thanks for tuning into episode 11!
in this episode, we are exploring the concept of time — is it of the essence? is it an illusion?
take a listen below!
show notes for the podcast episode
below are the show notes (supplemental reading) for this episode!
use them to take notes, complete the exercises, and take action this week —
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dear dope chick,
welcome + welcome back!
i am so glad that you are here today. i am really excited about today’s podcast episode but i have to ask you this:
are you up for the challenge of taking action today? are you ready?
what you’ll need:
if you are new here, here’s the scoop —
dear dope chick™ is an action based podcast so that means that every episode you are challenged, encouraged, + inspired to take one step that aligns with living life on your own terms.
you are taking one small step today that aligns with the lifestyle that you most desire.
you’re taking a step to get you closer to your dreams.
you’re taking a step to get you closer to where you want to be in this moment.
you are who you say you are.
in this moment, you are exactly who you say you are. until you prove yourself otherwise.
if you want to reinvent yourself in this moment. if you want to say, “this is who i am moving forward + my life actions align with who i say i am.” do that!
you have the power to choose what you will do today.
check out our first episode to help you envision the lifestyle you want to live: seeing is believing (episode 1)
you ain’t gotta do shit, sis.
the beauty of living life on your own terms is choosing what you will + will not do.
taking action today may not be your thing + guess what? that’s okay!
for those of us who are sick + tired of being sick + tired, for those of us who are ready to take some action today, this one is for you!
i encourage everyone to take some action today.
you owe it to yourself to steer your life in the direction that you’ve always wanted to go + you can do that today.
let’s get to work!
so, grab a notebook or journal that is dedicated to this podcast so that you can participate in the activities and exercises discussed; to see how much you have grown over the course of your life.
have you heard our previous episodes?
not yet ready do the activities presented in this episode?
we have others that may interest you so if you aren’t familiar or haven’t heard our previous episodes, take a listen so that you can make an informed choice today.
you can listen to them here.
do you have time?
this week, i’d like to discuss the concept of time.
we hear so many things about time —
- it’s fleeting
- it’s slow
- it waits for no one
- it flies by when you’re having fun
- we never have enough of it
well, time is all of those things + none of those things at the same time.
you assign the meaning to time because time is not real.
time is an illusion.
time is a social construct that we have designed to put everyone on the same type of timeline, so that we can convene + interact with one another socially. it serves as a unification method of sorts.
the sooner that we can accept it for what it is, the better we can interact with it.
what do you mean by time is an illusion, P?
i mean that it’s not real.
time, as we know of it today, is made up so that we can better interact with one another in the present.
we are timezones + years apart (literally)
let’s talk timezones for a minute, if you will.
collectively, humans exist in different timezones across the world.
in the US alone we have four or five time zones, not counting the areas that don’t adhere to daylight savings time, that we function under.
example: the state of Arizona doesn’t acknowledge daylight savings time.
Arizona is on Mountain Standard Time. Arizona does not observe Daylight Savings, with the exception of the Navajo Nation. Arizona previously observed Daylight Savings beginning in 1918, but made the permanent change to Standard time in 1968.
Time zones in the United States developed in the mid-nineteenth century to accommodate railroad schedules, which required standardizing time across the nation. Before the adoption of time zones, local communities each observed their own time schedules. (source)
the Ethiopian (Ge’ez) Calendar is a 13 month calendar, making them 7-8 years “behind” our time. (source)
so it’s 2022 now. following their calendar they’d be experiencing the year 2014-2015.
yes, the calendar is still used; however, i am not well-versed in how it is used or who is using it, so please feel free to research this more if you have questions.
traveling to Ethiopia, you’re still in 2014/2015.
does that mean they are living in the past?
no, not at all!
they are obviously in the present with us, able to communicate + interact with us presently. how they gage time is different, is all.
how we measure time differs from state to state, country to country!
essentially, we are all living in the present; however, we don’t measure time in the same units or have the same timelines.
got myself a date!
another example, let’s say i schedule a brunch date with my girlfriends for 10 o’clock on a Saturday morning.
this means that each of us will look at a clock + a calendar in the present + meet at our destination at that time. everybody is moving + shaking their own timelines to accommodate one another.
we merge our present timelines to connect with one another at the same time. we manipulate our own timelines in order to convene at the same time.
so, whatever meaning you put to time, that’s what time means to you.
a person in solitary confinement would have a much different concept of time than someone else who works a 9-5.
both of their concepts of time would be much different than someone who doesn’t have a 9-5 + is free to do whatever they will with the time they have.
what we are overlooking is that innately, everyone’s concept of time is different.
i have my own timeline, they have their own timelines, you have your own timelines that we all operate off of.
we are all born at different times + we all die at different times.
so it’s not farfetched that we all exist in different states of being at different times.
though we are existing together, our timelines differ greatly.
we aren’t programmed to sleep at 9PM + wake up 7AM.
that’s not how we come out of the womb.
we don’t come into the world with that same program.
if that were so, everyone would do it.
instead, we follow our own internal clocks until we coerce our internal clocks to align with others.
babies don’t give a damn about your time schedule!
think about how babies interact with time (this is a perfect example of this).
new parents especially feel this on a deeper level because they see the baby’s timeline working in its full capacity. they eat, sleep, poop + repeat on their own times.
instead of adapting to the baby’s schedule + accommodating them, some parents get very frustrated + want to force their babies to sleep, eat, poop on a schedule — on the parent’s schedule.
