“Time isn’t the primary factor. It’s the one factor.” ~Miles Davis
After I first learn that quote, it hit me proper within the chest. No longer as it sounded profound—however as it used to be one thing I have been slowly, painfully studying over the process an excessively quiet, very lengthy 12 months.
Time used to really feel like a race. Or possibly a shadow. Or a trickster. Some days, it slipped via my arms like water. Different days, it dragged me alongside like a heavy cart. However at all times, it used to be one thing outdoor me—one thing I used to be chasing or seeking to break out.
I spent a lot of my existence impatient. No longer in the most obvious, tapping-your-foot roughly method, however within the quiet, inner roughly method: the consistent sense that one thing will have to be taking place, or taking place sooner, or have already got came about by way of now. I measured existence by way of milestones—achievements, breakthroughs, arrivals. I advised myself I used to be being productive, however in reality, I used to be simply uncomfortable with stillness.
The Turning Level: Time Isn’t Linear
Ahead of all this, I considered sound as one thing exterior—tune, noise, dialog. However Nada Yoga remodeled that working out. Within the stillness of the ones lengthy days, sound turned into an anchor. Even the hum of the heater or the ticking of the clock turned into partners. After I gave them my complete consideration, they stopped being background noise and turned into a part of the existing second.
That is once I started to remember that time isn’t as linear as I had at all times believed. The previous and long run have been concepts enjoying out in my thoughts, however the sound of now—the tone, the breath, the sophisticated vibration in my chest—used to be plain. And each time I tuned into it, I discovered myself grounded once more.
Physics consents in unusual tactics. Einstein known as time a “stubbornly power phantasm,” and within the language of relativity, time doesn’t go in the best way we really feel it does. Some physicists consider that the previous, provide, and long run all exist directly—that point isn’t a immediately line, however extra like a panorama we transfer via. What we enjoy as “now” will depend on the place we’re status, so as to talk—our body of reference.
It’s now not that point isn’t actual—it’s that our enjoy of it’s formed by way of consideration, reminiscence, and motion.
This perception doesn’t make time really feel much less pressing, but it surely reframes it. If time is an phantasm, it can be much less about seconds ticking by way of and extra about consciousness itself. What we name “now” isn’t a slice between ahead of and after—it’s a box we input via presence. That’s why mindfulness and Nada Yoga topic right here: they’re now not simply tactics for coping—they’re tactics of seeing.
Within the teachings of the Eightfold Trail, this felt maximum hooked up to Proper Mindfulness and Proper Focus. However as an alternative of striving to easiest those steps, I merely allowed sound to guide me there. Following the thread of vibration used to be a convention in presence. It didn’t topic what time the clock mentioned. The one actual second used to be the only I may just listen, really feel, and meet with openness.
When Time Strikes Too Rapid
In the end, I started to really feel higher. My frame regained energy, and my considering used to be clearer. I began doing extra, respiring extra slowly, strolling farther, planning. However with that go back got here a special roughly problem: the rate of existence.
It’s fantastic how temporarily we will put out of your mind stillness as soon as momentum kicks again in. Emails. Errands. The unending record of items we will have to’ve already completed. I used to be “again,” however I spotted one thing curious—I neglected the sluggish time. No longer the discomfort, however the spaciousness. The simplicity. The intensity I had found out when existence wasn’t asking me to transport so speedy.
I attempted to carry onto what I’d discovered. I’d remind myself that presence doesn’t wish to be sophisticated—being attentive to a cushy drone or resting within the inside hum I may just nonetheless really feel once I paid consideration. That tiny ritual turned into a solution to melt the perimeters of my days. It jogged my memory that even if existence is loud and speedy, there may be nonetheless one thing quiet beneath, ready.
And as soon as once more, I grew to become to the Eightfold Trail, this time to Proper Effort. No longer effort as in fight, however the mild self-discipline to go back, to concentrate, not to put out of your mind myself within the rush. Persistence, it seems, isn’t one thing you grasp as soon as and for all. It’s one thing you follow over and over again in small, quiet tactics.
The Sound of Persistence
What stunned me maximum used to be knowing that endurance has a legitimate. It’s now not at all times silence.
Infrequently, it’s the low hum of the refrigerator in the dark. Infrequently, it’s the secure beat of drum in a work of tune. Infrequently, it’s simply my very own breath or heartbeat or pulse, reminding me that I’m right here.
And presence has its personal rhythm too. The extra I tuned in, the extra I noticed how a lot time opens up once I forestall resisting it. A couple of conscious mins can really feel complete and wealthy. A rushed hour can really feel like not anything in any respect.
We are saying “time flies” after we’re taking part in ourselves—however I’ve discovered one thing deeper: time expands after we’re absolutely provide. After I concentrate—in reality concentrate—to what’s right here, I don’t really feel overdue. I don’t really feel at the back of. I believe complete.
This doesn’t imply I’ve figured all of it out. I nonetheless lose endurance. I nonetheless take a look at the clock an excessive amount of. However now, I’ve a convention to go back to—a convention constructed now not on perfection, however on sound, breath, and the quiet consider that the entirety unfolds in its personal time.
The longer I stroll this trail, the extra I see that my struggling round time wasn’t in reality about mins or hours. It used to be about resistance. It used to be in regards to the trust that the existing second used to be by no means slightly sufficient. That I needed to get someplace, transform somebody, reach one thing ahead of I may just leisure.
However via mindfulness, and particularly throughout the follow of listening—whether or not to the cushy whispering tones of the wind in Nada Yoga or to the atypical sounds of day by day existence—I’ve found out a gentler reality:
The prevailing second isn’t one thing we earn. It’s one thing we input.
And after we do, after we forestall combating time and get started being attentive to it, we discover one thing sudden—now not vacancy, however richness. No longer ready, however arrival.
A Ultimate Mirrored image
There’s a cushy drone of reticulated sounds enjoying as I write this now. A deep tone that hardly shifts however in some way holds me secure. It rings a bell in my memory to respire. It rings a bell in my memory to decelerate. It rings a bell in my memory that It’s not that i am at the back of—I’m right here.
I feel that’s the actual reward of each mindfulness and Nada Yoga. To not lend a hand us “take advantage of our time,” however to lend a hand us really feel time in a different way—now not as a drive, however as a presence.
And so I depart you with this:
Subsequent time you are feeling rushed or stressed, forestall. Shut your eyes. Pay attention for the quietest sound within the room—or in you. It will not be tune, and even gorgeous, however it is going to be actual. And in that sound, on the other hand small, chances are you’ll discover a doorway to now.
And now, as Miles Davis mentioned, time is not only the primary factor—it’s the one factor.
About Tony Collins
Tony Collins, EdD, MFA is a documentary filmmaker, instructor, musician, creator, and advisor with 40 years of enjoy. His paintings explores ingenious expression, scholarly rigor, and nonfiction storytelling throughout the US, Central The united states, Asia, and the UAE. In 2025, he’s self-publishing Ingenious Scholarship: Rethinking Analysis in Movie and New Media on Amazon, difficult conventional instructional evaluation in movie and new media. Web page: anthonycollinsfilm.com
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