Time is our best friend. But we often make time into our adversary by focusing on problems. That is of no use, because we will always loose if we compete with time and with our own mind.
I am counting down the days until I turn 50. This is very much about time, of reaching a half century in this life. I reflect on accomplishments, on what is done. I also think about what lies ahead. Not that I worry about that a lot.
Rather, I see the future as a great opportunity. A great potential I can tap into. But only if I am awake to it, and aware of the possibilities. I can only tap into the future now, in the present moment.
Everyday is a good day for that. I live in real time when I live in the now. I found that there is no other real time. Behind me is the closed book of history. Before me is the closed book of the future.
There is only the now in which I can live. And it’s so big, once I started discovering it. It has the unlimited potential of the universe, and no real problems. I like real time, the now, the present moment. I have tasted it, and I won’t trade it for anything.
If the concept of real time is too hard to apply, we can think of living every five minutes. We can oversee that. A good friend has adopted this as a motto. I also saw it in the Spanish film Bienvenido a Casa that I watched recently on Singapore Airlines.
I am counting down the days until I turn 50. This is very much about time, of reaching a half century in this life. I reflect on accomplishments, on what is done. I also think about what lies ahead. Not that I worry about that a lot.
Rather, I see the future as a great opportunity. A great potential I can tap into. But only if I am awake to it, and aware of the possibilities. I can only tap into the future now, in the present moment.
Everyday is a good day for that. I live in real time when I live in the now. I found that there is no other real time. Behind me is the closed book of history. Before me is the closed book of the future.
There is only the now in which I can live. And it’s so big, once I started discovering it. It has the unlimited potential of the universe, and no real problems. I like real time, the now, the present moment. I have tasted it, and I won’t trade it for anything.
If the concept of real time is too hard to apply, we can think of living every five minutes. We can oversee that. A good friend has adopted this as a motto. I also saw it in the Spanish film Bienvenido a Casa that I watched recently on Singapore Airlines.
The lead actress told her boyfriend not to promise love forever, but to love her for 5 minutes, and then another five minutes, and another. Our real time, our now, can be five minutes.
When we pay attention to our mind, we realize that our problems are created mostly by dwelling in the imperfections of the past or the uncertainties of the future. This is what Eckart Tolle calls psychological time in his book The Power of Now.
We live in psychological time when reflecting on problems. And especially when we feed the problems by our thoughts, fears, and expectations. The result is that they stay alive.
The more we live in psychological time, the more we feed them and the bigger and hungrier they grow. Until they become pain bodies that feed on us, and we feed them. An unhealthy symbiosis, for sure.
I have lots to be thankful for in the past year, in the past decade, and in the past 50 years of my life. At this year’s end, I will reminisce, and this year I will do it more because of my passage to 50.
I will remind myself of fantastic moments I had that make life so memorable and rich. And, inevitably, thoughts of what did not go well will also come to my mind.
I will welcome and recognize all these thoughts. And then I will let them slide away to make space for the opportunities in the present time. For a beginner’s mind.
When we come to the end of a chapter or cycle in our lives, it is easy to focus on what was not achieved, where we messed up, what didn’t turn out as we expected. It’s how our mind works. It’s natural.
What I like to do, however, is to turn to the other side of the coin of fortune. It’s the side of the possibilities, of the space to live and create.
As I prepare for 50, I acknowledge that some chapters in my life need closing. For what I sense that has finished in my life, I have the task to close it properly, in the best interests of myself and all concerned.
And then to move to the next phase, where life can grow again, in harmony with all those around me.
I won’t compete with time
But release from psycho time
Choose to live in real time
Every day is a good day
I live every five minutes
With a beginner’s mind
Photograph: The Beethoven Frieze by Gustav Klimt
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