Time Shifting: Creating More Time to Enjoy Your Life
by Stephen Rechtschaffen (New York: Doubleday, 1996)
Reviewed by Stephen Randall, Ph.D.
Are you experiencing a chronic shortage of time? This book by Stephan Rechtschaffen opens with the idea that "95% of us [Americans?] are experiencing time poverty:" We don't feel we have enough time, or "we always feel in debt when it comes to time." (p. 2) There is "the feeling that we cannot possibly accomplish all that we have to do." (p. 48) This feeling could represent our major modern challenge: "I would say that 95 percent of the stress in our lives relates to our feeling of time poverty." (p. 48)
The importance of changing our experience of time
He sees dire consequences if we don't change: "Until we learn to control time consciously, our lives will continue to speed away from us, and we won't even notice the beauty or the events around us. We'll simply be left with the feeling that something's missing, something's disappeared." (p. 14) "If we cannot incorporate the ability to timeshift to a slower beat, . . . then, as Alvin Toffler points out, the shattering stress and disorientation caused by too much change in too short a time will overwhelm us. Indeed, in many cases, it already has, as evidenced in the cacophony, the shattered relationships, the violence, and the greed that surround us." (pp. 229-230)
With experience as a physician in both East and West, he has discerned the effects of the Western experience of time on health. "By living in mental time--in a speeded-up world--with the resultant repression of emotional issues, we increase the chance of disease." (p. 171) And he says that heart disease in particular "is a direct outgrowth of Western culture, found in societies in a hurry, in which life is rushed. It is the most dramatic disease of the shortened moment, though by no means the only one." (p. 172)
Two aspects of time
Why aren't we already timeshifting, or changing our experience of time? Partly because we think of time only as a external reality, not as something that's somehow dependent on us. "To most of us, time means clock-time, sixty seconds a minute, sixty minutes an hour, twenty-four hours in the day: unchangeable, inexorable clock-time." (p. 3) "We relate to time as a phenomenon outside ourselves, a universal 'clock' that keeps ticking as it quickly passes by." (p. 13) And in at least a certain utilitarian sense, this way of thinking about time often seems quite useful: "It is simply a fact that, as Westerners living in an industrial atomic-Space-age world, clock-time is part of us--and it is something to be valued, something to be used." (p. 14)
But time is much more than clock time, this indexing and measuring of events, however useful: time is also frequently related to feeling 'time poverty', rushing and hurrying, pressure, overwhelm, etc. Nevertheless, these troublesome associations with time are unnecessary: "Time does not march at our back or lead us on, although it often seems to." (p. 5) And "We don't have to live with a chronic time shortage." (p. 6)
He says we've all experienced an alternative: "that feeling when everything seems to be flowing; when we truly have enough time; when we are relaxed, calm, at peace with ourselves, and in harmony with the people and the world around us. We've all experienced it, but far too rarely." (p. 7) "If we can think of time in a different way, if we become aware that it contains myriad rhythms and that any individual moment can be expanded or contracted under our control, then I believe we can make time our servant--and in doing so, fill our lives with happiness and health to a degree most of us don't experience and cannot even imagine." (p. 3)
Where does time's flow come from?
If we know where this malleable sense of time comes from, perhaps then we'll understand how to change it.
In one line of reasoning, used especially in the first half of the book, the author says that time problems are caused by, or at least very strongly influenced by, the speed or pace of modern life. "Young children have no sense of time. . . . the words 'later,' or 'soon,' or concepts like 'tomorrow' or 'next year' are meaningless even to a four-year-old." (p. 130) However, "the toys of childhood . . . entrain children into a rapid rhythm almost from birth." (p. 135) "Unconsciously, like a poison ingested by our bodies in a deceptively sweet syrup, we have entrained with a faster rhythm." (p. 26) "We are at the mercy of all the messages in our society that tell us to go faster, do more, produce more, buy more . . . ." (p. 14) At a book-signing that I attended, Dr. Rechtschaffen said that we're addicted to going fast.
The author uses the word "entrainment" to mean "the process by which . . . rhythms fall into synchronization with each other." (p. 21) He seems to be saying that we quite helplessly and automatically attune to the speedy rhythms of culture.
I did not find this argument convincing, since speed--whether our speed or the rate of events in the environment--can be independent of one's experience of time. Indeed, some of the most exhilarating experiences of my life have involved considerable speed, whether mental or physical, but with little sense of time passing, similar to a hurricane with its peaceful eye. Even the author's future vision for humanity states that time will be independent of speed: "The creation of this future depends on our timeshifting, slowing down collectively into the present. We can use our technologies, be able to function at full speed, but know we can also exist in the full range of human rhythms." (p. 230)
Another line of reasoning about the cause
In another line of reasoning, the author says that the pressure and anxiety about time result not just from entrainment to an external cause, but from pushing away feelings. "Painful feelings are difficult to face, and we'd rather not feel them if at all possible. So we get busy. We speed up. We substitute action for contemplation. . . . think about anything rather than allow ourselves to be with the feeling we're trying to avoid. When we do this, we're living in our heads, in what I call 'mental time.' All because we're trying to avoid feeling what's in our hearts, to avoid falling into 'emotional time.'" (pp. 34-5) "The harder we suppress them, the more urgently they seek release." (p. 40)
I agree that suppressing or repressing feelings leads to a shift in our perception of time--what Rechtschaffen might call excessive mental time and deficient emotional time. I also agree that the more they are repressed, the more pressure there is toward release. However, I don't believe we always speed up as a result or part of suppression/repression. Sometimes we slow down--we may not face our feelings and end up depressed and inert--physically, mentally, or both. So our pace can decrease also. Thus, in general, I'd say that as a result of pushing feelings away our sense of time passing is intensified--whether it speeds up or slows down.
