How do you stop the illusion of time going by too fast?

[LoveWisdom]

Originally Posted by voiceofreazon

As I get older, I am 44, I really notice the hours of the day and the days of the week flying by faster and faster. Wondering if anyone has any mental tricks or a paradigm shift to slow things down

I think that slowing down (doing less things) makes you feel like you have more time.

[Philm2]

I believe as we get older and understand things around us and our experiences are brains must process all that information. We anticipate things more accurately with all the experience. When young full of energy we don't understand somethings as we when we age. Time seems to move faster the more complex we get.

[Lovehound]

WARNING!!! 3 YEAR OLD TOPIC!!!

I don't knowingly condone resuscitating such old topics, and yes it's always brought back to life as somebody's first post. (Welcome to C-D Philm2.)

However... I've been thinking about starting a discussion similar to this in the last few days, so why not? And anyway, I did READ THE WHOLE TOPIC and there are some interesting comments IMO worth reading. I suggest anybody who wishes to participate should read the full topic before posting.

I've long wondered about the non-linearity of perceived passage of time. From day to day... from child to youth to middle age to senior citizen as I am now. I'm pretty sure that everybody who has reached adulthood can recognize in their own lives that some kinds of time and some parts of life seem to have a variable progression in the passing of time, the length of a day, of a week, the changing of the seasons, the inevitable progression of the years. There can be no doubt that from a subjective point of view our lives progress at variable rates.

As a child my days seemed to last forever (particularly at school--were an hour in class could be a lifetime). Yet at the same time when I became aware of the passing of the seasons, it shocked me when suddenly the days became short and the leaves began falling. How had summer passed so quickly? Summer seemed to last forever (thanks to the great camping trips my parents treated me with), but suddenly we were buying school supplies and it was back to classes seemingly like geologic epochs. Christmas was always a million years in the future and then suddenly BAM!!! Christmas!!!

The tempo seemed to become schizophrenic in high school, life rushing past like a demon on speed, yet at the same time still progressing in glacial time. Lovehound (a guy) had discovered hormones! He discovered that girls weren't the enemy! Almost everybody has discovered that hormones play hell with you perception of time. Classes were still endless, except for that cute chick a few desks over. When I started dating phone calls were forever, many was the time she (GF at the time) and I fell asleep talking on the phone for hours. I will never know how my parents never noticed, although "old" people rarely used the phone at night back then. By the time we woke up it was time to head back to school and dream of our next date.

Once I got the keys to the car (at first permission to use my parents' car, later when I began college my own car) there was yet another dimension. Time was now measured in time between dates, and the time dates proceeded at too. The time between dates was infinite even though it was every week. Happily the passage of a date could be a lifetime in a few hours, but sadly once the date was over and the next sun had risen, it seemed like mere seconds. Thankfully there was always next weekend and often another date. Meanwhile OBG became the British Invasion became Disco... Themselves eras.

As I entered adulthood and college, time shifted again! College lasted forever (back then) but my perception now is that it was a mere blink. -- These days I chuckle over being accused by my Thermodynamics professor, in front of the class, for growing a beard simply because the sound of my chin hitting the desk wouldn't wake me up. Thankfully most or all of the class was male, and my fellows wouldn't have been surprised that the beard had nothing to do with it--it was staying up the night before drinking with my GF and getting laid was the problem. Wait! What? That's not a problem!!!! I did get a passing grade--barely.

TO BE CONTINUED: depending on the responses to this topic I'll resume this narrative with my career years, and into my senior years which itself is a whole new life era. (But for many, a good one!)

I would like to hear of other's experiences with the perceptive non-linearity of passage of time, particularly related to your real (or mental) age.

This can become a good (even if recycled) topic for the Psychology forum area.

[Sand&Salt]

I will have to think more about this topic, Lovehound as it is happening to me. But in the meantime, wanted to say that you are an excellent writer with judicious use of paragraphs! Entertaining style of writing. And I notice you answer posts that are left swinging in the breeze with no answers. Good for you.


There are some good writers here on CD and you are def one. Thanks.

[mainebrokerman]

time is the distance between memories..



i once read that we in fact remember/recall the last time we remembered and not the actual event...

[Lovehound]

I sincerely appreciate your compliments Sand&Salt. You will not be surprised to hear that I'm an aspiring writer (have on occasion written/published articles for computer magazines) and I aspire to try my shot at writing a novel soon, even now in my advanced years.

Alas it's after dinner and with a few glasses of wine under my belt I do not believe I can achieve my own writing standards until an overnight rest. I do intend to follow up this topic and have been hoping to get a few more opinions on the topic subject (even though the OP is probably long gone.

I intend to address (1) middle life, (2) retirement years, and (3) hopefully with some diverse opinions, how (and maybe why) I still feel the fire of ambition when other people my age are content to play Bingo (do they still do that) or watch TV instead of doing something productive with their time.

Meanwhile I'll leave you with an interesting psychological study: that people who lead mentally active careers, and continued mentally challenging pursuits in old age have shown decreased risk of dementia. There are even products designed to "exercise your brain." Multiple studies have correlated heightened mental activity during your middle life and during retirement years with decreased risk of mental problems such as dementia.