How you view time

[mconlon]

I have been doing an experiment with my classes about how they view time. So for example when you imagine brushing your teeth tomorrow and then again in six months(in the future) where do they appear? In front of you? Or to the right of you? Where?
And again if you think about having don ethe same task last week or six weeks ago(the past) where do you see it? Behind you? to the left?

I'm interested because I see time going from left to right which means both past and future are always visible to me which could explain why I ruminate so much on the past and can't let it go.

Most kids in the classes saw the future in front and the past as behind - I was the odd one out!!

So how does time look to you - Left to right or future in front, past behind?

[mirry]

VERY INTERESTING !

I DEFINATELY SEE IT AS "MY LEFT IS MY PAST AND MY RIGHT IS MY FUTURE. SAME WITH HAND SIGNALS I WOULD USE MY LEFT HAND TO POINT TO MY LEFT SIDE TO SAY IVE JUST DONE SOMETHING AND MY RIGHT HAND TO POINT TO WHAT IM ABOUT TO DO.

I JUST ASKED MY HUBBY AND HE SAID NO THE PAST IS BEHIND AND THE FUTURE IS INFRONT , THEN HE SAID LIKE A CAR MOVES FORWARDS INTO THE FUTURE.

mirryx

[mconlon]

I'm convinced it's a conspiracy!! Perhaps if I reprogram myself to view the future in front and past behind I can release the memory of past panic attacks which kind of live with me in the present( cos I can always see them in my particular view of time!)

[Yeah!]

[Keitharcher]

Try asking your class how they see time as eother flexible or unalterable. You could try using the scenario why does time fly by when you are enjoying something and crawl by when your not. Why is it that when you have to keep an appointment, and you only have a few mins to get there do you hurry up when you know that if you continue at the pace your going you will get there. Conversly when you have a long time before an appointment do you dawdle knowing that you are wasting time and will have to hurry when the appointment draws near. Then there is time as an illusion, when do you need to know the real time very rarely, you either want to know when an event will start (started) or when it will finish (finished). Discussing time to relate it to anything is subjective, what do you want to do with the conclusions. Sorry to go on but this is a subject I have pondered on for many years now so have an interest in it.

Keith

[theforester]

I see it as past to the left, present right in front of me, and future to the right. If I had to guess at how this came about I would submit a few related hypothesi:

Most of us (I assume) have grown up reading from left to right so that everything we have already read (past) is to the left and everything we have yet to get to (future) is to the right. That's one possible influence.

My first thought was actually related to audio/video editing though! When in timeline view, the track is layed out with the beginning at the left and the end at the right. So when you play the file it moves from right to left (the screen being stationary) with the center of the screen being the current section being played. This would fit very well with my perception as everything that is to the left of center screen has already been played and everything to the right is coming up. I'm a very visual person and this type of "timeline" view of things seems completely natural to me.

Interesting poll mconlon! :yesyes:

[purplehaze]

My brother has a great saying from the A.A.

Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, so all we have is today

[Louize]

Well this is my second night and ive tried to do this a few times, but it changes all the time for me.

Maybe its because i cant fully relax to think about it, or because of mood changes, i dont know, ill give it another go and post again when i realise which side each is on most

[Martin Ell]

I agree, this is quite an interesting topic. Personally, day/week/month wise, I view it from left to right (left being my past, right being my future as most people here said they view it). But for years, I tend to "view" them as a loop I.E. once we get to the end of December, instead of going right and continuing with the future, I go left all the way back to the beginning of January to "start the year over again".