About our need for accomplishment, he says, "It's not just outside pressure, or social entrainment, that makes us feel guilty and nervous if we're not being 'productive.' Why is it so hard for most of us to simply sit still, and do nothing but be in the present moment? Because there's something in the present moment that we're trying to escape. That something is 'feeling' itself." (p. 39) "Unless we can slow down enough to consciously experience our feelings, balance between emotional and mental time will be further lost." (p. 37)
His idea that chronic urgency and time pressure are forms of imbalanced mental and emotional time seems to correspond very closely to my understanding of linear time as our experience of imbalanced energy flow among our head, throat, and heart energy centers. I think that balancing the throat center is of utmost importance in changing temporal experience. However, he doesn't seem to mention any involvement of the throat in our experience of time. He does discuss attention to one's breathing--which directly affects the throat center-as a universally effective means of timeshifting: "While most other means of entering the moment are individual and often idiosyncratic, breathing is universal." (p. 85)
What happens if we stay with feelings? He gives an example of once being overwhelmed with loneliness. "My initial urge was to get out of the chair and do something--anything--to relieve the pain. But I forced myself to sit where I was and I opened myself up to the feeling. My feeling of loneliness shifted . . . . I felt myself . . . alone--I no longer felt lonely . . . . I had reached the depth of my feeling, and when I did, it vanished. . . . I could feel a shifting of time." (p. 102) So eventually these feelings naturally vanish, and perhaps our sense of time--whether it's moving too quickly or too slowly--changes along with them.
What can we do about the challenge of time?
Understanding that time is more than clock time, knowing that we have some control over the experience of time, and even knowing how suppressing feeling leads to time problems isn't enough: "Understanding time with your brain isn't enough . . . . When you learn to embody time, when you can shift it at will, then you will experience a wholeness, a freedom--time freedom . . . ." (p. 20)
So what will work? One possible solution is to implement time management skills. Rechtschaffen says, "The time management taught at business seminars is essentially designed to make you more materially productive. Time is broken into manageable segments, and in each time frame you complete a project . . . . Once one project is finished--if you've allocated your time wisely--you'll have time for the next. But this simply turns up the speed on the treadmill of our lives . . . ." (p. 3)
I don't think this conclusion is warranted. Sometimes this happens, but not necessarily. First of all, many people have felt greater control of their lives by using time management skills. Second, as I argued above, speed of activity can be independent of the perceived sense of time flow. I don't think it's simply a matter of heightened activity being the cause of time troubles. Put simply, it's not just what we're doing, it's also how we're doing it. Work done very quickly and in a balanced, mindful way can be invigorating. How to maintain this balance may be another question, but I believe the possibility is there.
What can we do besides time management practices? The author suggests: "While most other means of entering the moment are individual and often idiosyncratic, breathing is universal." (p. 85) I have also found that balanced breathing holds apparently universal value. In fact, I'd go farther and say that it's essential for virtually everyone. It seems to be a key to changing one's experience of time via balancing the energy flow among the head, throat, and heart energy centers.
The author proposes meditation as a means that "encourages . . . expansion [of time] and brings us into a more profound experience of the moment, as we entrain to a universal rhythm found deeply within." (p. 106) What he calls a "universal rhythm" here is what in Time, Spae, and Knowledge might be called a deeper level of time, inner time, nuclear time, or Great Time.
No matter what the specific technique, Dr. Rechtschaffen says that what he teaches is time awareness, and "to be aware of time . . . involves . . . learning to slow down and notice . . . our physical and emotional states. . . . It involves learning when to speed up (increasing the speed of our rhythm can be as valuable as decreasing it) . . . ." (p. 4)
Here it seems that the author is suggesting that we somehow try to slow down within the flow of linear time. Apparently linear time is seen as a given: "We all live in linear time, a straight arrow that goes from birth to death." (p. 186) Maintaining linear time would preserve at least a subtle sense of a subject in a present ("We can only know the present subjectively." (p. 4)), with time still 'passing' via moment giving way to moment. If linear time is preserved, then time will flow at one rate or another, and perhaps our only means of freedom is 'to slow down'. Or perhaps the nature of the flow of time changes: "When you're in the present moment, time surrounds you and does not rush past you. You join with it, as a part of the flow." (p. 60) Tarthang Tulku's Dynamics of Time and Space seems to point out a similar possibility: "When the past is stripped of its weightiness, this present point in time is no longer separated out from other points in time." (p. 311)
Summary
This book is a convincing introduction to the possibility
that our Western experience of time is malleable, not fixed as
culture has taught. After Rechtschaffen very thoroughly relates
the negativity and problems of individuals and our culture to
our linear temporal perspectives, he says that if we can learn
to timeshift, we can "fill our lives with happiness and
health to a degree most of us don't experience and cannot even
imagine." He effectively relates our chronic sense of urgency
to the suppression of feelings we don't want to experience, thus
providing a key for improving our health and well-being; a less
convincing line of argument relates the cause to entrainment
to speedy cultural rhythms. I found it difficult to comprehend
his explanation of how to timeshift, probably because of an attempt
to preserve the notion of linear time. The book offers numerous
suggestions for ways to become more "time-aware" and
"expand the moment," although there is no well-defined
program for learning timeshifting as there is in the Time,
Space, and Knowledge books.
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