As we rush through the minutes of this holiday season, checking off lists and racing for deadlines, it seems ever harder to find the time to experience time consciously. While technology and AI have catapulted our world into a ludicrous expectation for speed, our biological selves still need to envision our vision, express our emotions, and evolve with time.

The rich concepts of Western classical music offers a way to reverse this unsustainable conflict. While I finish writing a piano intensive syllabus on the topic of timing, so many applications spill over into conscious living. What if we use mindful listening to integrate multiple kinds of time perception and reclaim our relationship to time consciousness?

Musical rhythm is a strong, repeated pattern of sound. It is a living entity, just like our heartbeat. It fluctuates with our mood changes. It can be smooth or dissonant. Long before we had language, we felt our heartbeat, saw seasonal changes, and slept according to circadian rhythms. These patterns of time circle, like repeating chorus sections between verses, and continue to function today as they did with our ancestors.

As each new era came to pass, our relationship to time perception both reflected and influenced new cultural norms and expressions. When Aristotle (4th century BCE) linked motion and change to how we........

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