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Other than the genetic factor, that is, the genes inherited from your parents, your biological aging clock is, to a great extent, determined by your thoughts and the resultant behaviors. That is, if you think young, you act young, and, as a result, you slow down your aging process and become younger. As a matter of fact, research studies indicated that by thinking and behaving as if they were twenty years younger, men actually showed physical changes of age reversal. That is to say, expectations determine outcomes, or what you see, you become. So, aging has much to do with the mind, which controls the body.
That brings up the question: Can you change your perception of time to change your health or your aging process?
Perception of time is subjective, depending on the experience. For example, if you are enjoying a good movie or watching your favorite sport, time seems to fly; if, on the other hand, you are undergoing a nerve-wrecking experience, such as sitting on the dentist chair, time seems eternal. Accordingly, your perception of time can positively or negatively affect your health. This is because your perception of time regulates your biological clock. The evidence is that if you are always in a hurry, your heart beats faster, your biological clock ticks faster too, and therefore you age faster.
One of the key factors in aging or disease is stress, and time stress is a major stress factor in everyday life. We need to meet deadlines in almost every aspect of our lives: from completing certain tasks in our work, catching a bus, to cooking our dinner for the family. In contemporary living, in spite of the advancement of modern technology, we find ourselves having too much to do within the twenty-four hours of a day.
We all use time to measure the flow of events in our lives. But time is fluid: as evidenced in dreamtime, during which a lot could happen within a short span of time. Therefore, your perception of time is personal. Accordingly, changing your time perception may change your level of time stress. Time is all in your minda consequence of your thinking, a byproduct of your own thoughts. Everybody has only twenty-four hours a day. You are not any different from anybody else. It is an illusion that you have more work that needs to be done than others. It is all in your mind's eye.
Relaxation slows down your biological clock, making you younger and healthier. And relaxation has to do with time, too: Yes, how to relax has to do with time: the past, the present, and the future. Your memories of unpleasant past experiences may intensify your present stress level; learn to let go of the past to reduce present or future stress. You may be confronting a new crisis at the present moment; learn simple stress management strategies, such as deep breathing and meditation, to cope with the present stress. Future stress is no more than a projected perception of the present state of mind; learn to use your mind power, such as visualization, to deal with future stress.
You need to take time to find time to relax; in other words, you need to slow down. But, you may also need time to finish your tasks and choresthat is, to meet your deadlines. That means you need to learn effective time management.
Time stress is a major stress factor, detrimental to both physical and mental health. How can one overcome time stress?
The solution is surprisingly quite simple: deliberate non-doing. Yes, you simply do nothing. It is just that simple!
Deliberate non-doing gives you a sense of inner calmness that enables you to re-consider the importance of doing only what is most important, to see in perspective what is the most important in your life. Only when you start doing what is the most important to you, then you will start to have enough time for everything else. This is essentially how you can overcome time stress: deliberate non-doing, and living in the present moment in spite of the hustle and bustle of life around you. Once you change your perception of time, you learn to prioritize and simplify your life. When your world becomes calm and you are relaxed, your biological clock slows down, and you reverse your aging process.
