The way we measure time in a day hasn't really changed since it was initially conceived of over 4,000 years ago.
There are still 24 hours in a day, as we measure it. The sun still rises and sets in the same intervals as it always has.
We know this, yet time seems to fly by faster as we get older.
So, if the measurement of time hasn't changed, something must have changed to make time seem to move faster.
What was it?
I don't think I've ever had both feet firmly planted in the mindset that time speeds up as you get older. But since I sold my belongings and began a new and different lifestyle, a strange thing has happened;
Time seems to have slowed down.
How did this happen?
Here is what I have discovered...
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Think back with me, if you can, to those youthful days of exploring and being inquisitive.
Whatever you were doing, you were no doubt fully invested and involved in it. You were curious about everything. Everything was new and, as a result, all of your senses were alert. I'll bet you had no problem trying new and different things. The only time that time really mattered was probably meal time.
Over the course of time, more and more patterns began to develop in your young life and you started conforming your life to these patterns. Things were simpler and easier when you did so.
Gradually you began seeking what was familiar to you. In that familiarity things seemed more predictable, but the patterns that developed from following this familiarity eventually became routines, and those routines turned into habits. See, the more familiar something is (such as Time), the less we think about it and the less we are curious about it.
You first learned about time as a measurement. You broke everything down into those measurements. Your moments started to be measured by how quickly they went by or how long they lasted. Then you started watching the seconds, the minutes, and the hours. Before you knew it, you were counting the days and weeks, the seasons and years.
Then time became information.
"Be here at a certain time."
"Remember that time when…?"
There's X amount of days before the project needs to be done or until that long awaited vacation.
The watch on your wrist, the clock, and the calendar on the wall slowly began to dictate your life.
You started running from here to there. You started working long hours at jobs that you didn't particularly like and counting your pennies and dollars. You accumulated more and more deadlines to meet, appointments, and things to do and places to be.
All you were focused on was the next destination. Whether it was the dream vacation, trying to get the perfect house, meeting the next goal, some personal fulfillment, or the life on Easy Street. You spent all of your time somewhere else - somewhere other than where you were.
And whenever you did find yourself in an uncomfortable situation, you were just looking forward to the time when you could get out of it.
You started putting everything on a to-do list. You tried to make everything quicker, easier, and more efficient. Before you know it you weren't only measuring time, you were also measuring things according to how convenient or how comfortable they were.
Then one day you drove that same old route to work and you found yourself sitting in the parking lot and you couldn't recall the drive you just made to get there. You started to wonder if something was wrong with you. Were you losing your memory? Were you losing your mind??
No.
You were living life by the numbers.
Numbers on a calendar.
Numbers on a spread sheet.
Numbers on a nutrition label.
Numbers on a price tag.
Numbers on a check.
Numbers on a clock.
Everything had become centered around numbers.
Your mood and possibly your entire life was often dictated by those numbers.
You also got comfortable in routines and habits until one day you suddenly realized that years had passed by and you were left wondering where they went.
You got to a point where you knew schedules but couldn't recognize patterns.
You knew the price of things but you didn't know what it would cost you.
You had deadlines, appointments, and all types of engagements, but weren't having experiences.
Your attention turned to screens and away from yourself.
You were continually thinking about the next project, the next meeting, the next thing you had to do or the next place that you were supposed to be.
You became focused on the next destination, and you only tolerated the journey.
You were just in a hurry to get there or to get it over with.
When Time is the focus, there's never enough of it.
"There aren't enough hours in a day!"
"We need more time!"
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We hear people talk about how time seems to go faster when we get older. It doesn't, of course. What happened is we settled into patterns and routines. We broke Time down into measurements - into numbers.
We put everything in our lives on a timeline.
We got caught up in that time and in those numbers rather than moments.
Left unchecked, our minds tend to seek what is familiar to us because the outcomes are fairly predictable. Things are more comfortable and take less effort this way. This is why we like routines and this is how we form habits.
