Using Yoga to Master Time
There is a saying in Yoga that: “The mind is the best friend or the worst enemy”. That is why after learning Asanas or body postures and Pranayama or correct breathing, the next stage is Dharana or one pointed control of the focus of the mind. Yoga teaches that we are not the body or the mind; we are the consciousness that is present in both. That awareness is supposed to be under our control. You have heard the saying:” Time heals all wounds”. It is also true that:“Time wounds all heels” but we will save that lesson for a future story. In this brief article I am going to teach you the yogic secret of controlling time with your mind.
Albert Einstein once was asked to explain the theory of relativity. He said: “When you are talking to a pretty girl time goes by quickly but when you are sitting on a hot stove, time goes by very slowly and that is called Relativity. Time in space is measurable by distance at the speed of light but the human mind experiences time according to how it feels about what we are doing or have done. The yogis understood that our mind can make a small amount of time seem very long, or lengthy amounts of time seem very short. They then reasoned, that if the mind can do that to us, why can’t do the same thing to the mind.
So here is the secret. As soon as something is in the past, how long it takes you to get over the pain of the event is simply relative and only exists within your mind. The event may have happened yesterday and yet you can decide today to be completely over it, or it may have happened ten years ago yet still bothers you today. Since time is relative, all you have to do is tell your mind: “That was a thousand years ago”.
If you are convincing enough (after all you are in charge) then your mind will believe you and forget the pain. So the next time you have an argument with someone you love or something happens that hurts you and makes you very unhappy, spend a few hours figuring out who did what to whom and why and how it could have been better. When the assessment is recorded and the learning is finished, tell your mind: “That was a thousand years ago”, and NEVER mention it again. Always remember: “Separation makes the heart grow fonder” or is it “the fond heart wander”. Well that too is a yogic lesson for a future article. Meanwhile take charge of your mind with one pointed Dharana and don’t suffer from any pain that is more than three day sold, because that was really… a thousand years ago.
