Time Line

Most of us are familiar with the notion of Timeline through Facebook and other social media. It is the way information is presented to us in a chronological order. Our brain also stores and encodes our memories and experiences thus creating our own Timeline.

What is it

There is a famous quote from an ancient Greek philosopher Heraklit “everything flows” ( τα παντα ρει ) and this could be the first time anyone ever talked about how time goes. In modern times Tad James and Wyatt Smallwood wrote a book called “Time Line Therapy and the Basis of Personality” that explain how to find your Time Line , how this affects our personality and how to use it in order to bring change and desirable outcomes.

Our memories, our decisions, our experiences good and bad are collected in our Time Line over time and determine how we relate to the world. Our Time Line is the memory coding of the brain. It is how we encode and store our memories or else we wouldn’t know the difference between past and future.

How we store memories affects how we experience our lives and how we experience time and as we age they have more and more influence in who we are and how we act. In addition, our behavior is guided by decisions that we've made in the past. Whether conscious or unconscious, these decisions affect our behavior in the present. Our decisions are stored in the Time Line, and through Time Line we gain access to them.

But how do you find your Time Line? You answer a simple question. Can you show the direction of your past events? Where is your future? If stop for a moment and think about, putting the now in the center there is a certain way, a certain direction in space that you arrange your past and future events. Could be left or right, up or down , forward or behind. Of course there is no right or wrong, typical or normal. Each of us has a unique way of storing information that has a positive intention within our ecosystem.

There are basically two types of Time Lines : Through Time and In Time. The deciding factor is whether the past is in front or behind of the plane of our eyes. If we can see the past right in front of us we are “Through Time” and if it is behind us we are “In Time”. The shape of the line is up to you. Could be straight , spiral , zig zag there is no right or wrong. My future is in front of me and my past is behind ( and sometimes way behind ) me. Now, let’s see some typical characteristics of each type.

Though Time

The Through Time person has his or her Time Line organized from left to right or from up to down or in a "v," or in some other organization where the past, present and future are all in front of the person at all times without the person having to turn his or her head to see it.

For Through Time people time is continuous and uninterrupted and time for them is linear. The memories are usually dissociated, which means they see themselves in the memory, because all their memories are always in front of them.

Through Time people are regularly on time or know when they are late and place a high value on timeliness. They could be saying that time is on their side.

When all your time is constantly in front of you it serves as a reference. That is good if the past experiences are positive ones, but it is problematic for the negative ones, since you have them right in front of you all the time causing blocks and negative feelings.

A Through Time person is better at staying on track and better at staying with the task, on the job and will live a more orderly, decided, planned existence. They will usually establish deadlines in work, take the deadlines seriously and will expect others to do the same. However, someone who is Through Time can have less ability " to be here in the now" than an In Time person.

In Time

An In Time person has some of his or her memories of the past and the future behind him or her no matter how the Time Line is arranged and has to turn his or her head to see them, or is a part of the Time Line inside his or her body.

Usually In Time people will have part of their history, or future part of their Time Lines, unavailable to them, unless they turn their heads. They say “we’re gonna look back on it and laugh” or “put/leave the past behind”. Hope that you’ve noticed that some expressions have been made consciously or unconsciously on purpose.

In Time people go back to one memory or point in time and they are associated, meaning they look it through their own eyes. So, they can go to the past and stay there more easily, because their memories are associated.

They are not as aware of duration, as a Through Time Person is, and may have trouble ending a meeting or session. An In Time person often won't know that he is five minutes late or even sometimes if a half hour had gone by. And every Through Time person will say that this is no excuse to be late!

An In Time person finds it a lot easier to "be here now." A Through Time person finds it hard to be here now because the past, present and future are always there, in front of them, whereas an In Time person is here, in the now. They are in the now all the time and frequently find it very easy to focus in and stay totally focused even in a chaotic situation, unlike their Through Time counterparts.

They prefer to keep their options open, so they often resist making a decision because they suspect that it will limit their options. They will live a less orderly, more spontaneous, flexible, open-ended existence. The In Time person doesn't plan, preferring to "take it as it comes," adapting to life as he or she goes through it. They may need someone to keep them on track, since they can have poorer concentration over time, such as in a long-term project.

These characteristics should be always viewed with “often” in mind. Human beings are dynamic systems and can combine traits from different categories. I am as “In Time” as can be but don’t you make the mistake of making me wait more than three minutes. I will put through hell.

That was it.

Are “In Time” or “Through Time” ?

See any of the characteristics above in yourself ?

I would like to know .

Be Healthy, Smile and Steem.

PS1 : Time Line is part of the NLP curriculum. I am a certified NLP Master Practitioner by the NLP University of Santa Cruz, California, passionate about NLP and I want to present it in a positive, serious and objective manner, away from exuberant claims and promises. NLP is not the greatest thing ever, not the cure-for-all, it’s just a set of techniques, a way of thinking and an attitude that can help you understand things and have the results that you want.

PS2 : Free images from canva.com