How to Be a Time Wizard - Part Two - Can We Slow Down Time?
What if we could slow down time to be able to better appreciate our lifetimes?
This is Part Two of How to Change Our Perception of Time
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We are all familiar with time, the constant and relentless ticking away of our days and hours. But while we understand it, we also have a complicated relationship with it. We know it to be constant, yet it doesn’t always feel that way. Think back to being a child and how the last few days before holiday break dragged on forever. Or sitting in the classroom, watching the clock barely moving before our release by the bell.
And yet other times, it goes by far too quickly. The vacation that’s over too soon. Or as parents, that time with our children when they were still small. The precious time with loved ones, gone long before we are ready to say goodbye. As we get older, it may even feel that time is rushing forward, our years accumulating on the scoreboard with little effort.
Controlling time is a common theme in fantasy and sci-fi. Time is a feature in our movies and shows like Doctor Who, Outlander, and Back to Future. It’s in our games like Life is Strange, Prince of Persia, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. And even in our classic literature, from Mark Twain to H.G. Wells, some of our best stories are about controlling or changing time.
While time travel is only a fantasy, we have some control over how we perceive time. There are different ways we can convince our minds to think that time is going faster or slower than the actual constant ticking of that clock.
In last week’s post, How to Be a Time Wizard - Can We Change Our Perception of Time?, we discussed how we could change our thought patterns into thinking that time is going faster than it is. This speeding up time is great for getting through a dull work day or counting down to that exciting event. But what about slowing it down?
“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”
- C.S. Lewis
Slowing Down Time
How can we take more time to make those fun days last longer, appreciate that family time, or just take more time to embrace the wonders surrounding us? We can’t actually slow time, but we can change our perception. Here are some tips to make our days feel longer and give us more time to appreciate the days and hours that we have in our lives.
Try Something New
Do you remember details from a childhood event that was years ago but at the same time struggle to remember what you had for lunch yesterday? We often think of childhood as long summer nights and fun with our friends, each birthday a significant event, and every holiday worth celebrating. But as we get older, time seems to speed up. Studies show that adults, especially those over 40, find time moving faster than when they were children.
There are many different theories to explain this phenomenon. One often cited is based on how our brains form memories. When we’re young, we have a lot of new experiences, and the brain creates many new memories from these experiences. But as we build routines, there is less newness. To be more efficient, our brains go into more of an autopilot approach. During routine activities, it records chunks of information, retaining fewer details.
But studies show that we can reverse this trend by adding new experiences. The unexpected can break the brain out of this autopilot approach and forces it to record more details and, therefore, more memories of the event. According to Stanford neuroscientist, David Eagleman, seeking novelty is the key to slowing down time.
But you don’t have to have a huge adventure to have an impact. A study from the Netherlands showed that adding even just novelty changes can change our overall perception. To better appreciate your time and slow it down, take a new route home or try an unusual meal for dinner. It doesn’t have to be significant to have an impact to help you to slow down time.
“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.”
- Nelson Mandela
Pay Attention to the Details
Even when working on routine activities, there is a way to break out of autopilot mode. By paying more attention to our surroundings, we are more likely to notice fine details that we have previously ignored or taken for granted.
What color is that pen, how does the keyboard feel under our fingers, etc.? While these everyday activities are nothing new, focusing on them makes them new in our minds. And this breaks us out of that autopilot mode and helps slow down our perception of time.
Try the 5-4-3-2-1 method to take more notice of your surroundings:
List five things you can see
List four things you can touch
List three things you can hear
List two things you can smell
List one thing you can taste
“Slow down and enjoy life. It’s not only the scenery you miss by going too fast – you also miss the sense of where you are going and why.”
― Eddie Cantor
Step Outside Your Comfort Zone
A great way to slow down time is by working on ourselves and moving toward our goals. As we grow and move forward, we must take risks outside our comfort zone. But not only do these changes to our routine result in something new, but the very act of facing our fears changes our perception of time as well.
Fear has a unique side-effect of slowing down our sense of time. In horror movies, the key moments are often slowed for dramatic effect. But, our brains actually do much the same when we are frightened. In one study, researchers looked at the time dilation effect of an amusement thrill ride. Participants estimated the duration as much as 50% longer than the actual time passed.
