26/10/2025
Since starting training to be an Advanced Practitioner in Positive Psychology this is something I’ve been working on myself for the last few weeks, it’s powerful stuff and so worth it!
The Ancient Greeks viewed time in two ways: Chronos and Kairos.
Chronos is how most people think of time. It’s quantitative. Measurable. It’s the chronological, linear, tick-tocking version of time. The world runs on chronos time. If you don’t take account of chronos, you’ll miss your train.
Kairos is qualitative. It doesn’t tick-tock, it holds meaning. Kairos refers to the right moment, the flow and quality of our lives. Kronos has depth. It is when time feels as though it stands still, when you’re completely present, when you catch yourself thinking, ‘It doesn’t get any better than this.’
These moments can feel rare, but we’ve all experienced them.
Think back to childhood. Life was one long stretch of Kairos. Time moved differently. Days felt stretched, summers seemed infinite because as children, we were good at living in the moment. Our attention was sharper. Our awareness was pure.
As adults, we grumble that time speeds up. But that’s nonsense. Time hasn’t changed. What’s changed is us and the way we experience it. As children, the world was full of novelty. As adults, routines kick in and our uber efficient brains save energy by stopping paying close attention to what they already know.
Repetition makes the brain switch to autopilot. The result? We stop marvelling. Days blur together, and time feels as though it has slipped away unnoticed.
Your Chronos time is fixed at 86,400 seconds a day. We all get the same allocation. But your Kairos is variable! What you focus on is up to you. Attending to the right things invites more quality time into your life.
Which is why we think it’s worth making a song and dance about the simple act of noticing. Paying deliberate attention to the present moment, however ordinary it may seem, is the welcome mat to Kairos. And when you notice, you’re not just clawing back time, you’re creating more of it because more Kairos adds up to more moments that matter.
Hannah x