How to RESHAPE your relationship with TIME!
May the Sky be with you.
May the Wind be with you.
May Time-full-ness be with you.
May you be with YOU!
Smiling.
Here goes----
Time. Commodity. Words. And Shaping.
I’ve been reading and rereading passages from Yearning for the Wind, by Tom Cowan since I happened upon it on Lopez Island, in a decidedly forested fairy-like free library, that felt so magical to me at the moment, I can joyfully feel the memory in my body! This book slipped into my pocket with nary a backward glance and continues to wend and weave its magical Celtic wisdom into my heart and soul.
Each little chapter is a gem to ponder and play with and many of his words got me thinking in trinities(threes!). Goodness, Love and Yearning. Moon, Earth, Sun. Shapers Shaping Shapes.
Then---
Listening to David Abram a few months ago and his talking about how words, written words especially, are magic, very potent magic (one kind of the many magical sounds, voices and utterances of the world).
That brought me to consider how my words and the words I live with and believe are shapers shaping the shape of who I am becoming and how in turning, that shapes the world.
So many words in our society.
Spilling from technology, experts, coworkers, bosses, friends, family…and from our own mouths.
Words that pour through our minds 60,000 thoughts a day on average.
And these today!
For a while now I’ve been super curious about how I language TIME.
How I hear others talk about it. How it is framed.
Clock time.
Chronological. Orderly. Captured.
24 hours of time.
And how it shapes me!
PAY attention.
Time is MONEY.
Time is MONEY.
Time is MONEY.
MAKE HASTE.
SPEND it.
USE it.
MAKE it.
FILL it.
TAKE it.
For heaven’s sake don’t WASTE it.
Time is MONEY.
Honey.
I could BUY some time.
At the corner store, or Amazon, or…
Commodified.
Pause with me.
Breathe.
Notice how the words above feel.
Familiar. Unconscious. Or very conscious. Intentional expression. An aha or…
Wondering, Who were we before clock time?
Earth dwellers.
RE-cycling with the embers of light and dark, the soupy grays.
With the seasonal spiraling rounds.
Rose luster. Plum gleams. Amber glows.
Sounds abound. Utterances galore.
Dusky dark star dust studded sensational skies.
Moon time. Luna glow. Shimmer.
Glimmer. Cauldrons flow.
Wowsers.
An eye opening expedition.
What I am discovering is, the language of spend, make, take, waste, use, TIME…often moves me into a lack or not enough consciousness and that often boomerangs into a sense of urgency that activates my nervous system to go into fight flight or freeze and off to the races I go.
Chemical soup of too much toxicity, of a can be a good thing, in small truly urgent moments!
Past-ing and future-ing galore!
Ping ponging my nervous system!
Whew.
Another layer of peeling the onion of social conditioning.
And how the nervous system activation affects my health. My feelings of worry and anxiety.
My behavior rushed. Hurried. Moving out of presence.
Spend. Make. Use. Waste.
Shapers shaping shapes.
So.
Once I became more aware of how I am shaped by this language.
I began to play with my words.
My words then shifting slightly how my body responds.
More aware of the hurrying in the body that comes when there is no need to race.
And I can slow the pace with attention. With soothing phrases.
With asking different questions.
What am I devoting my energy to?
And breath. And settle.
Rewiring sounds and waves. Neurons.
Heart/Mind.
If any of the above resonates, here are some ways to play with this!!
1. Ask these wondering questions: How does the commodification of time shape me? Who would I/we be/become without it?
Let your brain and body and heart and soul explore this. Write as fast as you can, or with your non-dominant hand, don’t lift your pen off the page. Meander. Use the prompts from the wonder uprising guidebooks!
2. Notice and observe how you language time. Also, listen to how others are talking about it and how that may shape your feelings, thoughts and behaviors. (particularly in power over dynamics)
Give your attention to how you feel, think and act when using that language.
Do something expressive with what you are discovering. Art, movement, play, drama…
Invite yourself to play with fresh language in speaking, writing, and talking to yourself about time, and see what happens!
Here are phrases I am amplifying:
Where am I placing attention?
Where is my care needed?
What am I devoting my energy to?
Who/what am I dedicating space to?
How am I connecting?
Where is my creative juice flowing?
What needs focused attention?
Where can I invite laughter, play, fun in?
How can I sip, savor, roll around in, create, live in, inhabit, enrich, engage living in a timeless/full way?
Notice what happens as you change your language.
Celebrate consciously being a shaper shaping shapes with a dose of playful re-languaging.
Deeply, curiously, and sincerely,
Check out the Unheard of Importance of Listening Course HERE
Want to get a taste of working with me? Click HERE for a free 30 minute conversation.
P.S. A client of mine said to me the other day "this is the best conversation I have had in 5 years!" such a pleasure Wendy!!
P.S.S. And an AMAZING INTERVIEW and Conversation with Vandana Shiva and Dr. Rupa Marya. Two humans that inspire me SOOO.
Highly, Highly recommend you listen/watch this from the Post-Capitalist Philantropy Webinar. They gave me permission to share this.