The Pleasures of Time

Time. Time is the most valuable thing we have, yet is a man-made concept that is difficult to grasp. An amazing concept, an "idea" that is running the entire world.

In the English language, time is defined as the indefinite continued progress of existence and events in the past, present, and future regarded as a whole. There any many theories and mathematical approaches to represent time. Einstein's space time, Quantum mechanics time theories, Schrodinger’s equation, just to name a few.

For those among us that aren't rocket scientists, time is represented by the 24 hours visible on a clock, a round object hanging on the wall or resting on our wrists that dictates how our entire lives are spent. A man-made concept of "control." The amount of stress we as a species have because of time is incredible. A stress no other organism on our planet experiences. The stress of time.

The funny thing about time is that it's a tool used for control, yet we have no control over it whatsoever. We can't stop it, turn it back, nor forward. It just passes.

A resource that is limited and can only be given away, never given back. (Someone who gives you his or her time truly values you, and you ought to appreciate that person. There is no gift more beautiful than to give someone something as precious as time. Keep the people that give you their time willingly and effortlessly very close to you.

We plan and plan and plan because we value nothing as much as we value our time. It makes people furious to be stuck in traffic because it messes up our planning. Yet only a handful of people actually stick to their plan. Isn't it ironic? That we spend a tremendous amount of our precious time, thinking about something and planning something that we can't control? As if someone else other than you yourself possess your time and has control over it. You and you alone decide how you want to spend your time. Yet in many cases, we don't truly enjoy ourselves because while we have fun, we are looking at the time and worrying about it.

The choices we make every day define who we are. If I decide to eat unhealthy, I will be unhealthy. If I decide to not have a job, I will be unemployed. These are choices that we make, consciously and subconsciously. Unfortunately, we spend almost all of our valuable time thinking instead of doing.

Just like everything else in life, letting go, is the way to de-stress and truly enjoy pleasure. Real pleasure, can't be experienced if you are reaching and grasping for it. An example that demonstrates this is given by the scholar and philosopher Alan Watts: "imagine a little girl that gets a little bunny rabbit. While driving home she hugs and squeezes the little rabbit to death. Killing it by loving it too much. This is what human beings do to each other, but even more so, do to themselves. We force ourselves to repeat and repeat and repeat and stick to the plan and hold on too hard, killing our pleasure in the process of it. Parents do this to their children. Couples do this in relationships. Rushing, because time is limited. We become attached to these ideas and concepts, an attachment that can be described as greedy and dependent, resulting in depression and many other negative emotions that our current world is experiencing more than ever because we never truly understand where this negative energy inside us is actually coming from.

So I'm not saying we shouldn't participate in love, activities or people. I'm saying we should participate, a full 100%, but without the attachment and the pressure we put on it, based on time. If you look at it logically, everything is temporary. Life itself is temporary. Why define it with time when time is just something that just passes by? Being able to be this careless and being able to disregard the pressure of time, are what I believe is essential in experiencing true pleasure, especially the taboo pleasures.

This is one of the reasons I surf/kitesurf, and enjoy being on/in the water in general. Once you're in the sea, you will be (if you don't own the latest tech of course) free of Time. You have no way to monitor it. Many people in the world, if not most people in the world enjoy being on/in the water to an extreme extent. A sense of calm and relaxation takes over. This is a feeling that many also experience once they are disconnected from time during travels, when they are getting lost in foreign counties, or when they are exploring nature—a pleasure many people chase, for it truly is blissful. Because then you are at the mercy of nature, the mercy of the sea, the wind and other aspects of nature that you cannot control. Not being in control is a feeling that I hope everyone will be able to experience. Is this the reason surfers are extremely chill people, dudeeee? Could be. I don't have all the answers. But looking at the ocean and thinking about this should make you feel so big and connected. Our bodies are 90% water. It's the biggest part of our very being, a matter that is timeless and something that has existed since the beginning of our so-defined "time". You are connected to everything around you.

