The Gift of time

Give yourself the gift of time

Giving yourself time is an essential skill for engaging in meaningful projects and for establishing meaningful relationships with yourself, with others, and with the world around you. In contemporary life, we tend to treat time as a commodity, a luxury that not everybody has. It seems unusual, certainly for urban dwellers, to find people who have plenty of time. On the contrary, a great majority of people feel pressed for time. Despite having more and more technological tools to help us “manage our time” and increase our productivity, time remains scarce. Believing that “time is money” urges us to stop wasting time, to save time and to gain time, as if time itself was a coin or coupon or a physical currency. The existence of “daylight saving time,” when clocks are advanced or reversed at certain times in the year reminds us that time is just a convention, a tool we created for our convenience.

Author Joe Marshalla points out that time is just a way to measure the passing of now. Regardless of what day of the week or what time of day it is, you are always only right here and right now. Right here and right now is the most important moment in life, because you can only act in the present moment; actions that happened before or may happen in the future are mere mental memories and notions, lacking effect on the world. Accepting that this moment is unique and precious can be enough to offer ourselves the gift of time; however, feeling busy often gives us a sense of self-importance, a sense of being needed in other times and places. So, you must inquire: What does it take to give yourself permission to be fully present? Will life elsewhere continue its endless movement even when you are not there? Can the world survive without you? Have you considered that there are tens of thousands of different circumstances that had to happen in order for the moment you are in to be exactly as it is? Pondering these complex questions can create a unique opportunity for you to participate consciously and deliberately in this moment, inviting you to take part in life in the only way that you can – by being you.

Learning to see that your own life deserves your undivided attention is vital. Otherwise, it’s highly unlikely you can be present. You are important. You have something unique to contribute to the world, something that no one else can give. Offering yourself the gift of time enables you to dedicate your attention and energy to what really matters. Many of us, when we pay attention to our conversations with others, realize that we say, “I do this or that,” when in fact it is something we would like to do, but for which we do not have the time. For those of us who do this, it can be useful to remember that when we do not have enough time, it is because we do not have clear priorities. In other words, we think it would be fun, nice or interesting to do one thing, but we choose to do something different. So, if you find that you don’t have enough time for what you say you like or want to do, consider whether you need to change your priorities or let go of the illusion that you’re going to spend time on something that maybe isn’t really important to you.

This week, I invite you to contemplate the following questions to clarify your relationship with time.

• What is the relationship you have with time?
• Do you give importance to time?
• Do you ignore time?
• Do you feel anxious about time?
• Do you feel like you have enough time or that you have to be running from one place to another?
• What’s important enough for you to devote time and attention to?
• Who is important enough in your life to deserve your time?
• Are you taking time to explore your relationship with yourself?

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This is an excerpt from the book Unravel the thread: Applying the ancient wisdom of yoga to live a happy life

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