Discover the Timebound Chain: The Key to a Better Life

Become timeless

Most of your thoughts are timebound. Living by clock time immediately spins you into the future and creates stress.  

You can feel your life ticking away. After all, the average lifespan is only 4000 weeks.

Once you see that everything is temporary, everything is just a moment, and it's this moment in time, then your life will change.

Being free of time is the most intensely alive you can be. 

My personal problems were created by time

When I was 16 something happened to change my relationship with time. This is a warning because it wasn't a helpful shift.

My Dad was my hero, and he passed from cancer at 46. He was a kind man who always helped his neighbors. Someone to look up to.

His death was a traumatic and a shutting-down experience. It programmed my brain in an unhelpful way.

My fight-flight system was altered to expect the worst outcomes.

Salvation is only found in the present. Every moment we have a chance to change our past and our future by reprogramming the present.
- Marianne Willamson - A return to love

I was living a past story

This experience gave me an identity of loss and fear instead of love. It took me far too long to realize I was continually living this story.

First, I changed my story. 

His passing was only one brief moment in time. I started to remember the happy times we had as a family. I was more fortunate than most to have experienced love and quality time with him. He has shaped my life in a great way.

Next, I considered how this was impacting my present life.

The identity we create for ourselves gives us the thoughts that shape our lives. Whenever I had bad thoughts, I actively sabotaged the joy in the present moment. Not only was I not spending time with Dad, but I was adding more problems on top.

It hit me. 

The past really has no place in the present moment. Zero!

The past may shape who we are, but it doesn't define us.

Is time an illusion?

Time is really an interpretation of experiences in our minds. It's not reality. It's a human construct, a mental framework for organizing and making sense of our lives. 

We create an illusion of linear sequencing.

Do you ever feel like time sometimes goes quicker and sometimes slow? 

Some physicists theorize that time might emerge from the interactions of quantum particles and the underlying laws governing them. These interactions create an illusion that time is flowing in one direction. There are still more questions than answers.

Since before time and space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.
- Tao Te Ching (Interpretation by Stephen Mitchell)

The present moment is all that exists

The ego lives in the past and future, distracting us from the present.

• Past is only a memory or an interpretation of experiences.
• Future is an anticipation, and it is often somewhere you will never get to.
• Present is true peace where you are fully conscious and experiencing life.

Many call living in the present moment mindfulness.

Advantages of living in the present moment

When you experience life with all your senses present:

·       It helps dissolve thoughts of worry and regret to provide peace

·       You fully appreciate and experience the beauty of moments rather than never living your life

• Other people feel listened to and appreciated
• You bring a focus to tasks that increase quality and speed
• There is no stress from tasks because you're only living in this moment 

The journey of a thousand miles
starts from beneath your feet.
Tao Te Ching (Interpretation by Stephen Mitchell)

Zen life

The idea behind Zen is to be completely present. We are spiritual beings living in consciousness. This is the authentic self, the spirit and the Tao (the way).

Time is often the cause of suffering. In presence (the absence of time), all your problems dissolve. 

The more your thoughts are on the past and future, the more you miss out on life. You miss the most precious thing there is, the present moment.

Just be.

Wishing you well,
Howard

"I don't know what I don't know, and I'm always a work in progress."