We are often surprised at how quickly time flies. Average duration life in Russia is approximately 71 years, in the USA - 79 years. But some people live much longer and look at the world broadly with open eyes. Of course, not in the literal sense.
Everyone knows that time flies by when we are doing something enjoyable. As you know, happy hours do not watch. And when we find ourselves in some extreme or unusual situations for us.
Let's remember the films. In them, the most life-threatening moments for the main character are often highlighted using slow motion. And this is not just a visual metaphor. Former world No. 1 John McEnroe once described the phenomenon this way:
Everything slows down, the ball seems much bigger, and you feel like you have more time to hit it.
If our idea of how time passes was true, we wouldn't need to use a clock so often. Subjective time is good because it can be controlled. At least to some extent. Scientists have discovered that our perception of time is influenced by two main factors: attention and emotional arousal. And here's how you can manipulate them.
Connect to the present
As studies have shown Peter Ulrich Tse. Attention and the subjective expansion of time., when the focus of our attention moves to something new, time seems to slow down for us. Think about situations when you found yourself somewhere you had never been before. Everything in this place was new to you, and most likely you were completely focused on studying the objects around you. Then, when you walked back, it probably seemed to you that time was passing faster.
Obviously, you cannot walk down the same street twice for the first time. But slow down subjective time With the help of attention you can do it differently. To better concentrate on what is happening, you just need to become more aware of it. Scientists have confirmed Aviva Berkovich-Ohana. Temporal cognition changes following mindfulness, but not transcendental meditation practice. that the mindfulness required to learn to be fully present in the present moment slows down subjective time.
On the other hand, if you only do one specific task, time passes very quickly. Neuroscientists have confirmed that the more involved you are in something, the faster time flies. Anthony Chaston, Alan Kingstone. Time estimation: The effect of cortically mediated attention.. For example, on Sunday you finally decided to decorate the children's room or clean up the house, but suddenly you realize that the day has come to an end, and in a few hours you will need to go to work again.
Therefore, in order to slow down or speed up subjectively perceived time, you should control how much attention, in quantitative and qualitative terms, you pay specific object or process.
Engage your emotions
In situations that make you feel strong, make your heart beat faster, you also feel that time is passing slower. Psychologists call this state emotional arousal.
During one experiment Jason Tipples. Facial Emotion Modulates the Neural Mechanisms Responsible for Short Interval Time Perception. researchers showed participants angry or happy faces, which evoked an emotional response in the subjects. Participants confirmed that, according to their subjective feelings, these faces were shown to them longer than emotionless faces. In fact, the time was the same in both the first and second cases.
In addition, during the experiment, brain scans of the subjects showed differences in brain activity in those parts of the brain that are responsible for the subjective perception of time. Perhaps that is why in decisive moments During competitions, athletes feel as if time is slowing down.
Other research Chess Stetson. Does Time Really Slow Down during a Frightening Event . was carried out at a more extreme level. The participants had to experience the condition free fall. The purpose of the experiment was to greatly frighten the participants and monitor their perception of time. As the study showed, time actually slowed down for them (in numerical terms - by 36%). During the flight, the participants did not feel the effect of slow motion, but when they remembered the flight, it seemed to them that it took much longer than it actually was.
This does not mean that you need to go skydiving to slow down subjective time. It's all about emotions.
conclusions
So, to prevent time from passing so quickly, change your activities and try to perceive what is happening more consciously. Mindfulness in general helps us experience and enjoy everything we do. Or from time to time you can give yourself an emotional shake-up. It works equally well both in the positive (pleasant excitement, excitement) and in the negative (anger). You can combine both.
Regarding the common statement that time passes faster when you do something enjoyable, this is actually true. It turns out that the connection between the subjective experience of time and the enjoyment of the activities you engage in at that time is stronger than you might imagine. Scientists have proven Aaron M. Sackett. You're Having Fun When Time Flies. The Hedonic Consequences of Subjective Time Progression. that it works in reverse direction. When we feel that time has passed quickly, we tend to feel that we have spent it well.
