Updated: Apr 18, 2023
While staring at the stars one night I marvelled at the vastness of space, as you do...
The stars seemed unmoving and peaceful, just happily twinkling away in the night’s sky. It then occurred to me that they were, in actual fact, all hurtling through space at great force, and if sped up in a time-lapse over millions or billions of years it might look like living, moving organisms whose functions will only be clear when observed in their own time.
It made me wonder about our experience of life and time’s effect on our perception.
Take a fly for example, we experience it living a very fast life because it buzzes around at speed, where as it’s experience might in reality be in very slow motion to ours. Flies see at 250 frames a second, where we see about 24. So for the fly, perhaps our 24 hour day feels more like 250 hours (that’s just over 10 days). And to them we may seem to move as slowly as the clouds in the sky. Could our perception of the cosmos may be, in a way, like a fly's perception of us - times a million? And to the cosmos we are the fly, only infinitesimally smaller and existing in just a blip of all time. It begs the question, are there things around us right now that move so fast that we can't perceive them? That to them we are the unmoving star?
For our bodies, time is a constant, but our mind can perceive time that has past and can also imagine time that is still to come.
We can essentially live outside our time. In this day and age where phrases like ‘move fast and break things’ is boasted about by the leading companies of our era. Companies that greatly influence how we think, and in turn feel. It’s no surprise that we are moving so fast that we end up missing what’s important. We can’t physically change our frame rate (yet) so we are moving faster but still only have 24 frames a second to perceive. What does this mean for the human mind and for our experience of life?
I find myself scrolling through my feeds faster and faster these days.
People are urged by these media companies to produce as much content as possible, but who has the time to watch it all and give each creator the attention their work deserves? I find myself speeding up my process videos more and more so that viewers can devour my hours or days of work in a few seconds just so that they won’t scroll on to the next thing before my video ends. I don’t want my work to be influenced by these things, but if you don’t adapt you get left behind… But how true is this type of thinking?
One thing I’ve learnt is that living outside of your time (rushing) doesn’t yield the best results.
It is a gamble. You might get lucky and hit your target by taking as many shots as possible and you might not, but if you take the time to learn and practice the technique, aim and most importantly breathe a steady breath you will hit more targets long term and you will hit them consistently.
Knowing this doesn’t make it any easier to take your time.
The gravitational pull is strong when things move at speed. The rushed mindset creates greater resistance to do focused and patient work. When everything around you is ‘urgent’ and demands your time, pulling you toward the someone else's star - how do you stay true to your own natural orbit?
The first step is awareness, recognising the turbulent energy. Recognising that you may unconsciously be governed by immediately reacting instead of first watching, considering and then responding. Try taking a step outside of your perceived time, zoom out and maybe think of all time and space and how your current task’s ‘urgency’ relates to the grand scheme of your life. In as little as a year’s time, would it still matter? How would you respond to the situation from this perspective? This concept is nothing new and yet we stress ourselves out daily for made-up deadlines and other urgencies. That’s because it’s something that takes lots of practice. And I feel like my practice is only beginning.
I hope you enjoyed reading this article. If you have any thoughts on time perception, urgencies, staying true to your own path or anything along these lines, please share them in the comments. I'd love to hear them.
If you are struggling to do deep work, I have some lovely book recommendations for you (which is not an ad, I just enjoyed them or found them helpful).
Take good care of yourself, Salma
Evergreens like this remind me of vast forests and perhaps of Christmas.
This artwork was a commission inspired by Great Northwestern Evergreen Trees and although the detail of the individually drawn green needles is beautiful and visually captivating, what lies beneath may be more interesting.
The exposed roots allow us to see this normally hidden part of the tree. Root networks are fascinating as they not only draw in water and nutrients they also are able to communicate and are reminiscent of a neural network. Do they also operate as such?
Scientists are now discovering that trees have their own sort of nervous systems that facilitate memory, learning and communication. What does that mean for the consciousness of trees? Do they become more conscious (if conscious at all) the wider and more intricate their root systems become? And when they connect with other trees and fungi could they be merging consciousnesses like they do their resources?
When it comes down to it, we are all one but we have become disconnected by placing our awareness more in the mind than in the physical here and now. Our roots have become so exposed that we are no longer connected to the present and so we experience anxiety (attention in the future) and depression (attention in the past). I've become aware of how modern society gives its attention to the wills of the mind and how so much understanding is lost as we get pulled further into the 'Metaverse'.
So let this artwork be a reminder to ground yourself to create stability within and to also nurture connection with those around you so that you may share resources and ideas to create harmony without.
I welcome you to be part of the conversation, share your thoughts in the comment section below. I'd love to hear them!
Thanks for reading!
Take good care of yourself,
Salma
As the seasons change in September, I think about the seasons of life in its many forms.
In the seasons where we burn bright, we may think that is what life is ‘supposed to be like’, and when we experience darker days we tend to think that there is something ‘wrong’ with it. When winter begins, we don’t think that there is something wrong because we know that this is the natural cycle and winter is just as important and as necessary as summer (and can be just as wonderful depending on how you look at it).
High energy can’t be sustained, there has to be a time of rest and deep rest can’t be sustained either, that is why we start to feel either uncomfortable, bored or that something is ‘wrong’ so that we are motivated into action once again.
The secret to finding harmony is to hold 2 ends of the same idea (light and dark, hard and soft), understand and appreciate them equally and then learn the balance between them. That’s what allows life to exists on this planet, we are balancing in a sweet spot of the cosmos. Ever progressing forward in a delicate dance of testing boundaries and staying safe. Like pushing the boundaries of our industriousness and then pushing back when we realise our climate is in danger as a result and then changing directions to find a balance by being industrious with the opposite side of the spectrum in mind. And so we go on, hurtling through space.
So when things don’t go the way we expected them to, it is better to realise and remember that expectation is imagined and what is happening right now is what’s true. You can either step into the current or resist it. The choice is up to you.
Watch the ink painting process
While working on this piece I’ve been thinking about...
While working on this piece I’ve been thinking about how the more stressed we are, the more we tend rely on the instinctive parts of our brain and we become reactive instead of responsive. When we react to external influence we get swept into on a current that pulls us in an undefined direction.
When we are responsive we take pause to consider the outcomes with our goals in mind to figure out what is really essential. Responsivity requires time and intention.
In order to guide our lives to where we want to be we have to step out of the matrix and decide what it is we want and make choices based on how to get there. Stress and overwork in survival mode leads to cognitive fatigue and when we experience this we naturally have less will power than we normally do. So in order to remain disciplined to achieve our goals we need to have a plan and prioritise what’s important. This will mean saying no to some things and finding a balance between busyness and rest.
Sleep is a vital pillar of health and the one I struggle with most. Sleep regulates our entire system from digestion to mental state and even our periods, which is why it’s essential for us to go to bed and wake up at roughly the same time everyday for longevity and so that we can consciously give the best of ourselves instead of taking it out of ourselves.
The colourful yet moody tone of this artwork makes for a beautiful phone wallpaper. Get yours here!
Thanks for reading!
Visit my shop to purchase the original and other artwork and prints.
Take good care of yourself,
Salma
