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IS TIME RUNNING OUT?

1/3/2021

13 Comments

 
Picture
Artist: Joseph Barker
​Our April Topic of Conversation is continuing to explore the concept of time ~ Is Time Running Out?
​

Time can be detrimental to our inner contentment. Bernadette shares in her comment:  “…..‘time’ has been the enemy, and the body suffers from the stress of rushing to get somewhere...”​
Another way it can unsettle us is when there’s something that we know we need to do but we think we have plenty of time in which to complete it. We reason with ourselves that we can do it tomorrow, after all what could possibly go wrong? What often results from this ‘innocent’ decision is that something else will pop up the next day that requires our attention so now our task that could have been actioned yesterday gets pushed back another day, and then another, and before we know it we’re days or weeks down the track and still have not managed to complete it.

What initially could have been done easily and gently has now been moved into the ‘urgent’ category. When we feel ‘pushed for time’ we’ll often feel stressed and anxious about the looming deadline. This heightened state of tension generally means we will rush the job, reducing our level of enjoyment in the task and diminishing the overall quality of the project.

This common dilemma can affect us in many areas of our life. It can be as simple as not returning emails, or more complex as in not doing our homework and having it build up to a point of overwhelm.

A more insidious way this can grab us can be in our elder years where we might begin to feel that time is running out to do ‘something’ - perhaps it’s that special thing that we’ve wanted to do for years and not found the space or courage to do it.

On the Wisdom of Elders page, Sandra’s article ‘Is Time Running Out?’ is a fascinating peek into her experiences and ponderings around the subject of time. 
​
We welcome your valuable insights and invite you to share with us anything you have noticed about how time affects yourself and/or those around you. Do you feel supported by time or does it impede your inner calm?
13 Comments
Bernadette
1/3/2021 10:56:49 am

There have been many times throughout my life when ‘time’ has been the enemy, and the body suffers from the stress of rushing to get somewhere or meet a deadline. Allowing myself more time to prepare for an appointment or workday is the result of being more in harmony with my body’s rhythms. I have found that if I give myself a moment to check in when I wake, and feel how I am feeling, I can then get out of bed in a quality that supports me for the day ahead, rather than starting the day in a rush with a list of ‘to-do’s’.

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Gayle
1/3/2021 11:38:25 am

I totally agree Bernadette. Running out of time is very stressful. Just thinking that I might run out of time causes me stress. I have finally allocated sufficient time in what is still a busy schedule so that I don't put myself in a rush and don't have the extra wear & tear on my body. Allowing space in my day, in between appointments or in the number of things I plan to do in a day, is now part of my self care plan. Its taken a bit of practice (a couple of years!) to make the transition from letting the clock run my schedule to feeling like I have the space to do everything I want and take care of myself in the process.

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Lynne
17/3/2021 05:22:35 pm

Yes I've had a similar experience about time. A number of years ago I had an appointment each month in a town 2.5 hours drive away. My trip there was always stressful because I never allowed enough time to get there without speeding. Then after a few months of this nuttiness, I started leaving 30 minutes earlier. Not only did I arrive feeling calm and relaxed, the amazing thing was that the trip took 20 minutes less to drive there. This was a whole new experience for me. I tried it again with the same results each time which taught me much about time and how to be free of it.

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Gill Randall
2/4/2021 01:21:44 am

When things get too busy for me and there's too much to do, I can feel overwhelmed that there just isn't enough time. But I'm learning to take one thing at a time, focus and concentrate on that and then the next thing often flows. I love what Gayle says about making some space and not being run by the clock and deadlines, we need to be aware of appointments but we don't have to live to the clock all day.

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Judy Felix
2/4/2021 02:05:05 pm

I can so relate to the comments here. As a once habitually ten-mintues-late or just-in-time person, I'm continually learning how time can grab me if I let it. I've noticed it can even happen around small things, like cooking and wondering if everything will be ready in time and at the same time, instead of allowing myself the space to enjoy preparing a meal! A simple thought about 'being on time' or 'meeting a deadline' can undo me. There is a saying, 'no time like the present', but the truth is, there is no time in the present. And this is what I'm learning. If I am 'in the present' then I will feel spacious, focussed and purposeful and 'time' melts away. I've learned how much gets done when I stay 'in the present' and simply focus on what's in front of me. Not only is this an amazing feeling, it's also the antidote to anxiety.

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Deidre Medbury
3/4/2021 09:05:56 am

I can relate to what has been written. I was always rushing out the door to arrive just on time and not a minute before. But I realised this related back to my very early school days when if I arrived early I felt like it was very conspicuous that I was on my own with no friends. When I came to this realisation I was able to let go of that pattern. I still can get into a rush but that is not usually the case because I am learning when I make mental a list of what I am going to do during the day to not put pressure on myself and to also allow space for what might come up unexpectedly this then seems to give me plenty of space and it all flows beautifully.