Sometimes we want to feel the present better. And sometimes just to have fun. The subjective perception of time is exclusively yours, and you are in charge of it. And that's great.
As we near the end of summer, let's look back at a few last months. Does your long-awaited summer seem to slowly float by in a hot fog? Or have your last few months passed in a flash?
Your answer will depend on your age. If you're young, you'll feel like you've been able to fit six months into the last three. If you're older, your summer has flown by in a flash, much like the rest of the year.
Why does time seem to slow down when you are young and speed up when you get older? You may have heard the theory that this phenomenon is due to the fact that when you are younger, each year includes a larger percentage of your total life expectancy; one year is 1/14 of your life when you are 14 years old, and only 1/40 when you are 40 years old.
It's a fun theory, but there is a real neurological reason that explains how our perception of time changes as we age. And once you understand this, you can become something like a time wizard. Accelerating or slowing down time will become accessible and very understandable.
Live in brain time.
Time has clear units. It can be broken down into minutes, seconds and nanoseconds and measured quite objectively. Even without an external chronometer, our internal clock do an excellent job of tracking time; if we ask you right now what time it is, you will be quite close to the exact answer, of course there are people whose internal clocks are faulty.
Yet time is not always as precise as we feel. Depending on the circumstances, time can contract or expand, speed up or slow down. Dr. David Eagleman, a neuroscientist and pioneering researcher in time perception, calls this phenomenon "brain time," and unlike clocks, it is quite subjective.
Unlike our other senses, such as smell and taste, which are located in specific parts of our brain, our sense of time does not have specific center in our brain. As Eagleman says, time "metasensory" And "is on top of everything else". Because our perception of time is tied to our emotions and memories, the information we receive about how our clocks work is not original. Eagleman explains this by saying that our minds filter information before presenting it to us:
"The brain does great job to edit and present information to us, depending on how fast or slow something is happening. What your brain tells you is not always what it really is. He's trying to present the best, most useful option."
According to Eagleman, time is ultimately "brain function" .
Does "matrix" time exist?
To understand when, how and why your brain edits your perception of time, it helps to first understand what happens to your “brain time” when you are faced with a life-threatening situation. If you've ever had a close call with death, be it a car crash, a gunfight, or falling off a roof, you've probably felt that during those moments, time expands and that everything happens in slow motion, a la The Matrix. And later you remembered everything in detail.
Dr. Eagleman wanted to know whether people's brains slow down their perception of the world during these life-threatening situations, or if something else is happening. So he took a group of participants on one of the world's scariest "fun" rides called SCAD, in which participants went through a free fall from high altitude. Those who have tried this find the experience simply terrible. Eagleman asked participants to look at their wristwatches while freefalling. The watch was electronic and showed even a fraction of a second, which is too fast for the human eye, when normal conditions. If fear slows down our perception of reality, Eagleman reasoned, participants would be able to see the numbers. But as a result, no one was able to do it.
After this experience, Eagleman asked participants to guess how long it took them to fall. Although they were able to accurately guess the timing of others' downfall, when it came to estimating their own, they invariably felt that it lasted 30% longer than it actually did.
Based on these results, Eagleman determined that time does not slow down when we fear for our lives. Instead, fearful situations overload the part of the brain associated with memory and emotion, causing it to write down. large quantity details than usual. Because the brain retains such rich memories of these moments, recalling the experience makes it seem like it lasted longer than it actually did.
Novelty and our sense of time.
Time expands not only during life-threatening situations, but every time we encounter or do something new.
In another of Eagleman's experiments, participants sat in front of a monitor that continuously showed pictures of shoes. After some time, the monotony was interrupted by the image of a flower. Participants believed that the flower was on the screen longer, when in fact it disappeared as quickly as the shoe.
