It’s garbage day again! Is it my imagination or is time speeding up? Suddenly another week has gone by and I can’t recall what I did for the last seven days. It’s a blur. Time passed too quickly. What is affecting my perception of time and is there anything I can do to slow it down again?
A Common Experience.
Apparently, this is a common phenomena as we age. We all experience it to one degree or another. I know a woman in her nineties who consistently comments on this, and a man in his sixties who hardly notices a change.
How a clock measures time and how you perceive it are quite different. As we grow older, it can often feel like time goes by faster and faster. This speeding up of subjective time with age is well documented by psychologists, but there is no consensus on the cause.”
– Harvard University blog, No, It’s Not Just You: Why time “speeds up” as we get older”
Time Lost And Time Found
If there is no agreed upon cause for this, perhaps I should look at the things that I do each week, and my perception of the time I spend doing them. Time spent with friends, doing new activities, going for walks and creating art are events that feel significant to me and I can recall them in detail. Activities such as doing chores, eating, commuting, watching TV or scrolling through social media are times that I can’t recall again: time disappeared. I remember the new but not the mundane.
“Our brain encodes new experiences, but not familiar ones, into memory, and our retrospective judgment of time is based on how many new memories we create over a certain period. In other words, the more new memories we build on a weekend getaway, the longer that trip will seem in hindsight.”**
Less Mindless, More Mindful
I’m not going to go on holiday every week to slow down my perception of time, and I can’t fill each day doing new and exciting things that I’ll remember. What I can do is two-fold: spend less time doing the avoidable, time-sucking activities, and be more mindful when I do everyday activities. I can cut down on scrolling through my phone, or playing on-line games or watching mindless videos. Then for the mundane things that need to be done, such as washing the dishes, I can try to be more mindful and present when I’m doing them.
The Present Of Presence
The benefits of being present when I do chores, or eat breakfast, is that I experience the passage of time in real time! There are also other benefits of cultivating mindfulness which make it a healthy choice for me:
“Because it contributes to your energy levels and motivation to achieve your goals. Focusing on the present makes you a better listener for your loved ones and increases your awareness of your surroundings. Overall, it can lead to greater happiness in your life. You’ll appreciate what’s around you and let yourself have fun.”***
Have you noticed time speeding up? What helps you to slow it back down again? Comment below.
*Harvard University blog, No, It’s Not Just You: Why time “speeds up” as we get older”
**https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-time-seem-to-speed-up-with-age/
*** For tips on how to add more mindfulness to your life, click here.
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