Reply
Ingrid Langenbruch link
5/4/2021 02:56:49 pm

Am I running after time feeling I am running out of it? I used to in younger years.
Or is time running after or according to me?
Who is the boss?
I don't know if it has to do with ageing or becoming wiser but I need to give myself plenty of time to get somewhere or do certain things and not having to rush or get stressed. I can't tolerate any rushing anymore.
I am not as extreme as my grandmother used to be though. When she was being picked up for coffe or something from the old people's home in Germany she was sitting ready, make up, gloves and all, at the door half an hour , sometimes up to an hour before the arranged time.
Now when I have an appointment I give myself extra minutes to get settled in the car, from the car to the excact place I need to be and some extra minutes for possible road works or other delays. I used to only give myslef the time to drive from here to there and the rest was rushing.
I did not like waiting and that is why I often was on the last minute. Now I enjoy waiting. It is a great stop moment to reflect, rest, review or feel into something, or simply be and enjoy whatever is around me and I find alwys something.

Reply
Ingrid Langenbruch
5/4/2021 03:21:47 pm

Am I running after time feeling I am running out of it? I used to in younger years.
Or is time running after or according to me?
Who is the boss?
I don't know if it has to do with ageing or becoming wiser but I need to give myself plenty of time to get somewhere or do certain things and not having to rush or get stressed. I can't tolerate any rushing anymore.
I am not as extreme as my grandmother used to be though. When she was being picked up for coffee or something from the old people's home in Germany she was sitting ready, make up, gloves and all, at the door half an hour, sometimes up to an hour before the arranged time.
Now when I have an appointment I give myself extra minutes to get settled in the car, from the car to the exact place I need to be and some extra minutes for possible road works or other delays. I used to only give myself the time to drive from here to there and the rest was rushing.
I did not like waiting and that is why I often was on the last minute. Now I enjoy waiting. It is a great stop moment to reflect, rest, review or feel into something, or simply be and enjoy whatever is around me, and I find always something.

Reply
Gayle Cue
6/4/2021 06:37:55 am

I have learned something from everyone's comments. Thank you for sharing about your relationship with time. The most valuable piece of wisdom, for me, is delivered in Judy's comment that "There is a saying, 'no time like the present', but the truth is, there is no time in the present." Now that is something a wise elder realises - and shares.

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Lynne Paull-McLeod
6/4/2021 09:38:48 am

Yes, good point Gayle, there IS no time in the present. That exposes that saying doesn't it!! It's amazing the number of things we attach to, or say to ourselves, for years, and never stop to truly challenge it or feel if it's true or not. What are we aligned to? Thank you, that's a real wake up.

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Annie
11/4/2021 06:23:49 pm

TIME is a very interesting concept, there have been TIMES probably most of the TIME in fact where I would organise myself to get to a place just in TIME. I never liked to get there late, but I would TIME everything perfectly, or so I thought to get to my destination at the alotted TIME.

Then there is the other aspect that if I were going somewhere special, for whatever reason I would feel the need to ensure that everything is just right before I left the house, but again I TIMED everything so that I was not holding people up, not that my family would have agreed with that bit.

Then there are TIMES when for some reason or other I would feel to do something to be super organised for the next day and then for that day to arrive and for it to be a complete shamozzle and I have often thought wow if I had left this to when it was needed to be done I would not have had TIME.

So many different aspects, and of course then there are all the TIMES when I have left things down to the wire to get done and of course got it done but been completely warn out and stressed by the TIME it was completed.

Reply
Rosemary Liebe
1/6/2021 08:06:47 pm

Although this is a different slant on time from the above comments it is something that occurred to me after one of my granddaughters, who is 11, recently stayed with me. We were talking about time and it came to pass that she could not tell the time on a regular clock and like most of her friends was used to reading only digital time. Whilst showing her how to read the time on an analog clock face it occurred to me that when reading digital time there is much that you may not be aware of....you don't see the time that has passed or the time to come, you don't see the second hand that sweeps around showing you 60 seconds make a minute and the longer minute hand more slowly pointing out the 60 minutes in an hour, and the shorter hand pointing out the hour, also that time actually takes time to travel the face of a clock. With a digital clock you see the numbers but not where they have come from or where they are travelling to, or how they got there, there is nothing to show you the continuum of time and so I wondered then is it possible that younger people will have a different understanding and feeling for time, will they not be so caught up in time. I agree as stated above in several comments that there is "no time in the present" and so it may make no difference in the end but I felt anyway to share my ponderings.

Reply
christina mehew
17/2/2022 03:01:23 pm

Hi Everyone,
It is really interesting, Rosemary, when I consider your pondering on whether young people will not be so caught up in time because they only seem to see the second or minutes pass on the digital clocks, if they keep looking at them. Their sense of time may be completely different. I wondered if they are more 'tuned in' to their 'body clocks', feeling hungry when time has passed. With various screens playing a big part in their lives,I too have been pondering on this. I have a young person staying with me at the moment who says her 'life' starts around 12.00am, when her friends are on social media! So it follows in her case, her body's messages for sleep are being overridden. Now we have electricity in the form of continual access to light we are able to work through the night if we want to. So I'm feeling there are many more distractions, additional to us being ruled by the time on the clock, to keep us from feeling our body's messages.

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