It is possible that the flower lingered because its novelty prompted participants to pay attention to it. more attention. But on the other hand, it is possible that the participants felt that the flower was on the screen longer because the time with the shoe image became compressed. It's a cognitive phenomenon called repetition suppression, where the brain is repeatedly exposed to the same stimuli without having to expend as much time and energy recognizing them. When the brain first encounters something, it uses a large amount cognitive resources to understand this. The novelty of the stimulus encourages the mind to capture more detail, so the first contact seems longer. With each subsequent exposure to the same stimuli, the amount of energy for its identification decreases; the brain finds shortcuts and recognizes stimuli much more efficiently. Thus, the study participants felt that the shoe images remained on the screen for longer. a short time, than in reality, and the appearance of the contrasting flower seemed longer.
“Repetition suppression” also kicks in when we encounter something predictable. The brain knows what will happen and doesn't have to work hard to prepare. For example, when you see "1, 2, 3, 4..." your brain's energy expenditure increases by one, and then decreases significantly as soon as it recognizes the familiar pattern.
But doesn't time fly when we're having fun?
What may be surprising about Eagleman's research is that it seems to contradict the popular principles of "time flies when you're having a good time" and "time drags on forever when you're waiting for something." Do exciting and new events slow down time rather than speed it up?
Dr. Eagleman explains that there are two types of time perception: prospective and retrospective. Anticipatory time is when a moment occurs and your brain is already anticipating what will happen next. When you're busy and there's a lot going on "your brain no longer pays attention to time, you don't check your watch, so time seems to pass quickly". If you've ever worked as a waiter on a crowded night, your mind has been super focused on the customers talking rather than the clock.
The opposite perception of time occurs in situations where there are no stimuli affecting your brain. If you are in a boring meeting or on a long flight, "Your mind is tuned to time because you look at your watch every 10 minutes or so."
As soon as your brain begins to reflect on what you did, you go into retrospective time. If you did something boring and unstimulating, your brain won't record it. large quantity information based on experience, and it will be like an episode of cerebral nothingness in your memory. If you remember that boring meeting or long flight, it registers in your brain as an event.
But when you contemplate a dangerous or new experience, your brain records a lot detailed information. Your brain interprets this fact this way: "It must have taken a long time because I don't usually retain that much detail about events."
Therefore, time really flies when you are having fun, but it stretches out in your memory.
How to become a wizard and slow down or speed up the perception of time?
You've probably already thought about how this research applies to your life, and you finally know the answer to the question we asked at the very beginning: "Why does time slow down when you're young and speed up when you get older?"
When you are young, everything is new – you are constantly learning something new about nature and society. And you regularly do something “for the first time”: the first day of school, the first real work, first serious relationship and so on. With all this newness, your brain regularly records rich, full memories, which stretch your perception of time.
On the contrary, when you are an adult, you have pretty much been through everything. You encounter patterns of similar events in your memory, and your daily events become more routine and predictable. There is no reason for your brain to waste energy recording your boring and predictable morning commute, ceremoniously eating a sandwich at your desk, and watching TV in the evening. “There’s nothing special here,” your brain says, and the recording turns off. So, when you look back on each week, month and year, there are virtually no memories and your life seems to have passed in an instant.
Those who live down to earth boring life, suffer doubly: in their boring daily lives, time seems to drag on endlessly. And when they reflect on their lives, it seems to them that it flashed by instantly!
This cannot be avoided. What is very useful about this study is that it shows us how easily time can be manipulated, how “elastic” it is. You have the power to slow down (or speed up) your perception of time. You can't make your life longer, but you can make it seem so. All you have to do is regularly introduce a little novelty into your life. Think about your last big vacation. At the end of your trip you probably said, “We’ve only been here a week, but it feels like an eternity.” This new adventure has slowed down your perception of time. As we get older, it becomes harder and harder for us to look for new horizons and new “firsts.”
But we don't need to travel globally to stretch out the time. Eagleman says that even very minor changes, which “shake your nerves”, help you achieve your goal. He recommends trying the following:
Change the wrist on which you wear your watch
Rearrange houses
Take different routes to work
Once you change even such simple and familiar things, you find a million ways to change things around you and regain your youthful curiosity and penchant for exploration. Top tip The needle is simple, but incredibly important: constantly learn something new. Just because you don't dream about endless summer anymore doesn't mean there's nothing new and exciting about it anymore.
