It is 5pm somewhere. This phrase is a common colloquialism for “hope work time is over” as it is time to party, perhaps have a drink, and relax. Whatever the time it is always the time shown on a clock of the present time. It is will not show you the time that just went past nor the time of the future. By trying to speed up your clock hands you unfortunately do not bring  tomorrow into the present nor can you reverse the clock and bring back a prior time zone. It is the mind that continues to trick us in living in the past or the future except the present where you are most needed.

If there is something that you dread doing the hands on the clock travel with such lethargy that it will feel like an eternity. If you are happy and looking forward to some event or some persons arrival, or engaged in a happy space in your life (like a holiday) usually the hands of the clock will traverse with such expedience that you may feel gipped. In either case what is happening is that time remains constant, and the clock simply is showing you the PRESENT measurement of elapsed intervals from one moment to the next.  It is your mind that bends this measurement with false feelings and gets you to wish that time would stop, slow down, speed up into tomorrow or simply reverse in many cases.

The illusion is easily dispensed with when one starts to live in the present moment of time, and  not wishes for a past event to return or be erased, or for that matter something that is going on at the moment to be sped up or similarly trying to pre-pone an event tomorrow. Controlling your mind is the key to coming out of this illusionary state. Yet the mind is not easily going to be controlled or dealt with in a haphazard fashion. It refuses to be tossed aside while you “meditate” and feel like you regain control of time. A better way is to simply accept the mind for its nature, fickle or otherwise, and follow an easier method of eventual mental control. This is your breath. If you shift your awareness to your breathing and feel the sensations as you inhale and exhale you become automatically more aware of the moment and politely ask the mind to participate in your new time management endeavor.