The Elasticity of Time (Part 3)

(”It’s 8:34 pm, Where are U?”; courtesy of LAKAN346)

Perhaps the most important way in which to make time more elastic is by learning to take your time. Slow down the pace of life, live in the present, take time to develop your skills and talents, and simply resolve to live longer.  To quote Socrates, “Better do a little well, than a great deal badly.”  By speeding up we’re failing to take the time to enjoy ourselves and do things well, and we’re living our lives at such a frantic and stressful pace that we’re shortening our life span.   Follow the four tips below to get the most out of your time:

The Slow Movement

Our current mindset that time is linear, that it’s draining away, and that time is a scarce commodity has created a world that is obsessed with cramming more and more into less and less time. This is taking an incredible toll on our health, our happiness, and our relationships. The Slow Movement addresses the issue of time poverty. This movement began in Italy with Slow Food and has progressed to other aspects of contemporary living in countries around the world. People are searching for connection; they want to connect with themselves, with their loved ones, with food, and with their communities. There’s a growing cultural shift toward slowing down and recapturing a state of connectedness.

This movement encompasses everything from preparing simple meals at home and eating them at the table with the television switched off, to using technology in a more balanced way, to avoiding over-packing your social schedule, and so on. In leisure pursuits and hobbies, the slow movement is gaining momentum is such activities as knitting, gardening, and reading.

Canadian journalist Carl Honoré wrote a book entitled In Praise of Slow: How a Worldwide Movement Is Challenging the Cult of Speed in which he explains that the Slow Cities movement means urban planning and architecture that encourage walking, mingling and smelling the roses. He also explains that Fast Thinking, which is linear, analytical, and logical, is what we do under time pressure. Slow Thinking, which we do in the shower, while taking a walk, or while meditating, results in insight and creative breakthroughs. One of the best ways to get more out of life is to slow down.

Mindfulness

Another important way to make time elastic is by achieving mindfulness, or awareness. Jon Kabat-Zinn, professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Medical School has spent much of his professional life extolling the wisdom of the body and the healing that can happen when we get in touch with our senses and our mind. He says: “Mindfulness is a certain way of paying attention that is healing, that is restorative, that is reminding you of who you actually are so that you don’t wind up getting entrained into being a human doing rather than a human being.”

In Take Your Time: Finding Balance in a Hurried World, Eknath Easwaran compares a driver losing control of the car he’s driving because he’s going too fast, to a person making bad judgment calls because they’re in a hurry and their mind is moving too fast to absorb what is going on.  He has the following to say about mindfulness:

“When we learn to focus our attention completely in the present, we make an amazing discovery: problems we thought were huge begin to shrink, and old compulsions we thought we could never break out of fall away. We find we have a breathing space between stimulus and response. We no longer blow up when frustrated, because we are going slow enough to control the situation. We no longer cling to a moment of enjoyment, but let things come and go in the natural rhythm of circumstances.”

Careers that Stand the Test of Time

Many people are caught up in a sense of urgency to get their careers on track before age becomes an issue. However, there are plenty of examples of people who did not hit their stride until later in life, as well as those who practiced their art until a very advanced age. Grandma Moses was a self-taught artist from upstate New York who first came to public attention at the age of 80. She began painting in her seventies and created 1600 works before her death at the age of 101. Michelangelo designed St. Peter’s Basilica when he was nearly 90, and Picasso was still painting at that age. Verdi wrote one of his greatest operas, Falstaff, at the age of 80.

In Ageless Body, Timeless Mind: The Quantum Alternative to Growing Old, Deepak Chopra explains that many creative abilities ripen toward the very end of life. As illustration, he refers to masterful musicians who performed into their eighties and nineties, including Toscanini, Horowitz, Rubinstein, and Serkin. In addition, he refers to Hokusai, the great Japanese woodblock artist who began life as a prodigy but who indicated that he was not satisfied with his skill until he turned 70. Learn to see life as a process of transformation, instead of a process of decline.

Resolve to Live Longer

Another way to get more done is to resolve to live longer. The upper limit of human life is now about 115 to 120 years of age. According to Dr. John Rowe, director of the division on aging at Harvard Medical School, the new focus of the rapidly expanding scientific discipline of gerontology is not on life-span but on health- span. That is, the focus is not to push beyond the actual 120 year-limit, but to improve the quality of life for people over the age of 65.

Bernice Neugarten was a psychologist who conducted research at the University of Chicago and was a pioneer in the study of aging. Neugarten dispelled many myths about aging, showing that the senior years were often happier and healthier than expected. In a paper in which she concentrated on the life satisfaction characteristics of people who lived over the age of 85 she explained that these characteristics were the following:

1. They take pleasure from daily activities.
2. They regard their life as meaningful.
3. They feel they have achieved major goals.
4. They hold a positive self-image and regard themselves as worthwhile.
5. They’re optimistic.

Eric Pfeiffer, a psychiatrist at Duke University who for many years was a project director for a long-term study on older Americans points out that using ones physical and mental abilities to the fullest is the best way to age well. He argues that people who age successfully are those who stay active throughout their adult lives in the following three areas: physical activity, psychological and intellectual activity, and social relationships.

Other writers who have examined the biographies of centenarians across different cultures have listed the following advice:

• Eat frugally
• Get plenty of exercise
• Choose an occupation you enjoy
• Abstain from stimulants and sedatives
• Get plenty of rest
• Enjoy a reasonable sex life
• Get proper medical attention in case of illness

“Oh! Do not attack me with your watch. A watch is always too fast or too slow. I cannot be dictated to by a watch.” — Jane Austen

Related Posts:

• The Elasticity of Time (Part 1)
• The Elasticity of Time (Part 2)

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