What is worse: retreating into the past or racing into the future?
Given that we are at our best living in the present, it probably doesn’t matter—the worst is whatever pulls you out of the here and now.
But in the event you might be entertained thinking about it, let me tell you that when it comes to your body, losing time is far easier than gaining time.
How do I know?
Jet lag. That disruption in your body’s circadian rhythm that happens when you get on a plane and skip through time.
Your body is happily (for the most part) following a 24 hour cycle dictated by when the sun shines and when you eat, sleep, and exercise. Put yourself in another time and place, however, and you disrupt pretty much all of your body’s systems—nervous, endocrine, metabolic, digestive, etc.
And they don’t all readjust at the same time, so you can end up feeling quite discombobulated.
When I go back to the U.S. (east to west), I retreat 10 hours into the past and I actually look forward to it because suddenly it’s easy for me to go to bed on time and to get up early and it only takes a few days to adapt.
Dropping myself 10 hours into the future (returning to Lebanon—west to east), however, is brutal. I wake up at 2 am and if I can’t coax my body back into a state of slumber, I get up, feel great, fall in love with the early morning hours and tell myself it will all be OK, but then I drag through the day like a zombie before collapsing into bed at around 7 that night. Every day is different and it takes over a week to adapt.
But, I do adapt.
Humans are actually pretty good at adaptation.
So, if you’re slipping into the past and possible regrets, or feeling lured into the future with its potential worries, rest assured that you can—and will—adapt back to the present.