Our use of time has much to do with our happiness. If we always have to be everywhere at the same time, that clearly cannot work. The pain it causes is directly linked to how we view time. Stress, burnout, and other afflictions of our mental health are a consequence of how we use time.
Time is linear. It progresses from one point to another, and we can only go forward in it. It also happens by itself. We don’t have to do anything. We may sometimes feel the urge to ‘work on’, ‘streamline’, or make or time ‘more effective’, but all this does not change the smallest bit in the steady progress of time. You do not change a river by wildly jumping through it. You only get wet.
So, rather than pushing against time, it is better to work with it. First, it is liberating to accept the passage of physical time. Second, it is helpful to keep in mind that the perception of psychological time is variable, depending on the situation you are in and the people you are with. Some may make you feel better than others, and it makes sense to pick those that are good for you. After all, time is a feeling. What we measure is an inevitability, but what we feel shapes our happiness. The two are entirely separate. But since physical time is a given quantity, you may as well make the most out of psychological time.
Making the most of psychological time does not necessarily mean travelling the earth twenty times. One can find uplifting happiness and perfect contentment just by looking at a flower, a river, or having a great meal with nice people. It has to work for you. When you spend your time so that your needs, values, and aspirations are satisfied, your time is filled with greatness. Living in an interconnected world, you may also find that your needs, values and aspirations are strongly interconnected with those of others. You will discover caring for others as one of the true needs, which may be hidden below a mountain of superficial needs. It is the shortest road to everyone living in a happy world, where the passage of time becomes a friend.
Thank you for meeting,
Jonathan
© 2021 Christian Jonathan Haverkampf. All Rights Reserved. For more articles, please click on www.askdrjonathan.com. To contact me, please see www.jonathanhaverkampf.com or www.jonathanhaverkampf.ie. I am also a guest on www.wordnets.com. These are just my thoughts. I may be wrong.
