Ever wondered why you find yourself stuck in last year, or why the months seem to disappear so fast? Once we celebrate the New Year, we're often still writing 2014 when it's really 2015 -- and soon we'll be writing 2015 when it's really 2016. And wasn't it just early October? How is it almost Thanksgiving? We just celebrated Halloween!
If any of you feel these things the way I do, you'll understand how time seems to slip right through our fingers. When we were younger, months seemed to drag on. A week at school seemed more like a month, but now that we're older, a month seems more like a week (maybe not that drastic, but you get the idea).
I've always wondered why that is, until I stumbled upon an article talking about how our perception of time begins to accelerate as we age. There's a lot of science involved in this, of course, but it makes so much sense. Time doesn't actually speed up; it's still stuck on the same old axis -- 60 minutes in an hour; 24 hours in a day; etc. It's our experience of time that changes.
As I said above, there are many scientific, biological, and psychological explanations for why this happens. I won't go into those in depth, but if you want to read more about it, I suggest checking this out. As this article states, many of us experience what's called "Habituation Hypothesis", described as follows: "Our instinct is to conserve energy when we can, so when life is predictable, our minds turn to autopilot and we tune out...regardless where our mental focus goes, by exhibiting this type of behavior, we have a tendency to compress time, and as a result our lives seem to speed up."
So really, our bodies are compressing time while conserving energy. All those daily ritualistic habits we perform -- getting dressed, showering, commuting -- turn us into autopilots.
There are other explanations for this shortage of time, too. A phrase coined by psychologists as "Forward Telescoping" describes how "we are inclined to stay connected to important past events...to where they seem quite recent, even when many years have passed." I'm sure many of us have experienced this. Whether it's a first kiss, the loss of a friend, a big move -- any significant event which has impacted us, it usually shocks us to realize how much time has actually passed since that event.
All of this makes a lot of sense, and may be nothing new to you. I've considered these things myself before, but I just assumed life was slipping away, passing me by. Time feels like it's shortening, but it's really our body and mind shortening time for us. When we perceive it differently, it becomes a new experience for us.
How can you avoid "losing" time? By enjoying more of the present moment, truly living each moment to its fullest, we will begin to feel like we are taking back time. Another good tip is limiting the amount we multitask, as well as considering changing up the daily routine. Filling your life with meaningful, new experiences can also make you feel "time-rich", or like you have lots of time to experience what you want in life.
When we're constantly moving and rushing from one place to the next, one task to the next, always with the future goal in mind, it's easy for time to feel rushed. But living this way is what makes you feel like time leaves you behind. We should really slow down, take a deep breath, and appreciate the beauty of life around us, before it leaves us in the past.
