The New Year is About Time

The New Year is About Time

By Ryan Castle

The end of the year is approaching, the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. Right now attention is fixed on the idea of time itself, like no other point in the year. We resolve to make more time to be healthy, or to be more mindful of moments in time, or hope to prolong our time to see as many more New Year’s Eves as possible. But what kind of time are we really trying to find?

There is the time that must be dedicated to health, whether it is planning healthy food choices or scheduling exercise. This time is easy to quantify, we have clocks and calendars to track it, though the effects of diet and exercise are more difficult to log. We can reduce our weight and affect our metabolism, the internal engine that informs our nutritional, cardiovascular, and even neurological health.[1] Is this the type of time we seek, gears upon gears upon gears of health and body mechanics?

Or do we seek merely a moment in time? To be mindful, truly present and aware of ourselves and the world around us, enough to realize the falseness of that distinction?[2] Meditation has demonstrated the ability to shift the way our minds process the very passage of time, with startling effects. Some forms of mindfulness meditation can make a breath seem to stretch for an age, or an hour pass like a breath.[3] Other forms of meditation are able to alter the speed at which our brain works, increasing reactions and speed of thought by effectively slowing down the passage of time.[4]

For many, however, the measure of time that most concerns them is the falling sand in the hourglass of their life. Who doesn’t wish to see another sunrise, another year? It is all the more important to realize this is not a wishful thinking, but rather something within the power of most people to alter. We can change our lifespan, we can impact our epigenetics, even influence our telomerase, slowing the grains of sand in the hourglass.[5] This is possible through changes in mind body practices, diet, exercise, and attitude.[6] In short, it is possible if you choose to make it happen.

So we come to one more measure of time: how long it will take you to decide to make a change in your life. There are options; for everyone reading this article, there is some kind of a change you could make in your life if you chose to. Those changes could have enormous implications for the rest of your life, but only if you decide that the moment to enact them is now.

Perhaps this year a better resolution than a gym membership might be to decide what you want, and what you are willing to change to get there.

References

[1] Sobol, N. A., Dall, C. H., Høgh, P., Hoffmann, K., Frederiksen, K. S., Vogel, A., Siersma, V., Waldemar, G., Hasselbalch, S. G., & Beyer, N. (2018). Change in Fitness and the Relation to Change in Cognition and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms After Aerobic Exercise in Patients with Mild Alzheimer’s Disease. Journal of Alzheimer’s disease : JAD, 65(1), 137–145. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-180253

[2] Mills, P. J., Barsotti, T. J., Blackstone, J., Chopra, D., & Josipovic, Z. (2020). Nondual Awareness and the Whole Person. Global advances in health and medicine, 9, 2164956120914600. https://doi.org/10.1177/2164956120914600

[3] Wittmann, M., Otten, S., Schötz, E., Sarikaya, A., Lehnen, H., Jo, H. G., Kohls, N., Schmidt, S., & Meissner, K. (2015). Subjective expansion of extended time-spans in experienced meditators. Frontiers in psychology, 5, 1586. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01586

[4] Zainal, N. H., & Newman, M. G. (2023). Mindfulness enhances cognitive functioning: a meta-analysis of 111 randomized controlled trials. Health psychology review, 1–27. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/17437199.2023.2248222

[5] Bodnar, A. G., Ouellette, M., Frolkis, M., Holt, S. E., Chiu, C. P., Morin, G. B., Harley, C. B., Shay, J. W., Lichtsteiner, S., & Wright, W. E. (1998). Extension of life-span by introduction of telomerase into normal human cells. Science (New York, N.Y.), 279(5349), 349–352. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.279.5349.349

[6] Schutte, N. S., & Malouff, J. M. (2014). A meta-analytic review of the effects of mindfulness meditation on telomerase activity. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 42, 45–48. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psyneuen.2013.12.017