Time traveling

 Time traveling is one of the superpowers of being human. 

    This is not science fiction. It's fact. We do it all the time! 

    When you recall something wonderful, or something traumatic, so vividly that you even feel the same emotions you had at that time... When you worry about what might happen tomorrow, or some other time, at some future event, or if something bad might occur, or when you imagine how great it will be when say, you and your fiancee are finally married, or you finish a school project you are excited about... You are, essentially, as far as your brain knows, time traveling.

    The human brain does not differentiate between something that is happening right now in the present moment and something you are remembering that happened in the past, or envisioning happening in the future. The emotional triggering in your brain of such things will initiate the same neurobiological reactions as if these were happening in the present moment, preparing your body for battle, or relaxing it for pleasure. This can even happen when you are just watching an emotion-evoking drama (or comedy) on a screen.

    For example,  if you had a bad car accident, or a bad argument with someone, and you find your thoughts going back to that incident, ruminating on what happened, playing it over and over in your mind, your body will have the same neurophysiological responses. Your heart rate speeds up, your breathing become shallow. Your attention narrows so that you are focused just on that memory, unable to think about other things. Your stomach may clench up along with your muscles, and you may get colder, as blood retreats from your hands and feet to fuel larger muscles (part of the mind-body fight or flight reaction), or a dry mouth. Emotionally you will feel those same emotions--fear, anger, frustration, regret or sadness. Even though you are not really, right now, driving, not having a car accident, or not with the person you had that argument with.

    Robert Sapolsky used a humorous example to illustrate what our minds do in his book, Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers. Imagine zebras roaming around on the plains of Africa, and a lion comes and attacks. The zebras all run to get away, but the lion takes one down. If zebras were like people, they might regroup at the waterhole and talk about what just happened--how horrible it was, how awful that Zebra Zed got his throat ripped out, and gosh, what if the lion comes back? Who will get eaten next? And on and on, day after day... 

   Of course, they don't do that. They are animals, not people! Once the lion has claimed its victim, the zebras, after running off, begin to calm back down. The threat has passed, so their brain sends signals to shut down all that excitement and physiological changes that the threat caused. They can stop running, they can go back to eating, even procreating if that is on the agenda. Life goes on,

    Only people would keep revisiting the horror of the attack over and over, worrying about what they could have done to help Zed, or about when the next one might happen... That's why, in a nutshell, it's not wild zebras that get the stress illnesses we humans do in such great numbers! Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, anxiety issues, COPD, et cetera.

    When people remember or imagine bad things happening, even though such things are not actually happening at that time, we have the same neurophysiological responses as if they were, even as if the bad thing were really life threatening (which they rarely are). What if...? Or, What will I do if...?

 What if I lose my job? 

What if I am late and the boss notices? 

What if I don't know what I am doing and make a huge mistake? 

What if my wife doesn't love me anymore? 

What if that person is mad at me? 

What if I get nervous and make a fool of myself?

   What if..., which people can do because we have a larger, more complex and highly developed brain than other animals, is one of the sources of great human suffering!

    On the other hand, What if... is also a source of tremendous invention, creativity, imagination, problem-solving, compassion, unity and healing, to name a few things. 

    Reflecting on past mistakes or tragedies can also be instructive and helpful, when done in a certain way, that is, with our powers of analysis and problem solving, our ability to imagine cause and effects, with compassion toward self and others, with our curiosity and adventurous spirit to try something new or different. Harnessing such powers, people have come up with some great ideas, like vaccines and cures for illnesses, designs for new technologies, or really cool story lines for their next book.

    While we can't physically travel back in time and change what happened, we can learn from it so that we can avoid making the same kind of mistake in the future, or learn something about ourselves that we need to work on, if we approach it with, again, curiosity and other positive emotions like determination, or excitement, which allow us to engaged that human-unique brain's powers of pattern-finding, ingenuity, and creativity.

 Here's a challenge: for the next day or so, try to notice when your thoughts are taking you into the past or into the future. Trust me, it happens a lot. Unless you have a regular meditation routine or other activity that keeps you in the present moment, your mind will be wandering, traveling in time, back and forth. No need to criticize yourself for doing it! Just notice. 

    Then as you get better at noticing this time traveling, whenever you do so, also make note of whether you are thinking about positive or negative things. If you find these are mostly negative, you are not alone. Many, if not most, people lean this way. And if you are one of them, you can increase your wellbeing, health, and overall enjoyment of life if you work on learning methods for decreasing stress and increasing positivity in your life.

If you find your thoughts are going mostly to positive things, on the other hand, take a moment to pat yourself on the back and bask in the knowledge that you are living well, and you are preparing your body and mind for healthy, resilient responses to whatever comes your way.

If you want help managing stress, anxiety, or getting over past traumas, losses, or phobias, I offer mind-body instruction in stress management and resilience for individuals and groups, and soon, Havening treatment. Contact me at managemystress@gmail.com.