My phone alarm didn’t go off, so I missed a class I had planned on attending. On to mid-day, I set my alarm clock to remember to finish a chore, and it didn’t go off. The batteries went dead. Frozen time stared at me from the face of my alarm clock. So, I took the big wall clock, perfectly working as I made sure to check it, to my room to time a short yoga practice, knowing my day was set with a whole list of things to do, and that I could not waste time. Halfway into the practice, I realized the clock was dead. Again. OK. The universe was trying to tell me something.
I stopped thinking linear right there and then…and put aside the obsession for time management. I kept the list of things that needed to be done in its priority and sequence, of the schedules that need to be followed to get to the next meeting. I didn’t just slow down the day, I totally just flowed into moment, into moment, into next moment — which became like a meditation exercise. I wrote. I read. I hugged my loved ones. I listened to the breeze and watched the fall of rain. I tended my pots of herbs. And suddenly, I was happy, relaxed and peaceful.
Majority of us today are obsessed by the need to time-manage our days due to so many commitments. I know other people who are as obsessed where they need to constantly know the time, and get anxious if they don’t have control of it. Linear time has become totally out of sync with our information-laden, technology-driven age. A new layer added on is that of digital time. While the Internet and technologies can do everything at the same time, we humans are getting our systems shocked to catch up and multitask, too. We face what Douglas Rushkoff in his book Present Shock: When Everything Happens Now calls the danger of “presentism,” which is an overwhelming consideration of what is. He says, “While, in the past, we looked toward the future, now we are all about the now; we are defined by presentism.” Where messages come in their own schedules not ours, where the constant stream of information barrages us with data and more data with less and less time to make so many points connect and make sense. “Presentism” is about the overstimulation to capture the NOW. It’s like time’s arrow is pointing us everywhere and nowhere all at once, as both linear time and digital time vie for our attention. In our need for overstimulation, for the desire to do what needs to be done, we are constantly stressed and anxious.
My dead alarm clocks are my symbolic “pause button” to step out of time. Stepping out of time today is the most sensible practice that needs disciplined self-control. It’s not only about creating space in our day for these pauses, but to move and live life in a different plane away from linear and digital time — and make our spirituality practical. It’s about re-assessing our own personal goals in the outside world that affect the way we deal with linear and digital time, choosing the challenges and battles to take on, and defining on our own terms of what “success,” “achievement” and “happiness” mean.
Sometimes, we each need symbols and disciplines of our own to keep us in check against ourselves I understand why I am so passionate in the work we do in our social enterprise ECHOstore: where profit is not the only gain, and the social impact requirements of the business are as valid as the profits we make. Living the sustainable lifestyle is the ultimate choice to keep my balance. And to share these lifestyle choices with everyone, too. I understand why I choose to have an ECHOyoga Shala studio, so I myself will be disciplined to keep to a holistic wellness practice that keeps my core steady, my body healthy and my spirit attuned. And so we can share the benefits of the practice with many. I know why I love to teach meditation and breathing because I myself need them. And so I can share the wonderful things meditation does for a peaceful mind and body. Or why I have even added on the slow food advocacy just so I will be reminded to slow down and choose clean, good local food to eat, so we can ultimately help our farmers plant more for the earth. When we pause, we see the reasons for our choices and our actions. Then time (both linear and digital) is used wisely, directed and focused.
I am reminded of the wisdom behind the saying that the ultimate journey of life will bring us back to our own inner space with our own “time frames” and rhythms. To stay in the vitality of the silent moment within is the ultimate under-stimulation. This vitality needs no stimulation. It is forever alive, throbbing with life in the stillness of the moment. For beyond all moments, in the summation of all the moments, we can capture this timeless space where the vitality of spirit resides.