One of the most striking things about aging is how ones perception of time changes over the years.
But as you age, time seems to speed up.
Why does time pass so quickly as we age?
Routine kills our memory for respective intervals, psychologist and time researcherMarc Wittmann, PhD, says.
If nothing meaningful has happened, we dont have anything our brain can record, and time subjectively shrinks.
This phenomenon became even more jarring amid the pandemic.
If nothing meaningful has happened, we dont have anything our brain can record, and time subjectively shrinks.
Wittmann notes that sameness has really screwed with our brains.
This is gone during the pandemic.
Everyday is Blursday, and in retrospect, everything is just one messy source.
As Wittmann notes, time passing too quickly is emotional.
It speaks to our existentialism as a species.
We have this idea of linear time and we have only a certain amount of lifetime, he says.
PsychologistLoren Soeiro, Ph.D ABPP, says even small changes to your routine can help stretch time.
You dont need to go on vacation or go out to expensive meals or anything.
Something that makes it a little fresher.
Travel (responsibly!)
One of the best ways to stretch time is to travel to a new place.
Even a single weekend away can make time seem longer than one at home on your very familiar couch.
Staying home all weekend, lounging around watching a Netflix series, it goes by fast, Wittmann says.
There are so many things your brain can record over those two days.
If you lounge around at home, nothing happens and time passes.
If you make a change tomorrow, youre still that much different.
You still made that change.
I hear it all the time.
It gets connected to things like, Where am I with respect to my goals?
A year passed by and nothing changed, he says.
People might be feeling like that anyway, but the pandemic made it worse.
If you make a change tomorrow, youre still that much different.
You still made that change, Soeiro says.
It doesnt matter that in this past year, nothing happened.
Dont be dissuaded by the time its taken to get here.
Actively notice new things
This method sounds reductive, but it works.
If youve got plants, keep track of their leaf growth.
If youve got pets, teach them new tricks.
Note the way the sunlight changes in your living room over the course of the day.
Wittmann says techniques like mindfulness and focusing on breathing help you get control over your perception of time.
My idea of how we perceive time, its through our body, he says.
When you focus on your bodily self, time slows down.
In addition to expanding your perception of time, meditation can relieve stress and anxiety.
When you focus on your bodily self, time slows down.
Journaling helps you build up your narrative memory, and your narrative self, Wittmann says.
(Just maybe dont revisit, say, your middle school diary.
The pubescent cringe isnt worth the extra time.)
It was a very frightening year, Soeiro says.
Theres been a lot of loss, there have been a lot of unexpected, frightening and unhappy events.
We were all held back, we were all delayed, and it was pretty scary.
