Stress can show up in many different places and many different areas of your life.
One of the biggest stressors that you may be experiencing is time. In one of the great ironies of life, technologies like the Internet and wireless devices were they were supposed to make life easier and more efficient, but we struggle now with time more than we did before we had these amazing inventions. That is because time stress is not just about time; it is about our relationship with time.
Perhaps that may sound strange to you: a relationship with time. You can get a better sense of this relationship by listening to the language you use about time. You talk about having time; you don’t have enough time or you have too much time. You talk about taking time; you talk about making time. You can spend lots of money on time management programs. All of this language suggest that time is a commodity that you can control. So, when time becomes a stressor, it is easy to assume that you’ve lost control of this commodity, and the stress will go away, if you exert more control.
But spend some time with these images.
Sit with them for a few minutes. Can you really take time? Can you really make time? Can you really manage time? When time becomes a stressor in your life, it is time to change your relationship with time. I want to suggest that this change involves less control, not more. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) says that you can dealing with time stress is not about doing more or doing less. That is still the language of control. Instead you move from a stance of doing to non-doing (Full Catastrophe Living, 453).
Kabat-Zinn suggests that this stance of non-doing is about “stepping out of the flow of time altogether” (453). Now you may be wondering: If time is a stressor, it doesn’t make any sense to take time away from everything I have to do to practice something called non-doing. But consider this. Along with all the other activities you are doing, you are probably doing a lot of other things that you aren’t aware of. You may also be “doing” anxiety or unhappiness. You may also be “doing” boredom or frustration. And these other things you are doing are connected to this relationship with time that involves control.
There are a variety of mindfulness practices that can help you step out of the flow of time.
These practices are simple and…wait for it…don’t take a lot of time. Bringing your attention to your body brings you into the present moment. Right now, you can pause, put your feet on the floor and feel yourself grounded. You can scan your body and notice the sensations in different parts of your body.
You can use this body awareness even as you perform the tasks of the day. When you pick up your phone to send a text, feel it in your hands and be mindfully aware as you write your texts. Picture in your mind the person to whom you are writing. Picture how you want them to respond. When you feel the urge to text or call, be aware of that urge; this is very different than making the call simply because it is the next thing on your to-do list.
You can become aware of the thoughts you have and the language you use about time. Do you find yourself thinking “I’m am behind schedule?” Do you think about the tasks of the day as being on a timeline? Do you find yourself talking about “deadlines?” Hmm, that is an interesting way to talk about time. Maybe one of the reasons you struggle with time stress is because you feel pressed for time, not just in your schedule but in the span of your life.
All of these mindfulness practices can free you from the tyranny of time by inviting you to live more fully in the present moment. The truth is all you really have is the present moment. All of the ways you think about time happen in the present moment. All of the ways you talk about the present and the future happen in the present moment.
On my stress reduction specialty page, you can learn more about Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction and how it can enrich and vitalize your living.