It’s important to be friends with a few things in life, including your Self, your breath, and time.
Friends with time?
What a concept!
Being friends with time means that we honor the fact that we have twenty-four hours in our day, no more and no less, until our very last breath. There are no exceptions to this rule. Because of this limitation, or gift, depending on our personal relationship with time, we learn that we have an anchor around which we can design our lives.
There are things we all need to do every day in order to keep a healthy mind, body, and spirit: we need to nourish our bodies with healthy food, engage in routine exercise, get adequate sleep (7-8 hours), interact socially, earn a living, practice presence, choose our thoughts and actions with conscious deliberation, and engage in rest, relaxation, silence, stillness, and play.
We are constantly creating new versions of ourselves as we move through time. Yet, how many times do we allow ourselves to become stuck in the past or the future, which are both versions of time that do not/cannot exist in the present moment.
How often do you carry the burden of time with you?
That burden being yesterday’s regret, last year’s grudge, tomorrow’s worry, next year’s anticipation, etc. The more burden (i.e., length and gravity of time) we carry, the more weighed down we feel.
So, what’s one to do?
Balancing awareness and action is very important. Be a witness to when you carry the burden of time. It is a choice that you, alone, decide whether or not to carry. Then, take action: be intentional about your decisions, learn from past mistakes, prepare for the future, manage expectations, accept what you can’t control, let go… and play. You were not put on this Earth to struggle.
Time: a burden or a gift… your choice.