But the issue is that in this repetition, things also tend to lose their meaning. Following the same routine day after day after day desensitizes our senses. We end up going through the motions (auto pilot) while our minds are always somewhere else. As a result, our days become monotonous and they all start blending together.
Routine.
Boring and monotonous repetition.
Repetition breeds familiarity, and it can be incredibly difficult to stay curious and to pay attention when everything is familiar.
I'm sure we have all driven to some place that was unfamiliar and new to us. Remember how it seemed like it took forever to get there but it seemed so much quicker to get back? That's because on your way there everything was different and unknown. You were paying attention and taking in everything that you could and your senses were heightened. On the way back, you had an idea of what to expect. Things were more familiar. Your senses were more relaxed.
The element of surprise - unplanned events or unexpected surroundings - is known by researchers to activate the brain's learning capabilities, while a familiar and expected environment soothes and relaxes. In other words;
It lulls us to sleep.
It sedates us.
It was almost six years ago when I sold everything and began this new lifestyle of traveling and living out of my truck. Sometimes it feels like I've been doing this forever while at other times it doesn't seem like it's been very long at all. There will always be periods of time that seem to pass in the blink of an eye while others seem to stretch on forever. That will probably never change. But all in all, time seems to have slowed down significantly for me.
I may find myself in a place I've never been before. I may be doing an activity or a job I've never done before. There are times when I don't know what I'll be doing from one season to the next; whether it's being in a different place, doing different work, or taking on a new adventure - a new challenge.
Because of this, my mind is almost always alert. All of my senses are regularly activated, and I am more engaged in everything I do. I may not know where I'll be or what I'll be doing next week. I may not even know about tomorrow. But I am here, now.
When we are preoccupied with what is happening right in front of us - right now - it definitely has an influence on our perception of time.
No doubt there have been times, even as an adult, when you got so engrossed in a project or something that you were doing, that you lost all sense of time. Of course, once you stepped away from it you probably thought that time had flown by. But I can also assure you that if you were to do it more frequently - if you start stringing together more and more of those kinds of moments - you would have the sense of time seeming to slow down.
As we got older and time passed, we got caught up in doing the things we felt like we had to do - in doing the things we thought we were supposed to do. We lost that childlike wonder, when everything was new and our senses were more attentive, that seemed to make days or moments or weeks last forever.
Conversely, when we are fully engrossed with what is happening right in front of us, our attention is narrowed. We aren't thinking about the future or dwelling on the past. The only thing that we may be aware of, aside from what is happening right in front of us, is that we are breathing. This is when we are experiencing the moment.
So, how do you slow time down?
Do something new.
Try different things.
Be curious.
Take on new challenges,
And reawaken your senses.
There isn't one specific organ in the human body that keeps track of time or helps us form a concept of time, it's all of our senses working together. When we are faced with new, different, or memorable situations, our entire nervous system is taking in and processing all of that information - our senses are heightened - which can lead to the "feeling" of time slowing down.
The hours in a day - the space from the sun rising to the sun setting - does not change. But we can create the feeling that it does.
No, we can't get time back, but if we spend our time creating experiences, we can create those moments where time seems to stand still.
We're all on the clock, and the clock doesn't stop from the moment we're born, no matter what we may think or believe. Time, itself, is always present and it never stops.
Your age? Your age is nothing more than a measurement of time. Your age has nothing to do with time speeding up or slowing down - or anything else, for that matter. Time does not operate differently at different times, or for different people. The only thing that works differently is how we think about it and how we use it.
When we were kids we made those moments and we lived in them.
But if all we're focused on is numbers,
If we're always thinking about that event or that moment in the future,
If we're always dwelling on what has already happened,
We could end up not experiencing the moments.
We could miss the moments.
We could miss our entire lives.
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"Research has shown that humans' perception of time is intrinsically linked to our senses." - Lilly Tozer on Nature.com
After writing this article I stumbled upon this scientific research paper. It just so happens to touch on what I wrote about here and it's published on Nature Human Behavior.
Photo - Grant Krasner
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