How can you experience Deep Time this year?
Did you know that the average human lifespan is approximately 4,000 weeks? So, at my age I may have 2,000 weeks left and given that, I’ve become more curious about how I experience time vs. all the “time hacks” our productivity obsessed culture seems ultra-focused on. This has led me to explore what Father Richard Rohr calls Deep Time, or the fullness of time.
The ancient Greeks had two words for time, chronos, which is quantitative like clock time (chronological) and kairos, which is more qualitative — soul time.
Mindfulness practices can cultivate our capacity to first recognize and then live more in Deep Time. Young children are also great teachers of Deep Time!
As I move forward in my life journey, I’m committed to experiencing more kairos time and not just when I’m in nature or connecting on a soul level with friends, colleagues or loved ones. Really being with my breath, my senses and truly inhabiting my body and being as often as I can are the easiest ways I can live more in Deep Time.
Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings on the Art of Mindful Living have been the greatest portal to access more moments of Deep Time in my life, so much so that I recently joined the Board of the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation and vow to do whatever I can in this role to foster peace, transform suffering and work towards collective liberation through engaged mindfulness.
Music is another way I drop into Deep Time. If you ask, “What music is alive in your heart right now?” My answer would be the music of Beautiful Chorus. Their high frequency love music feels like the soundtrack of my soul. If you have spotify you can listen to some of my favorite tunes here. May this music bathe your spirit in beauty and grace, like a loving embrace and may you experience more moments of Deep Time this year.
Author Bio: Meena Srinivasan is a contemplative leader, celebrated speaker, accomplished author, and visionary edupreneur. She is an educator-activist at heart, consistently championing the fusion of Mindfulness, Emotional Intelligence, and Belonging. Meena was featured as one of 2022’s 10 Powerful Women of the Mindfulness Movement in Mindful Magazine and is the Executive Director of Transformative Educational Leadership (TEL)™ an organization that supports educational leaders in building more compassionate and just schools. A former public school administrator and National Board Certified Teacher, Meena is the creative force behind the SEL Every Day Online Courses, an instructor of graduate level Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) courses at UC Berkeley and the CEO of Karuna Consulting, LLC, an organization that takes its name from the Sanskrit word ‘Karuna,’ signifying compassion. Karuna Consulting is a certified Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) driven by a profound mission: to foster a more compassionate world through Meena’s keynotes, professional learning, coaching, and consulting services. She is the author of numerous publications including Teach, Breathe, Learn and SEL Every Day. The latter was honored as one of 2019’s Favorite Books for Educators by the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley. Her TEDx talk on Tenderness is one of the most popular TEDx talks of 2024 (with over 2 million views). Meena has been practicing yoga and meditation for over 25 years, is an ordained Zen Buddhist and serves on the Board of the Thich Nhat Hanh Foundation. Learn more at meenasrinivasan.com.
