Originally used by the renowned Roman poet, Virgil (70bce-19bce), tempus fugit (time flies) is a latin proverb against sloth and procrastination, often seen on clocks and sundials.
There is no sense of tempus fugit in meditation, because it is a re-setting of the internal clock. The objective of meditation is to reach an “altered state” – the Alpha / Theta brain state. In high alpha, time can appear like slow motion. In low alpha, it can feel like the zone. In theta, it is like a zero point of suspended time.
REFLECT:
Have you experienced time appearing to be fast or slow?
In what situations does it speed up? Slow down?
Have you experienced suspended time?
In what situations does it happen?
In the US, we have a tempus fugit mentality which creates“time sicknesses” – illnesses that involve anxiety and excessive time awareness. Living in this “nanosecond culture” – wanting things to happen NOW – has spawned a variety of physical illnesses: coronary heart disease, hypertension, peptic ulcers disease, irritable bowel syndrome, migraines, etc. (These are also linked with the Type A personality).
At the Dallas Diagnostic Association Biofeedback Department, these time illnesses are treated with biofeedback / neurofeedback.
The “intake” assessment is simple:
(1) lean back in a reclining chair with eyes closed
(2) relax
(3) say when you think a minute has passed
ALL patients with a time sickness underestimate the time. They think time has passed faster than has. The record holder for many years was a patient with anxiety who estimated 15 seconds was a minute – a 400% underestimation of how long it had been. Then a man with coronary heart disease broke the record by estimating 12 seconds was a full minute – a 500% underestimation of how long it had been. There sense of time was speeded up.
After completing the biofeedback training and learning relaxation techniques, the patients are asked to repeat the intake exercise. Invariably, they overestimated the time, often going as long as three minutes – a 300% overestimation of howling it had been. Their sense of time had slowed down.
APPLY:
Set a timer for 60 seconds.
Relax and estimate when a minute has passed.
Compare your time with the timer.
Aha – I had a new theory to test. My morning ritual involves an hour of selfhealing Reiki treatment, with an 8 minute timer for each body-point I am treating. Some mornings I can’t believe the alarm goes off so fast. Other
mornings, I check the clock a few times to make sure it is working because it has been so long.
I began comparing my short-time and long-time estimations with how tightly scheduled those days were. And there was a clear correlation.
* On days that were scheduled with meetings, deadlines, etc. involving others, meaning I was feeling pressure to get up and get going and I was feeling responsible to others, I thought the alarm should be going off before
it did.
* On days other people were not involved and I could control my schedule – no matter how much I had to accomplish – I was surprised when the alarm sounded so soon.
That explained the time dynamic. Unfortunately, it discounted many of the Reiki treatments because healing happens in the alpha / theta state – not the tempus fugit state.
* On the days I was feeling time pressure and underestimating the time, I was not in those “altered states”, which means they were non-healing days (or as a Type A personality would think, non-productive or wasted time). My “time + responsibility addiction” was overriding my healing work.
That led me to revise my morning routine. Instead of focusing on the Reiki, I focus on my relaxation. Often, I do this by playing alpha / theta music softly in the background.
APPLY:
Monitor your sense of time for a few days during different activities.
Learn to identify your alpha times.
Create a plan to increase alpha time each day.
Recovering the Soul: A Scientific and Spiritual Search, Larry Dossey, MD, Bantam Books, 1989.