Whether riding a roller coaster or confronting our fear of public speaking, our brains react to be frightened much the same. We continue to grow and work towards our future achievements by facing those fears and, by doing so, slow our perception of the passage of time.
(Read more in Why We Like Fear and How RPG Horror Campaigns Make for A Great Experience)
"Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve,... but for those who love, time is eternity."
- Henry Van Dyke
Take a Break
While confronting our fears is a great way to slow down time, sometimes working on our goals may have the reverse effect. Time flies when we get entirely absorbed in our passion project and the flow. Suddenly it’s dinner time, and we’re barely aware of where the afternoon went.
If we want to recapture our afternoons, we must take breaks from our concentrated focus. Standing up, stretching, or taking a brief walk outside are great ways to recenter ourselves. It allows our brain to pull from work and return to the present moment.
Taking breaks is also a great way to deal with stress when we may feel like time is getting away from us. Having a short rest lets our minds focus on something different, which is good for stress management. And this recentering helps remind our brains that time is not rushing by as fast as we think.
(Read more in 12 Centering Techniques For Gamers When Dealing with Stress and Anxiety)
Be More Mindful
Mindfulness is about being in the present moment. It’s being aware of ourselves and our state of being. A great way to practice mindfulness is through mediation.
Several studies have suggested that mediation helps to slow our perception of time. But an exciting 2014 study found that not only do we feel a time slowing down during the activity of mediation, but there is a longer impact as well on our time dilation. In the study, participants who regularly practiced mediation reported that they felt the previous week and month had passed more slowly than non-mediators.
Mindfulness has many benefits, including the perception that time is moving slower through our lives, giving us a better opportunity to enjoy it.
“There is more to life than increasing its speed.”
- Mahatma Gandhi
Get In Shape
Another theory on why time seems to last forever when we’re children but speed by as we age is the difference in the heart and breathing rates. Young children have faster heart rates and breathing rates than adults. The concept of this theory is that these rates are tied to our internal clock, which influences how we perceive time.
But it’s not as simple as just raising one’s heart rate. Studies show that heart rate alone doesn’t affect our time perception. However, multiple studies show a connection between our heart rate, autonomic nervous system, and perception of time, though the mechanism is not yet clearly understood. Another study on time perception showed that individuals with healthy brains tend to see time moving slower. While we may not know all the details on how it works, we do know that there is a connection between being healthy, heart rate, our nervous system, and our perception of time.
By getting in shape and becoming healthier, not only can we slow down our perception of time, but we may be adding years to our life to give us more time to enjoy.
“If you love life, don’t waste time, for time is what life is made up of.”
- Bruce Lee
Acknowledge Time is Passing
We gain a deeper awareness of time when we realize that we cannot stop time and that our lifetimes are finite. We learn to understand that we only have so much available to do everything we want.
This understanding forces us to be more mindful. It encourages us to pay attention to the details around us so as not to miss things along the way. Knowing that our time is finite, we want to live our lives to the fullest and are more willing to take risks and embracing new experiences. And to make the most of it, we are drawn to better care for our mental and physical health to prolong it.
Ironically, when we acknowledge that time is passing and that we are unable to control it, that’s when our perception of it slows down.
“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”
-J. R. R. Tolkien
The Time of Your Life
Physicists understand that time is relative, but most of us see it as a linear march of one minute to the next. We have always sought to control it, speed it up, slow it down, or even go back and change our past. From movies to literature, there is a human desire to be a time wizard. But the truth is that we can only control our perception of its passing but never stop its forward progression. In truth, the most important part of our understanding of time is not how to change it, but what we decide to do with the time we are given.
Want to know more about how we can change our perception of time?
Check out part one of the series here.
Author:
Laurie Trueblood is a writer and life coach that enjoys fantasy, science, psychology, and everything nerdy. As the founder of Adventures to Authenticity, her mission is to help others level up and become the best versions of themselves.
Find more on motivation and mindfulness: Check out 12 Centering Techniques For Gamers When Dealing with Stress and Anxiety and The Importance of Downtime for a Productive Mind
