Time Isn’t What You Think

If Time Is an Illusion, Why Does It Feel So Real?

“Time is an illusion.” — Albert Einstein

You’ve probably heard it before, the old adage that time is an illusion, or time is a construct. But if you’re like me, you’ve experienced a bit of mental tug-o-war around this little maxim.

One one hand, I get that humans created clocks and measurements like minutes, hours, and centuries. On the other hand, the past happened. The future is coming. Events clearly happen in sequence.
The sun sets, then rises. You read this word, and then the next. You can’t eat lunch before breakfast.

So how can anyone say time isn’t real?

Well, I’ve done a little research and meditated on this, and have enjoyed the mindfulness glow-up that came with it. 

Let’s walk through it step-by-step. 

Step One: Change Is Real. Time Is How We Measure It.

“The clock is a little machine that shuts us out of the now.” — Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

The first step is separating change and time.

Change is real. Things move, transform, and unfold. But time, as something separate from events, is a measurement we invented to track that change.

Alan Watts, known for bringing Eastern philosophy to Western audiences, explained it like this:
Time is like inches. Inches measure length, but there’s no such thing as “inches” floating in space. They only measure the length of something. Likewise, time measures the change of something.

Without change, there’s nothing to measure, and “time” disappears.

Step Two: Past and Future Exist Only Now

“You can always cope with the present moment, but you cannot cope with something that is only a mind projection — you cannot cope with the future.” — Eckhart Tolle, The Power of Now

Eckhart Tolle, author of The Power of Now, explains that we never directly experience the past or the future.  When you recall a memory, you’re experiencing it now. When you imagine the future, you’re imagining it now.

Past and future exist only as thoughts in the present. The present moment is the only place life has and will ever happen.

This changes time from something “out there” to something that’s always filtered through now.

Step Three: The Flow Beyond Labels

“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality.” — Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 

Now we can go one step further.

In Taoism, an ancient Chinese philosophy and spiritual tradition, reality is described as the Tao — the natural, unforced flow of all that exists.

The Tao is timeless, even as it moves. The river flows, yet no single drop is labeled “past” or “future.” These divisions are added by the human mind.

Seen this way, life doesn’t actually contain “time” as we think of it. There is only the flowing reality itself, and our habit of slicing it into mental categories.

This is the image of reality without the overlay we’ve been taught to call time.

Step Four: Yes, This Is About You

“The past has no power over the present moment.” — Oprah Winfrey, What I Know for Sure

Up to now, we’ve dismantled the idea of time as an independent thing and replaced it with the present-moment flow of change. 

All well and good, but, in our daily life, our focus is not on lofty philosophy. It's on productivity. We make plans, keep schedules, and do work. We constantly deal with things like fear, worry, regret, and resentment. 

This is the part that really clicked for me.

I’m honestly saddened that, up until recently, I wasn’t able to benefit from this simple distinction that Eckhart Tolle creates, between Clock Time and Psychological Time.

Clock Time is the practical use of time for planning, coordinating, and remembering. Setting a meeting for 3 p.m., catching the bus, setting a timer for dinner. Setting goals and working toward them. Remembering the past to learn from mistakes or recall useful information. 

Tolle emphasizes that clock time is not inherently problematic. It is necessary for survival, collaboration, and creativity.

Psychological Time is our mental and emotional relationship with time. It happens when we project into the future (worry, anticipation, striving, anxiety about what might happen). Or when we dwell in the past (regret, resentment, nostalgia, replaying events to feed an identity). 

Psychological time pulls us out of the present moment and into mental narratives. It turns time into a psychological burden rather than a tool.

Clock Time keeps you grounded and functional.  Psychological Time takes you away from what’s happening, and into what your mind says is happening.

Step Five: The Two-Fold Revelation

“This is the real secret of life — to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.” — Alan Watts, The Wisdom of Insecurity

When you bring together the perspectives of Watts, Tolle, and Taoism, two truths stand out.

First, the Philosophical

Change is real, but “time” as you think of it is not. Watts shows us time is a measurement, not a substance. Tolle reminds us that past and future are thoughts happening now. Taoism reveals the timeless flow beneath all our mental labels. Life is always unfolding in this present moment. Time is simply a tool we use to navigate that unfolding.

Second, the Personal

Most of us, painfully, live far more in psychological time than we realize.

At work, this might look like constantly racing toward deadlines, worrying about where your career is headed, or replaying past mistakes in your head. In personal life, it might be stressing over what could go wrong in a relationship, procrastinating, or feeling stuck in resentment.

This isn’t the practical “clock time” that helps you show up to a meeting on time, plan a vacation, or prepare for retirement. This is the mental habit and sustained pattern of leaving the present moment to live in a projected future or a remembered past. And isn’t it exhausting?.

Most of the stress you feel doesn’t come from what’s actually happening now. It comes from operating in psychological time without noticing.

Recognizing this is powerful because it can instantly change how you move through your day. You start catching yourself before you spiral into “what if” or “if only,” and return to what’s real, right now.

If you pause and look at your life today, how much of your mental energy is going to clock time? How much is going to psychological time?