Isn't this what every human being wants to feel? To feel connected, to feel important, to feel like they’re part of something bigger than themselves, to not experience loneliness, to know if your relationship means something, to feel appreciated, loved, and as if they truly matter. Isn't this the reason we look for social connections and tend to do our best for others when they ask us for help? Not wanting to disappoint the people we feel connected to. Yet we are 90 percent water. This means that everything around us basically is connected to us. We just don't see it. Everyone matters. Everything matters. If you walk outside without headphones in and disconnected from your normal day routine, you will notice birds making sounds once you pass by. Life in general greets you. We just have to be open to it and then you will truly never be alone.

I believe that accepting the loss of control is the very essence of a happy life. So many people want to live forever, free of the pressures of time. Ask them why, and they won't know why they want this, however. It's probably because they want to do something significant. You see, immortals are not a myth. I even know where they live. The secret to immortality is our own minds. Immortals live in our minds: Moses, Jesus, Napoleon, Ragnar, Newton, Galileo, Michelangelo, Einstein, Hitler, Bruce Lee, Genghis Khan, just to name a few. These are people that connected people. It doesn’t matter if it was done in a good or bad way. Good and bad is not relevant in this case. They live forever, in our minds, in our consciences, in our books, and in our history. This is what makes these people the very thing that they are. These people even managed to connect to everything around them, the past the present and the future.

Consider that our society is suffering from something that I like to call mass hypnosis. From an early age, we are trained to plan our time. We are trained by teachers, the news, politics, our parents, and many other systems that put us in places and positions, making us do things we do not want to do. Spending our precious time in a way that we perhaps wouldn't like to. So many young students finish studying around the age of 20-25 having no clue on how they want to spend their time and in turn, spend their lives. Growing up we get trained to think about the future, and forget to actually enjoy the now. Our valuable time that we have now, is mostly spent in stress. We were taught by our parents to think like this, and in turn we will teach it to our children expanding this timeless concept of Time turning it into a circular pattern.

Imagine your dream is to be a ninja surgeon, doing backflips while performing surgery. I know it sounds ridiculous; however, I'm sure that if you get good enough at it, someone else on this planet would like to see you perform your craft. They would like to understand what you do and maybe even pay you for your work. It just can’t be that in this world with so many people, you are the only person who thought of this concept. Like-minded people will look for you and in turn create a connection with you and your life.

Nowadays it’s just too easy to get into this hypnosis. Phones, TV, and internet are replacing real interaction and connection—that valuable connection that is timeless. We're being robbed of a chance, robbed of truly spending our time with the things that we love. More precisely, we are robbing ourselves. A friend of mine, for example, traveled around the world for his employer. He loved what he was doing. There were hundreds of people telling him how great he was and how he inspired them to work hard. But at the end of the day, when he is lying in his bed, he would feel empty. There is a nagging pain in our chests that reflects the amount of love that we possess. To think about a person that we love lying in a bed with someone, a stranger to us, only hoping that they get treated in a good way. To see other people achieve their goals, dreams and the milestones of life through pictures, Facebook and other means whilst you are not able to be there in person to show them how proud and truly happy you are. When ten miles feels like ten million miles because you aren’t physically there, for you are behind your phone or computer. Actions will always speak loader then words. For it is the small things, such as giving someone their favorite chocolate for their birthday, that truly define such connections, the things that really touch people on a deep level, that show you really know their likes and dislikes. Connection is being replaced with selfishness and material things. Congratulating people in the form of texts, virtual messages from a distance, instead of doing it in person is robbing us, robbing us from the thing that we all crave which is your time and your connection.

We look at the future and we look at the past. Thinking about them and learning from them is okay, however thinking we are in control of them, in a sense that we can influence it, is where the flaw is. This need to have control is the root of many stresses that people experience. Because the only moment you can truly control, is this moment right now, this very second. And within this moment, you can only control your own actions and choices. You can make the choice to stop reading right now or you can make the choice to continue. At this very moment, the only thing you’re in control of are your own actions. This brings me back to the start of this story: letting go. By letting go and becoming outcome independent and just accepting things for what they are, we can achieve harmony within ourselves and experience that true pleasure we all crave.

By letting go of the ways implanted in us, by letting go of this concept of control, we are suddenly in complete control—for you yourself made the choice not to be.