these examples can show how our feelings of time pressure and anxiety depend on how we relate to the objects, people, and events in life. Doesn't getting totally involved relieve time pressure and anxiety? Perhaps the pressure and anxiety of hurrying have little to do with the physical speed of events and technology.
Explore these questions: Do you remember waiting impatiently for something to happen? How was that experience related to the adage 'A watched pot never boils'? Does detached observing--rather than being absorbed in what's happening--create the sense that time is slowing down?
Einstein said that time is relative to the position of the observer. Maintaining negative reactions that separate us from things intensifies time pressure and anxiety. But letting go of negative reactions and getting more involved decreases time pressure, and can actually lead to a fulfilling sense of timelessness.
Our Western culture teaches that our feeling of time passing is supposed to accurately mirror a presumed external flow of events in the world. But as Dr. Larry Dossey pointed out in his book, Time, Space, and Medicine, scientists have never found a flow of events in the external world. I am convinced that our feeling of time flowing is actually independent of external events--all it really reflects is how much we pushed away negative experiences in the past.
Time pressure makes us miserable, but it can gradually be changed to the timelessness of peak experiences. And a hit-and-miss approach is unnecessary. A well-defined technology has been developed and is available to dismantle our chronic time dis-ease. (See Presentations.)
By examining our experience and seeing how time flows and is broken into past, present, and future 'rooms' in experience, time's character gradually changes. Rather than something we feel pressured by and race against, time shows itself as the dynamic process at the source of all experience and movement--the powerful, creative aspect of life.
Walljasper said, "A balanced life--with intervals of creative frenzy giving way to relaxed tranquility--is what people crave." (p. 45) But we are not stuck with balance as an alternating between trying to keep up with the rat race and then dropping out for a while. Composer Philip Glass knows another possibility: "There are people who work a lot and then they get all frazzled. It isn't that way for me. . . . It is not a question of building up to a point and then having to release it." (p. 47)
At any moment balance can be found within the undisturbed 'eye' of any whirlwind of activity. We can learn to find, and perhaps remain 'within', the most peaceful, yet most productive 'zone' at the center of our activities. Glass described it very well: "My normal activity, which is very high-paced compared to normal standards, is integrated into a steady, calm place in the center which doesn't get bothered."
Copyright © 1997 by Stephen Randall
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