[Neurons] 2017 Neurons #22 The Time Matrix: You're a Temporal Being

Mon May 15 09:08:11 EDT 2017

From: L. Michael Hall

2017 "Neurons" #22

May 15, 2017

The Matrix Model Series #9

THE TIME MATRIX

You- A Temporal Being Living in Time

In the Matrix Model, we have distinguished five aspects of self, time is one
such aspect.  As a review, we first have your value or worth (i.e.,
self-esteem) and identity, these are in the Self matrix.  Your power,
skills, abilities, assets, liabilities, etc. are in the Power matrix
(self-confidence).  Your relationship to others is your social self which
includes social intelligence, social skills, and social activities, these
are all in the Others matrix.  Then, in the Time matrix we have you as a
temporal being.  You live in time, you represent time, you relate to time,
you operate in time.

In a similar way to how you represent "people" in the Others matrix and put
them in various places around you (your Social Panorama), you do the same
with the concept of "time."   This was noted early in NLP by Richard Bandler
and gave birth to a sub-model, Time-Lines.  Yet as a concept, "time" does
not exist.  If it did, what would it look like, sound like, feel like, smell
like, or taste like?  It is not a thing.   It does not exist "out there" in
the world as an entity.  It is a concept which you construct in your mind.
But about what?  What does it refer to?

It refers to events, activities, and experiences.  On the outside what
exists are events.  When the earth spins so that it faces the sun and then
faces away from it, we compare two events, the planet as it spins and
revolves in relationship to the sun.  In this way we call into existence
such ideas as "day" and "night."  When you hold in mind some event and then
compare it with similar events that have occurred, or that could occur,
and/or when you compare it against different kinds of events, you generate
the concept of time.  It is that simple and yet, simultaneously, it is that
profound.

Actually the only "time" that exists is now.  Yet by conceptualizing events,
we are able to construct many more time-concepts and these concepts, in
turn, influence your sense of self.  As all of this occurs in the Time
matrix, it powerfully influences your temporal self.  It makes you a
temporal being- you live in time because you, as an event, keep changing.
We call it "growing up."  Your social worth rises and falls with the
circumstances and phases in your life span as you get older.  Further, what
you looked like when you were born, or at 1 or at 10 or 20 or at any other
"age" (measured by the number of revolutions the planet has made around the
sun), significantly influences how you experience yourself.  You, as an
event, live in time and keep changing and evolving.

Living in time and being a temporal being also means that you have a sense
of beginning and ending.  This creates an awareness of your mortality, that
you are a mortal human being- you will die.  Knowing this and living in the
face of this time element, facilitates living more purposefully and valuing
every minute as precious.  Now is your time. 

Time Meta-Programs

The first NLP distinction about time was with regard to your orientation to
the time zones (past, present, and future) and where you focus your
attention.  Where do you mostly live?  Is it in the past, the present, or
the future?  Those who experience time as a primary state are "in" time
which is why they hardly notice it.  They are in the eternal moment.   Those
who experience time more as a meta-state (called "through time" in NLP) are
actually "outside" of time and from there they can more easily see it and
recognize what "time" it is (i.e., how much daylight is left).

This gives us two primary ways of experiencing time and therefore two
different kinds of "time-lines."  People in primary state time ("in time")
tend to get lost in time and experience life randomly or all at once.
People in meta-state time ("through time") operate more sequentially, in a
step-by-step fashion.  If you carefully watch and listen to people, you can
see and recognize how a person is operating, inside or outside of the
person's representations.

"Time" as your comparing of events is a meta-cognitive awareness.  When you
are not aware of it, you are in an event and unaware of other events.  You
are in-time, lost in time and experiencing an eternal now.  This powerfully
enriches a great many experiences: love making, being totally present with a
friend, or engaged in a project.  It can also frustrate one outside the
event who wait for you to get to the next event!

If you "live" a lot or most of your time in the past and reference the past,
you may have a thinking style that we could call precedent thinking.   When
you consider problems, solutions, outcomes, or whatever, your frame of
reference is the past or even more limiting your past.  Everything is
processed according to what has happened leaving no room for new
possibilities.  If you "live" a lot or most of your time in the future, your
thinking style would probably be possibility thinking.  While this usually
makes you optimistic and hopeful, it can also blind you to constraints so
that you are unrealistic.

When you are comfortably and pleasurably aware of time, you can plan,
sequence events, and operate efficiently in the modern world.  Of course,
this can drive loved ones and friends crazy if you're on holiday or needing
to be totally present.

Time Beliefs

Given the Time matrix and how it defines you as a person, your meanings
and/or beliefs about this concept of time can powerfully influence many of
your emotions as well as your skills.  If you believe that time is your
enemy, you will develop a bad relationship with it.  You will probably think
that you don't have enough time, and might then feel time as "pressure."
If you believe time is your friend, you will probably experience it as a
positive experience to embrace.  

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D.

               Neuro-Semantics Executive Director 

               Neuro-Semantics International

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

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