Most people feel that Christmas comes around quicker each year, and that time speeds up as they get older. This article explores why time seems to accelerate with age and suggests four practical approaches to slow down the perception of time.
Most people feel that Christmas comes around quicker each year, and that time speeds up as they get older. Time perception is related to information processing — the more information we process, the slower it passes.
We can also expand time by reducing "passive absorption" and taking up meditation. Now that we’re reaching the end of 2024, let me ask you a simple question: Do you feel that this Christmas has come around faster than last year? The answer is most likely yes. A recent survey led by the time researcher Ruth Ogden found that 77% of respondents agreed that Christmas seems to arrive more quickly each year .This illustrates the common human experience that time seems to speed up as we get older. I addressed the question of why this occurs in. Here I would like to take a more practical approach. I want to focus solely on the question of whether we can do anything to halt this process. Is it inevitable that time keeps speeding up, or can we take measures to slow it down? Fortunately, I believe that the latter is the case. I will suggest four approaches we can take to slow down the speed of time, taken from my bookOne of the main factors in time perception is information processing. Simply put, the more information our minds process, the slower time seems to pass. This is the reason why new experiences seem to stretch time. For example, recall a time when you went to a foreign country for a few days, on a work trip or vacation. The chances are that when you returned home, those few days seem very expansive, much longer than the same period spent at home. “Is it really just a few days since I left home?” you might have asked yourself. “It feels more like a month!” This is because of the increased information that takes places in unfamiliar environments — the unfamiliar landscapes and buildings, the unfamiliar language and food, and so on. All of this stretches time, compared to when we’re surrounded by familiarity at home, living according to our normal routines. In other words, newness stretches time. So If you want to make the next year pass a little more slowly, bring new experience into your life. Travel to new places, give yourself new challenges, meet new people, learn a new hobby.However, strictly speaking we don’t need new experience to enhance our perception. We can achieve the same effect by making the effort to beThe only reason why familiarity reduces information processing is because we habitually “switch off” to familiar places and experiences. Our perception becomes automatic, and we don’t payFor example, when you're walking to your local shop or to the tube station, focus your attention outward. Look at the sky, at the houses and buildings you pass, and be aware of yourself here, walking amongst them. Or, when you're eating a meal, rather than reading the paper or thinking or daydreaming, pay real attention to the taste of the food, and the sensations of chewing and swallowing. Absorption speeds up time. An enthralling film or lecture seems to pass much quicker than a tedious one. An afternoon watching endless episodes of a TV series seems to disappear before you know it. Over the coming year, be careful about how much time you lose to absorption. Of course, absorption is very beneficial, especially when we engage with challenging and stimulating activities that create a state of “flow.” What isn’t so beneficial though is the passive absorption we experience when we watch TV or surf the internet. If you have a day off work, don’t spend it watching TV series or films. Spend the day mindfully: walking and watching the world go by, talking to friends or gardening or exercising. If you want a week’s vacation to last for as long as possible, don’t do anything too absorbing. Don’t spend your vacation sitting on the beach reading bestsellers or listening to podcasts. Don’t go to a bar every evening to socialize or watch entertainment. Instead, expand time by walking through the countryside, exploring different towns, trying out new activities and chatting to people. Research suggests that long-term meditators experience a slightly slower passage of time than others. In 2013, a group of Romanian students practiced a half-hour ofevery day for a week. At the end of the week, they watched two short documentary films, each lasting five minutes. They estimated the length of the films as significantly longer than a control group . On a long-term basis, in 2014, a group of German researchers interviewed 42 people who had been meditating regularly for many years. Compared to a similar sample of non-meditators, they felt less pressurized by time and reported a slower passage of time, including over the last week and month.So if you haven’t thought of a New Year’s resolution yet, I suggest this one: to slow down your experience of time so that the following year seems longer than the last. If you follow the above strategies, it’s highly likely that this time next year, you will escape the feeling that Christmas has come around faster again.1. Ogden, R, et al., . “Changing experiences of the passage of time with age: do Christmas and Ramadan really come around more quickly each year?” Poster Presentation, European Congress of Psychology,When we fall prey to perfectionism, we think we’re honorably aspiring to be our very best, but often we’re really just setting ourselves up for failure, as perfection is impossible and its pursuit inevitably backfires.
Time Perception Psychology Meditation Information Processing Age
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