How You Think About Time Affects Your Life

 

Did you know, how we think about time affects our life, from our emotions, our attitude and our beliefs and behaviors. It’s a psychological construct called time perspective.

The time perspective refers to how we divide our mental energy among the past, present and future.

It’s about how often we visit these time frames in our mind, the emotions they evoke and their importance in our decision-making process.

Dr Philip Zimbardo, a pioneer in this field, developed the time perspective inventory, which looks at five dimensions of time perspective,

• past negative,
• past positive,
• present fatalistic,
• present hedonistic, and
• future.

1. Within past negative thinking, we focus on regrettable and painful past experiences. If we were to skew our memories toward past negative perspective often, we would ruminate on past regrets, disappointments and failures.
2. This kind of thinking is not only destructive, it can keep us ‘stuck’ in past thinking. Holding grudges, or not prepared to take calculated risks for fear of failing only keeps us stuck. Plus, it’s hard for us to enjoy the present and forge ahead. We resign ourselves to being helpless, and hopeless. Throw in some sadness and this can lead to depression. Throw in some fear and trauma and we have PTSD.

As long as we stay stuck in past negative, we stay stuck in hallucinations of depression and PTSD, which for some can lead to suicide.

2. With past positive thinking we reflect on the good old days with nostalgia. However, we can become stuck in those illusions and forget to live in the now. Then it’s hard for us to enjoy the present and forge ahead with our future. If the past is ever present on your mind, you are ‘stuck’ in the past.

Reminiscing with past positive perspectives tends to gloss over the past negative. It is one sided and delusional.

You can idealize your past to the extent that you get stuck in it and are unable to move forward into the present.

Remember, the past either negative or positive, is only a memory, which is not an accurate account of what actually happened.

3. With a present fatalistic perspective. Our feeling of lack of control may cause anxiety, apathy and no motivation to take charge, and go forth and make confident changes to our lives.

According to surveys around 80 per cent of people who have depression also have anxiety. In other words, we have been conditioned to expect more of the same. Instead, we can ‘shake it off’ and reprogram our thinking to plan for and expect a better present and future from the past.

4. If we are focused too much on a present hedonistic perspective, we may experience a lot of immediate gratification, and feel a sense of personal freedom, and agency. But it can also make us act impulsively and have trouble with long term planning.

We can become just subject to the whims of life, with future oriented thinking. We are focused on planning for and anticipating future events with little attention to the present.

We can think of our time perspective as a lens through which we view life. Our mental health can suffer when we over focus on one perspective over another.

With a future oriented perspective, we prioritize planning and goal setting, which is good. But an over focus on the future can rob us of the joys of the present. It’s as if we have someone standing in for us going through the motions until some magic day when we finally live in that moment. Also, the constant striving and planning can cause stress and anxiety. Having our life pass by while we didn’t feel in it can leave us feeling ‘out of our body’, and with a lot of regrets later. This can be especially true if we miss out on special relationships that we can’t get back.  Such as children growing up, or loved ones passing away before we had a chance to enjoy their company.

So, what’s the solution here?

Balance all of these time perspectives, have some value, but excessively focusing on one over the other has negative effects on our wellbeing.
The research suggests that a balanced perspective is weighted in this order.

1. The most focus should be on past positive. So, we can celebrate our wins.
2. Have a moderate focus on the future. We can plan more wins.
3. Have a moderate focus on present hedonistic. So we can enjoy our present.
4. Focus much less on the past negative. We can learn from our mistakes, but not to the point of punishing ourselves for them.
5. The least focus on present fatalistic.

So, we can feel strong and self-sufficient.

Here are a few things that you can do to balance your time perspective, to balance a past negative focus, reflect on uplifting moments that you may have had, and just taken for granted when past missteps come to mind.

Allow these positive memories to serve as a counterbalance. Understand that each mistake offers an opportunity to learn instead of being trapped by past regrets, extract lessons from those experiences, embrace both the highs and the lows of your past.

Focusing on personal growth over remorse to balance a past positive focus ground yourself in the present. While also setting sights on the future, create actionable goals and anticipate what you have to look forward to, to stay connected to the present practice, mindfulness by immersing yourself in your current experiences, using all of your senses to balance a present hedonistic focus. Spend some time thinking about positive past memories and future goals.

Monitor any overindulgent behaviors that you’ve engaged in or want to engage in by imagining the law long term impact of that behavior actually picture in your mind what things would be like if you experience the negative consequences to balance a present, fatalistic focus, set some well-defined achievable goals for yourself.

Practice gratitude for past, and present wins. If you feel overwhelmed by life’s unpredictability, focus on the things that you can control like your decisions, reactions and attitudes, then treat yourself to things you enjoy in the moment.

And lastly to balance a future oriented focus, learn to savor the moment by practicing mindfulness and gratitude. You want to find joy in what’s going on right now. Instead of holding back, waiting for something in the future, staying connected to others through conversation also helps keep our perspectives in check because we can see how our beliefs and actions aligned with other people’s views.

Keeping your perspective balanced goes a long way toward promoting mental wellness.

Peter Zapfella 2024.