to someone who is used to a forced schedule of sleeping, eating, + pooping (well, maybe not pooping), this approach is what makes the most sense to them.
we do have other options though that may present themselves to be less stressful such as adapting to what the baby needs for the time being.
a baby can’t help who they are or what they were born into, they are just babies.
seeing a baby as someone who is learning, someone who is growing, someone who doesn’t fully understand the concept of time that our world + society has placed on us, we can see them differently: with more grace, empathy, understanding + compassion for what is happening in their lives.
in turn, don’t have to force ourselves into a certain schedule, either. we can be more relaxed + less bent out of shape accepting that time is simply an illusion.
a few examples of what this can look like:
- sleeping/resting when the baby sleeps
- limiting mobility during the day to what is necessary — fuck those dishes, fuck that laundry
- doing the bare minimum until one can get support
and not to go down a rabbit hole, but i understand the plight of new parents who helplessly + desperately are wanting to make their new babies, who know nothing about this world/society of conforming to their schedules — i can understand why they (the parents) want to make that schedule. it has everything to do with lack of support.
again, not going down that rabbit hole today, but this is an excellent example of how time doesn’t mean anything until we give time meaning.
who makes the rules of time? you do.
if states can decide when they want their clocks to fall back + spring forward,
if countries can decide what calendars they embrace,
if humans can be birthed into this world at all times of day + night, + die in the same fashion,
why can’t you have your own timeline?
why can’t you accomplish things in your own timeline?
why can’t you learn on your own timeline?
why can’t you grow on your own timeline?
why do you have to be where somewhere else is?
why is that any indication of how far ahead or how far behind you are in life?
why can’t life happen in your time?
we in this together, but not really.
the point of it all is to understand that we were not put on this earth to experience it on the same timelines as others.
when we say we don’t have time, it’s not really about time at all.
it’s about comparing ourselves, our current states of being, to someone else’s timeline.
we all have time + appropriately, have made our own decisions (read: managed our time) that have lead us to this moment in time right here, right now.
where i am on my timeline, you are not + vice versa. but guess what? that is okay!
accept that your timeline is yours + that no one else can speed up or slow down what’s happening in your life but you.
you are the timekeeper + as the timekeeper you have the power to decide what you will do with your time.
this leads me today’s action:
to do this week:
make the time.
today’s action is to make time for what you want in life.
the years, months, + days that will pass don’t matter so much.
what can you do today to make time for what you want?
eventually the time will lapse. your memories will tell you something happened before this moment.
so why not in this moment make the something that you want to happen, happen?
that’s the focus, that’s where we start.
some time is better than no time.
so let’s say you’ve got what we call 10 minutes —
what will you fill that time with?
say you wanna exercise more — okay, bet.
those 10 minutes can be used:
- to walk
- to run
- to bike
- to dance
- to complete some high intensity interval training (HIIT)
- to jump rope
whatever you want to do to move, you can choose what you’d like + do that within those 10 minutes.
well, that’s not a lot of time — who said that’s not a lot of time?
the originator of that thought is making that conclusion about time. do you truly believe that there’s not enough time or is that an excuse to not do what you need to do?
for someone who has done zero in the past, 10 minutes is enough time to do what you said you were gonna do.
though that may not seem like a lot of time, that 10 minutes is better than zero minutes of doing nothing.
all you’re required to do today is make the time + start. that’s it.
you start somewhere, you get somewhere. you stay still, you move no where.
10 minutes is better than nothing.
2 minutes is better than nothing.
1 minute is better than nothing.
starting that book + reading that book, even a few pages at a time, is better than not reading anything at all. you said you wanted to read it, read it.
this is how you know that time is an illusion:
10 minutes of meditation is a completely different experience than 10 minutes of watching tv.
it’s not the time that matters the most.
we put a lot of emphasis on time, when the most important thing is that we are doing it + that are committing ourselves to the action that we say we want to do.
over the course of the week, continue dedicating time intervals to yourself to do what needs to be done.
you’ll find that activities such as journaling, meditation, reciting affirmations (see below), slowing down — all of the stuff you say you don’t have time for, you do have time for it.
the question is: are you willing to make time for it? if you are, do it.
do what you say you’re gonna do.
additionally, keep reciting those affirmations!
for 21 days straight we are reciting previously written affirmations.
continue reciting your affirmations this week.
check out the previous episode if you have not to get a jumpstart on this action step.
affirmation cards are here!
dear dope chick™ has affirmation + encouragement cards readily available on deardopechick.com. head on over + purchase a deck to have those cards on deck while you journey!
cop a deck of encouragement + affirmation cards
these pocket sized affirmation cards are perfect for every day + on-the-go encouragement! shop our decks here.
my final thoughts are this:
time is what you make it.
we are all experiencing time our way.
we are healing, grieving, forgiving, getting into new relationships + forsaking old ones, finding out about ourselves on a deeper level, learning new information — all of the things we are doing on our own timelines!
that’s why common sense isn’t common sense because it were common everyone would know it + everyone would be doing it at the same time.
we all learn at different rates + experience life in different time intervals.
give yourself grace as you navigate through this world.
extend empathy to others as they journey through life.
allow yourself to be present in this moment + exist in your timeline, while extending that same courtesy to others.
we are exactly where we need to be right now.
now is the time.
what will you do with the present?
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i appreciate you taking the time to read + listen!
thank you for showing up today. thank you for listening + learning, + most importantly, thank you for being you.
i’ll see you on the next episode. 👋🏾
be you, be dope!
Phylicia Sadsarin
Mindset Coach
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