A new year has just begun, and many of us wonder where the past year has gone – it seems only yesterday that we celebrated the beginning of 2008. The older we get, the faster time seems to pass. An interesting question arises: “What influences our perception of time?”

Interestingly enough it seems that whether we think that time passes quickly or slowly depends on how we go about doing things. Most of all it matters where our mind is focussing. Let me explain.

When we do a chore like washing the dishes or sweeping the floor it usually is a routine job for us and we don’t have to concentrate on it. Our mind wanders off to think about something else. I am sure you can think of lots of other examples like weeding, watering the garden, driving….

The older we get, the more tasks we can master routinely and our mind can wander. We are not fully present in the moment, we don’t focus all ours senses and our mind on what we are doing. As a result, at the end of the day, many hours have gone but we can’t really recall what exactly we did. We don’t know where we were at what time, we don’t know how we felt and we often think that we haven’t achieved anything. Day after day time just seems to race past and we feel that we have lost control. “Stop the world so I can get off” might describe how we feel.

In contrast, Yoga philosophy is all about one-pointedness, focus, clarity and being present in this very moment. Researchers found that time seems to pass much slower for people who do things that have not become routine for them yet. Doing a task and to fully focus on it seems to “make time pass slower”.

In a way we have control over how fast time passes – with our mind. Focussing on small things, taking time to “smell the roses”, doing one thing at a time and really focussing on it makes time pass slower (in our minds). The benefit? We feel less stressed, much more in control and get a feeling that there is enough time to do everything we need and want to do.

In this day and age of multitasking and technology overload it is worth bringing back focus and clarity – it will have a very beneficial effect on your sanity!

Till next time,
Connie and Charly
from

http://www.stretchyourmindandbody.com