Do you believe in time travel? It’s a worthy endeavor, enough to have drawn great speculation over the ages. I practiced time travel quite frequently in my youth. Feeding my mind were science fiction stories, such as those concocted by Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, and Ray Bradbury. I was fascinated by the ability to traverse other dimensions and eras.
My time travel routine was enhanced by techniques revealed in the movie “Somewhere in Time”, featuring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour. The gist of the story was that a writer from the later 20th century fell in love with an old photograph of an actress from the earlier 20th century. The writer resolved to venture back in time across the decades to meet the actress, and he was successful.
What I learned from the film was that time travel to the past was possible for this fictional character through the sheer strength of his mind’s focus. He incorporated a series of audio prompts, which served as a kind of hypnosis. His mind convinced his body to make the journey.
Along with the focus and the self-convincing, the other vital component for successful time travel was that all modern things had to be removed from sight and from possession. Ultimately, the hiccup in the protagonist’s practice was the discovery of a modern day coin he had forgotten in his pocket before he traveled. Seeing the modern-day coin while residing in the past caused him to be ripped out of the past and away from his beloved. After that, the only way he was able to reunite with her was in the afterlife, and that’s how the film closed.
In my case, I didn’t want to find a particular person. I wanted to revel in the very feat of time travel— to venture somewhere new and other-dimensional, simply to experience the sensation of traveling and arriving. My own practice consisted of putting on vintage clothing and grabbing some kind of token or charm from a correlating era. As I was raised amidst antiques and ancient hand-me-downs, accessing items from the past was easy. I would take my vintage-clad self and head up into the local regional park, away from “modern civilization”.
I never succeeded in traveling through time. It was all in my head, and my body did not follow. I know this because, while I was surrounded by nature, I saw the very same leaves and clods of dirt when I came to my hopeful moments of arrival. However the practice served as a playful meditation taking me completely away from the complexities and consternations of everyday life. I entered a different realm simply through willing myself to imagine.
There is a reason I share about this quaint and quirky practice. There is so much we can do to prepare our minds for the career journey to come. As we seek to discover our true calling or to maneuver through the maelstrom of professional uncertainty, we need to know where we are in the present moment. I’ve found the best way to know where I am is to ensure that I am not residing in the past nor the present.
Time is relative and situational, and our minds are the computers of our bodies. We program ourselves to believe certain things and our bodies follow through. Just as a map contains more than one location, we find our way by plotting a course, leading us from one place to the other. We can rest in the present when we know where we came from and where we are going.
So let’s practice time travel right now. We will go into the near past and then into the near future, before resting in the present. We will use simple tokens to represent the eras.
First, find your time travel tokens. You will want to find one item that you acquired a year ago or that bears memories from a year ago. The other item you should find will represent your hopes and dreams for the future. For example, I might choose the painted mandala rock I found last year in the hills, which will remind me of the past. And I might choose the little red piano ornament I have on my bookshelf, which will remind me of the future (as I am planning within the year to sell off my two black electric pianos in order to obtain a new red one that is so much more incredibly high-tech and lightweight). Note that my time travel practice would not actually have anything to do with a rock and a piano—the items would merely serve as focal points.
Okay, so now you have your tokens. Sit on a couch, bench, or yoga mat, and place the token that represents your past to your left. Place the token that represents your future to your right. Close your eyes for this entire practice. Take a moment to feel the presence of the two items.
You are sitting peacefully and mindfully in the present, between the past and the future. Now pick up the item on your left. You are holding the past in your hands. Think about where you were a year ago, career-wise. What was your work or job-hunt life like then? What did your days look like? Travel to that era and remember the sights, sounds, and smells of the past. When you are ready, return the item to sit at your left.
Think about how far you’ve come in the past year.
Breathe deep to refresh.
Now pick up the item on your right that represents your future. Envision what you want your career life to look like a year from now. Where will you be? How will you spend your days? How will you feel around the people who are your team members? Get deep and sit with it. When you are ready, return the item to sit at your right.
Think about how far you will go in the next year.
Breathe deep to refresh.
Finally, you get to just be in the present. Be in the moment, with no connection to the past nor the future. Your tokens sit beside you but they are completely out of your hands. The past is no more and the future is yet to come. You have yourself now. You are grounded and centered.
The learning outcome of this time travel practice is for you to attain increased focus. May you find value in where you currently reside as you actively move forward in wisdom. You have learned things, you have grown, and you have goals.
The time is now!
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