The way I turned myself around from being a slave to clock time and exterior frameworks was I spent an entire year with my clocks unplugged except for the stove clock which I covered over with an index card.
If I had a doctor's appointment or similar I would check the clock on occasion to make sure I made it on time. Often, I'd set a timer to ring when I needed to leave. I grant you I could do this as I lived alone and also worked in the home as opposed to out.
But it was an interesting year of learning to listen to my insides as opposed to outsides. If I was hungry I ate. If I was sleepy I rested. If I felt like a walk, I walked (even if I had planned in my head to write on my novel during that time frame.)
I think this mode of being lead to some creative living, although it also led me away from a mini-type-A drive to publish tons of novels and otherwise be rich and famous.
Now I do use clocks but am not a slave to them. I think I can more effectively balance the logical approach to time (clocks, grids, schedules etc) with a more intuitive approach that comes from the inside. I can flow from one to the other as needed. I can be flexible. Or at least I think so, others may have a different opinion.
8 comments:
Sometimes I do think we are slaves to our clocks. interesting experiment.
Not being slaves to....
What an insight...
Think it is applicable to anything... we hould gain this awareness not to be slaves to anything...Otherwise, we cannot execte our free will and what happens to our creativity...
How beautifully you described it ...
"I think this mode of being lead to some creative living, although it also led me away from a mini-type-A drive to publish tons of novels and otherwise be rich and famous."
You released youself from being an slave to that seemingly good image...
Thanks for sharing this insight.
I love living without clocks. Working with schools I don't get to do that during the day so much anymore but I have spent a lot of time working without a watch or having a clock nearby. It's so freeing! Now if I could just figure out how to live without the calendar.....;-) It's so nice to live with our own natural rhythms. I try and do it on my days and weeks off even if I can't always do it with work deadlines and schedules.
Hey I like your make-over! Interesting post. I try to balance the two, but generally feel that I 'can't get everything done in a day' especially regarding blogging! I just can't keep up. This needs consideration ...
I am at my happiest when I follow my inner clock... although this can't be done on a school week or son would always be late for school.
Motto - 'Go with the flow' is a good goal.
Thanks everyone for your reflections. Yes, those of us with small children like hb and Elizabeth (or who work with children like Mary) have to dance to a different rhythm than those of us who live alone. Or even those of us with husbands.
I think hiding my clocks helped me in this way: I needed to learn to hear and feel the inner rhythms that are sometimes so subtle and overlooked that they whisper. Yoga helped me with this too.
This experiment can be done on a smaller basis such as for one day or one week.
hb: i never thought about the fact that I may have released myself from that taskmaster image of self as a rich and famous writer. I really drove myself around my writing and perfectionist attitudes about it. I agree I don't like to be a slave to anything except maybe breathing and even that some day I will have to release.
Thanks Mary for your insights. It is wonderful you can switch between clock time with the school kids and tapping into your own rhythms at home or on the weekends. Also, perhaps when you are painting or drawings esp. for yourself. Interesting (from yr blog) that you will give up the tile making. That will open a space for something new. And I drool with envy about your two trips. Have great fun.
Hi Elizabeth. Good to hear from you and love your new picture. As said above dancing to ones own rhythm is much harder when small children are in the home. I think (though this too may be idealized) that artist/writers and creative people learn to listen to their own rhythms through working with their work, which also has a rhythm of its own. A business person, a high-powered doctor/lawyer so often is driven to other people's demands that they can't hear their own rhthms and try to on vacation but often reproduce the frantic life rhythm on vacation too. But I am just babbling.
Interesting philosophy dear Suki.
myla
'perfectionist attitudes '
Now i got your point... thanks
I haven't worn a watch for years, but somehow I am always spot on when I guess the time - I don't know how I manage to do this(!?) These holidays though, we definitely went with the flow, eating, drinking and sleeping when we needed to, and the days seemed to stretch on peacefully forever. Very good for the soul. I love the idea of using time only when we need it.
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