Day 168: Time Dissolves in Devotion
A reflection on how creativity shifts your relationship to time
“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.”
— Rumi
When Time Becomes a Companion, Not a Cage
There are moments when we’re so absorbed in what we’re doing that time seems to vanish. We look up and the sun has shifted, the kettle has gone cold, the afternoon has somehow slipped into evening. In these moments, we aren’t escaping time; we’re realigning with it. We’ve entered a different tempo, one shaped by attention rather than urgency.
Devotion alters our relationship with time. When we are fully present with what we love (writing, woodworking, singing, caring for a garden) time is no longer a countdown or commodity. It becomes spacious. It stretches to meet our rhythm. This shift is not accidental. It’s earned through attention, reverence, and consistency.
To live with devotion is to move in time, not against it. Rather than rushing through tasks, we settle into them. We become more than doers; we become dwellers in the present. Creativity, in its most sincere form, teaches us that meaning is not measured in minutes, but in presence.
The Science of Presence and Perception
Cognitive science has long studied how our perception of time can change based on context and attention. In states of focused engagement, the brain decreases its reliance on the internal clock mechanisms typically anchored in the basal ganglia and supplementary motor area. This creates what researchers call temporal distortion—the feeling that time has either sped up or slowed down.
But it’s not just about perception. Devoted activity, what we might call sacred focus, lowers cortisol levels, engages parasympathetic nervous responses, and boosts dopamine and endorphins. These biochemical shifts influence memory encoding, emotional regulation, and subjective time awareness. A study published in Frontiers in Psychology (2021) found that individuals engaging in “meaningful repetitive tasks” like painting or kneading dough reported a statistically significant increase in “time satisfaction” and emotional wellbeing.
This isn’t just a neurological curiosity. It’s a reminder that how we spend our time is deeply connected to how we experience it. Devotion, even in small doses, reshapes not only our schedule but our sense of self within it.
Devotion as a Daily Practice
You don’t need hours of uninterrupted solitude or a mountaintop studio to enter devotional time. What you need is a shift in intention. Here are some practices to help open the doorway:
Micro-devotion. Choose one activity to do slowly and mindfully today: brushing your teeth, washing a bowl, drawing one line. Let it be enough.
Sacred start. Begin your creative work with a breath, a bow, or a mantra. Even a whispered “this matters” changes the atmosphere.
Drop the clock. Try working on something without a timer. Let your body, not your schedule, tell you when the session is complete.
Reverent repetition. Return to a task or ritual every day for a week. Observe how repetition reshapes your perception of time.
Silence as structure. Before ending, sit for 60 seconds in silence. Let stillness bookend your practice. See what arises.
Devotion doesn't require that we finish something. It only asks that we show up fully. And that is enough to transform time from taskmaster to companion.
The Timeless Now
In our culture, time is currency. We speak of saving it, spending it, wasting it. But devotion offers another model: one in which time is not owned, but shared. When we give ourselves to something fully, not to impress, not to produce, but simply to engage, we step outside of linear time. We touch something cyclical, eternal, alive.
When the mind is quiet and the hands are busy with something meaningful, we become more than workers; we become witnesses to something sacred unfolding. In that moment, time dissolves, and we are simply here.
Today’s Invitation:
Let one act today be done with full presence. Create without pressure. Return without apology. Let your love for the act not the outcome be your compass. And notice what time feels like on the other side.
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