Where Does Time Go

So perhaps I'm not the only to have this thought right about this phase of year:
"Where does time go?"
I mean, really...where does time actually go?
A moment is here, then gone only to be replaced by a new moment and the cycle continues.  Then before we know it, it's been a year and the stream of time continues and so do we.

One of my big curiosities in life is our perception of time and how music and even more specifically, how a mindfulness music practice can alter our perception of time.

We often hear the phrase 'be in the moment,' but what does that really mean and perhaps even more important, how do we actually stay in the moment?

I'm reminded by something I heard while on a course with Robert Fripp, who said on the topic:
"The present moment is a moment of presence."

So then the question becomes, 'how do we become present?'

What I've found is that there is a special magic that happens when we tune ourselves into the present moment with music.  We become aware of our body, of our emotional/feeling center, and our mind all on the specific action of playing a note.  In a sense, when we are aligned fully with the note we play, we become the note.

My experience is in that state of presence, time slows down...stretches...kinda like 'matrix time' when Neo is dodging bullets because his relative time is slower in comparison to normal perception.

So while a common denominator of humanity is 24 hours per day, 365 days per year....we do have the ability to 'scale time' to the extent that we are present through the moment.  Presence can bring our perception more in a state of continuum, of flow.  Musical practice basically builds our inner architecture of time perception, allowing us to have a more malleable experience with the time stream. 

In other words, it gives us direct access to the ability to slow down our perception. 

Now, this may seem like a contradiction as a 'slower perception' seems disadvantageous at first glance. 

However, what we are really doing in slowing down is expanding our bandwidth of perception.  In slowing down our inner time, we are elongating our experience, thus having a longer experience of the present moment.

The practice of this is a big foundation of what I work with people in
private skype sessions as well as within The Yoga of Guitar Online Course. 

I feel that learning the skill to 'scale internal time' through presence and music is truly a medicine of the current human condition which is being swept into an ever increasing tempo of modernity.

If you would like to book a free 1-on-1 skype coaching session to explore the above topics through music and mindfulness, please feel free to respond and we will set up a time. 
This can be either with an instrument or not.  The work can be applied in many different ways.

As always, I'm available to further support your journey of music and mindfulness. 

Wishing you a beautiful and expanded present moment.

josh