I used to see time as a static, uncomplicated resource. I have 24 hours in a day, and there’s nothing more to it than that.

But lately, I’ve been exploring the depths of time.

This is the way I’m starting to see it: there is a limited width to linear time – a minute is a minute – but there’s also a depth inside of that linear time that’s available to us as a resource.

As I’m tracking my own relationship with time, I’m asking myself: is my experience of time more like sinking into something good, deep, and satisfying, or is it more like trying to outrun something (a deadline, an outcome, my own feelings)?

I’ve found I can only ever sink into time if I’m also grounded in my body. My body is my way into deep time.

It also helps to shift my focus from managing my time to managing my attention. Because in my experience, the quantity of time I have to work with matters less than the intentional focus I give and bring to what’s present.

How about you? How do you relate to time, as well as to yourself within the time you have? How do you sink into a moment and take advantage of the depths available to you there?

Power vs. Control

This was a topic that came up on a coaching call today that led to a rich discussion.

Words mean different things to different people, but to this person, control was about force, pushing, and extremes, while power was about both/and, groundedness, and capacity.

Control was about fear. Power was about love.

In a world in which we experience hard things and where there is so much beyond our control, power asks to deepen into the infinity within our own borders and reminds us that there is always possibility we can create with our own magic and within our own being.

The beautiful thing about power is that it's big enough to hold the hard stuff (whereas control seeks smallness by pushing all the bad stuff away until we too shrink into oblivion).

There is power in presence - in not abandoning ourselves when things get hard (so we won't have to experience the hard thing).

Power reminds us that there are things within us (mystery, beauty, magic, and strength) bigger than the hard experiences and emotions that are passing through.

Paradoxically, the hard stuff often reminds us of our brilliance and strength - that we can be in the both/and and find our power and aliveness in that space.