by Cay Randall – May
You are on the way to meet a friend for lunch. You’re running behind schedule and the other drivers seem to have joined in a plot to keep you from arriving on time. A glance at your watch 
confirms the sinking feeling in your stomach. How can you manage to keep your appointment?
Most people in this situation would drive faster and risk a speeding ticket, hypertension, or an accident. Schedule books, calendars, clocks and conventional time management schemes reinforce the view that time is a limited commodity which must be used efficiently. This is common sense, but unnecessarily stressful. There is a more natural, more spiritual approach to time management.
Another Way
To understand this other approach, we must look at time as relative, not absolute. Albert Einstein predicted that time is related to the speed of an object. This concept was a major challenge for the Western mind and still remains outside the ordinary experience of most people. Time may prove relative for future space travelers, but is that important on your way to the luncheon?
Yes, if only to remind us that we have some control over time. I’m talking about useful, usable time. The truth is, what we focus on, we perceive. We focus through our thoughts which are very much influenced by our physical and emotional state at the moment. Long ago I discovered that I could actually expand or contract my perceived time to accomplish more or avoid long tedious waiting periods.
Natural Resources
There is nothing magical about this approach. It is perfectly natural. Our stress level determines how fast or slow time seems to be moving. Extremes of emotional tension, shock, or even profound relaxation can distort time so much that it seems to not exist at all. But most of everyday life is spent in a lower level, chronic stress state that we can be calmed in various ways: prayer, meditation, deep breathing, yoga, walking, peaceful visualization. These approaches to relaxation clear our thoughts, make us feel safer, and we seem to have more time.
So, getting back to your immediate situation, you’re late for the lunch appointment with your friend. Most people would become tense, anxious. They would breathe in shallow gasps. Under pressure to get to their goal, they would not pay attention to their surroundings and this could lead to various mishaps.
Self Talk and Breathing
Instead, turn on soft, preferably classical music. Focus your attention on a positive statement, such as, “I have all the time I need.” Notice the small details around you, especially when driving or walking in crowded conditions. Breathe deeply and slowly.
Focus is the key to expanding time. The present is all we have, and we have all the time in the world to be in it. Agitation and anxiety distract us, waste our energy. Try the following demonstration if you need proof.
Ask a friend to time you as you try to guess when 30 seconds have passed. Cover your eyes during the test to avoid visual clues. Easy? Try it under two different conditions: first with some fast, rhythmic music; next with soothing, meditative music. Most people find they underestimate how long the time period is when listening to the fast music and are more nearly correct when the calm music is playing or in silence.
You can also try to guess a 30 second interval at different times of the day. Most people feel they have more time when they are fresh and calm; mood, blood sugar level, general state of health, and fatigue all play a part in time perception. Check your accuracy at different times of the day. If you are like most of us, you have periods during the day when you are fast or slow in your time sense.
If your time sense slows in the afternoon, for instance, you can listen to lively music or eat a high protein snack to compensate for the change in your body’s clock. That can help relieve the mid–afternoon slump that many people experience.
Coffee? Sugar?
But what about those times when you are called upon to work at peak performance? If you must write an essay, finish a report, or any other project with a tension–producing deadline there are some things you should know. Drugs, like caffeine or sugar, speed your sense of time. They make time seem to go faster.
Clutter does the same thing. Working in a small area heaped with papers, books, etc., drains energy and distorts time sense. Sensory overload of any kind will make time seem to go by faster.
Relaxation – Changing the Body’s Chemistry
Many spiritual disciplines and intuitive training programs include progressive relaxation, visualization, meditation and imaging which actually help to change the body’s chemistry. These practices expand usable time, stretch the ‘moment’ of perception. They allow us to be more observant of our outer and inner sensory input. Mastery of time perception is one of the best natural medicines and a useful tool for anyone who wishes to live life more fully.
Cay Randall–May is an internationally known Medical Intuitive and Healer. She teaches the principles of time expansion and many other techniques for self awareness and intuitive development in The Intuitive Pathway (TIP) program. email info@How2Heal.com for more information.