How do you find more space in an already full schedule…without changing or rearranging it? One powerful way is to simply make up a new sense of time and space.
Think about, we literally make our sense of time up anyway! There’s really no "timeline" moving from a past to a future. Our timeline is simply a concoction of our individual story that we create in our minds, and a larger sort of cultural hallucination that we’ve all agreed upon. So for 2010, why not make up a new story about time that still acknowledges the cultural hallucination of time… but works for you instead of against you?
Instead of looking at your calendar, your schedule or your planner and focusing on how you can "get more done", how you can "fit in" more things in or how you can "create more time" for yourself or your friends and family, why not focus on expanding your awareness of the space in between the "things" for a change. Sound abstract? It’s doable.
To make it a real practice start by looking at your schedule. Shift your focus to the space between the things in your schedule. You’ll see that no matter how many things are in your schedule, no matter how many meetings, phone calls and events are listed, there’s a lot more space than stuff. But your mind wants to see the stuff. That’s because the mind only knows how to focus on "things" and it can’t easily latch onto the no-thing-ness, the space between the things you’ve got on your timeline. You’ve got to train your mind to do that.
Look at your schedule and instead of seeing a jam-packed day with no "space" for you to breathe or no "time" for yourself, focus on the space. Break down seemingly "used-up" chunks of time — for example, "pick up the kids at 3pm" — into a more "spacious" process. The 45 minutes of driving, waiting, etc. is actually space. The "event" of the kids getting into the car might actually only take 10 seconds, whereas the 44 minutes 50 seconds to get there and back is really space.
If, in your mind a 45 minute chunk of your day is "lost" picking up your kids, then you’re going to stress about it and likely think about the things that you could be getting done if you didn’t have to do it. If instead you focus on the fact that you have 44 minutes and 50 seconds of space to accomplish a 10-second event, then your body will begin to relax. It is the exact same amount of minutes. But a whole different experience.
What could you focus on during that space, during those minutes that would allow you to actually feel a sense of freedom and expansiveness? What music, books on tape, CDs, educational programs could you listen to? Could you enjoy being in that space even more by focusing on your breath, and/or the flow of energy in your body?
With a little practice, even the fullest schedule can feel more spacious.
Warmly,
John Amaral
visit me on Twitter at www.twitter.com/johnamaral
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