What Is Your Relationship with Time?

The Outlier Series

Mario E. Martinez, PsyD

Exploring The Time Enigma

Most people assume that time is something we measure. We speak of having too little of it, wasting it, managing it, running out of it, or trying to make the most of it. Yet despite our efforts to organize and control time, many of us continue to feel rushed, overwhelmed, or unable to devote ourselves fully to the people and pursuits that matter most.

Time also serves another function. It provides one of the most socially acceptable explanations for the choices we make and the commitments we avoid. We say we are too busy. We say there is not enough time. We postpone conversations, relationships, aspirations, and opportunities, often attributing our decisions to the limitations of the clock. Yet what appears to be a problem of time may, in many cases, be a question of priority, meaning, commitment, or apprehension. Time becomes the explanation, while deeper motives remain unexplored.

For many years I have been interested in a different question. Rather than asking how much time we have, I have asked what kind of relationship we have with time itself.

This question eventually led me to the study of duration. While time is measured by clocks and calendars, duration is lived. It is the context within which we experience our relationships, commitments, hopes, disappointments, health, and future possibilities. Two people may occupy the same amount of chronological time and yet inhabit entirely different worlds of experience because they are living within different perceptions of duration.

A relationship that is perceived as temporary evokes one set of emotions. A relationship experienced as enduring evokes another. A future that feels limited generates different perceptions, choices, and physiological responses than a future experienced as open and meaningful. In this sense, our experience of duration is not simply a philosophical concern. It becomes a biocognitive influence that shapes how we love, how we commit, how we age, and how we flourish.

During this immersion we will explore the possibility that many of the struggles we attribute to a lack of time may actually originate in the way we contextualize duration. Most approaches attempt to teach us how to manage time more efficiently. My interest has never been in time management. It has been in understanding how human beings live duration.

We do not suffer from clocks and calendars. We suffer from the meanings we assign to our experience of duration. When duration is experienced as scarce, life can become rushed, burdensome, and reactive. When duration is experienced as meaningful, our relationships deepen, our commitments strengthen, and our future becomes a source of possibility rather than limitation.

This immersion is not about managing time. It is about learning how to live duration. Together we will examine how perceptions of duration influence our relationships, our sense of purpose, our health, and our experience of aging. We will explore why some individuals remain engaged with life, committed to meaningful pursuits, and capable of flourishing well into advanced age while others experience the passage of time as a burden. We will also consider how our assumptions about the future shape our present emotions, behaviors, and biological responses.

This is an inquiry into one of the most influential and least examined dimensions of human experience.

If I were to begin our exploration with a single question, it would be this:

What is your relationship with time?

The answer may reveal more about your health, your relationships, your commitments, and your future than you have ever imagined.

Because of the limited spaces for these live sessions, registrations are non-refundable. Sessions are not recorded or offered for replay in order to preserve the privacy, presence, and confidentiality of the dialogue.