We need time to think about Time
We take ‘Time’ for granted. Therefore, we hardly ever reflect on the subject of ‘Time’. ‘Time’ is a key dimension of the reality we live in. Life is lived in the midst of time. Therefore, our experience of time is closely linked to our relationship with life itself. How we experience time is how we experience life.
More often than not we perceive time to be an outside clock which governs our lives. We become enslaved by ‘clock time’. So, we try to do as much as possible in as shorter time as possible or do more in the same amount of time. Technology enables us to do this. After all we believe that time is money and therefore we need to maximise our return on the utilisation of time. We believe that ‘Time’ is a resource. Time is capital which is non-renewable. We have commoditised ‘Time’; reduced it to an economic entity. And our lives have concomitantly become economic utilities. Brands or commodities having a certain price to be bought, used and discarded in the marketplace of life.
However, when this attitude of trying to get the best return on one’s utilisation of time is carried to an extreme we realise that the biological clock tries to play catch up with the technological clock and imbalances in life begin occurring. The gains we achieve in life are compensated by the losses we experience in terms of illness and stress. The technological clock upsets the biological rhythms.
We have fallen prey to what is euphemistically referred to as ‘Hurry sickness’. We need to show how busy we are because being busy has become aspirational in our society. We feel left out if we do not show that we have so many meetings to attend and flights to catch. If we just stroll about admiring life as it happens instead of rushing manically from one place to another we feel we are not normal. The abnormal has become normal while the normal has become abnormal.
Another facet of ‘Time’ which we need to ponder on is our psychological experience of time. When we are doing something, which involves our whole being and which we enjoy doing and nothing else matters at that point of time, then we are said to be ‘in the flow’ which according to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a reputed psychologist is ‘a highly focused mental state conducive to productivity’. We psychologically experience time zooming by. There is no friction or resistance experienced. In fact, time is no longer an entity which we are conscious of. Unlike the experience we have when we have to do something really dreary; something which we dislike doing. Time takes an eternity to pass by.
A third perspective of ‘Time’ which we need to consider is that right from school we have been forced to undergo the experience of ‘divided time’. In school, ‘Time’ was divided into ‘periods’ in which different subjects were taught. And the priority was that the ‘portion’ needs to be completed. Irrespective of whether the rhythm of one’s learning was matched with the rhythm of teaching or not. And one switched from one ‘period’ to another with no set — up time or winding down time. So from young we were forced to synchronize our personal rhythms and experience of time to external needs and compulsions. Whether those needs were that of schools of learning or organisations of production where we darted from meeting to meeting with no time to catch our breaths.
We are continuously experiencing the linear sequential march of the arrow of time ruthlessly proceeding onward within which objectives have to be met with no concern for one’s personal needs, capability or comfort.
But what about ‘undivided time’. Time which is given to an activity you love or being with someone you care for. Many things in order to fructify need one’s undivided time. The most creative and fulfilling moments emerge through ‘undivided time’. Undivided time is needed for life to emerge in a silent, joyous and fulfilling manner.
Today the crying need of people is just to be listened to. But we don’t have the time. In finding time, which is ‘undivided time’, to listen to people, we actually help in recreating them.
It is in this undivided time that one experiences ‘manufacturing time’. Waiting for time to happen. Doing nothing. Like a farmer gazing into the distance while his flock quietly grazes around. The farmer is not idling away his time. He is ‘manufacturing time’ for himself. He is experiencing an emptying of his mind of continuous thoughts on different aspects in different areas which we as urban residents regularly experience as we rush from one activity to another.
When we manufacture time, we are not manufacturing a thing that can be traded for money. We are just ‘manufacturing life’. Allowing ourselves to ponder and live the way Life wants us to live.
That is why we enjoy our getaways. This is where time gets manufactured through undivided time for ourselves to reflect on things that matter, enjoy the things we love doing, savour the company of people gifted to us. And revel in nature
Life needs to experience a void even for short bursts for it to be conceived and born. Otherwise we are busy creating an artificial life. Life which does not really satisfy one’s soul. We may have gained time through technology but lost our humanity. The linear perspective at the cost of the organic.
Ultimately, we need to balance our clockwork time with our organic undivided time.
It is not a question of having too little time or too much time, but rather a change in our consciousness about time which will lead us to new priorities regarding what we will do and how we will make use of our time.