Depending on which path you take, when the end of your days comes and you look back, you may feel either that you were only 18 years old yesterday and that the subsequent decades have flown by unnoticed; or that you can drown in an endless stream of memories of your adventures, your interesting Everyday life and the wealth of knowledge you have accumulated.
The material was prepared by GusenaLapchataya - based on material from the site
When I was between twenty and thirty, I noticed a certain psychological effect occurring more and more often: a day that felt like three or four months ago was actually a year ago. Or I would remember something I did last year and then realize that what I remembered happened two years ago.
Perception of time
When I was between twenty and thirty, I noticed a certain psychological effect occurring more and more often: a day that felt like three or four months ago was actually a year ago.
Or I would remember something I did last year and then realize that what I remembered happened two years ago.
Almost everyone says that this effect only gets worse - time seems to speed up as you get older, until you die. Presumably, by the time you turn ninety, you will have cooked breakfast, and while you are putting away the dishes, it turns out that it is already lunchtime. Then you decide to read a book for a while and discover that it is already night.
Presumably, this acceleration effect is inevitable because it is inextricably linked to how increasingly shorter the year is compared to your age. For a one year old - whole life, and for a fifty-year-old - only 2% of life. This growing inequality makes it feel like time is running away faster.
This is a popular explanation that I have heard and repeated for years.
But this is pure chatter. It doesn't make any sense when you think about it. The way an hour, a week or a year is perceived in time changes all the time. A wonderful five-day trip to another country tends to feel longer than usual work week. An hour spent reading tragic news can feel like time slows down deadly, while the hour of frantic cleaning before guests arrive runs away like bath water.
Our perception of time is psychological and subjective. There is no reason to assume that it is tied to when we were born. My three-hour flight seemed fast because I somehow kept comparing it to my lifespan? What? Did it seem the same in duration to all 37-year-old passengers? Complete nonsense.
It's true that time seems to pass much faster in adulthood than in childhood, and this seems to be quite universal. To a child, an hour and a half car ride seems painfully long, a week is eventful and completely different from other chapters of life, and a year - the distance between birthdays - is an ocean of time.
So what causes this difference, and why do so many people feel like time is gradually speeding up? It's probably a combination of reasons.
Why the first years seem longer
As we become adults, we tend to take on more commitments over time. We must work, support household and fulfill obligations to others. Children usually don't have time for commitments, or if they do, they don't have to think about them too much - someone tells you when it's time for chores or homework.
Because these commitments are so important, adulthood characterized by thoughts and worries about time. For us, time always seems limited and insufficient, while for children, who are busy tasting life, it is mainly an abstract thing that adults are always talking about. There's nothing we adults think about more than time.- how things are going, how things could have gone, or how they actually went.
Our first years also seem longer because they contain so many firsts- the first thunderstorm, the first swim in the ocean, the first kiss, the first car, the first real job - each of which makes the year in which it happened more meaningful in life, creating a feeling of progress and time well used.
Compare this to the life of a middle-aged adult, who is much more governed by routine and repetition. Day after day, the same tasks are performed, the same roles are played, the same types of entertainment are chosen. In midlife, there are far fewer opportunities to make new friends, you move around much less often, and you rarely try things for the first time.
It's quite normal. As your career and family life stabilize, the years become more and more similar to each other.- except, of course, age itself, which ticks every 365 days, as always. This creates the feeling that every year you “live” less and less and that there are more and more things that you will never find time for.
On top of all this, some scientists also believe that children simply form memories more High Quality- brighter and longer lasting - than adults. The number of certain memory-related receptors in the brain decreases with age, making the early years seem more filled with experience and meaning than recent years.
So don't worry. You are not speeding towards your grave. This is simply the result of adding up the percentages of illusions that tend to occur when we habitually think about time. And there are things we can do to help us see through these illusions again.
Lengthen your years by deepening your days
Adults tend to operate much more on autopilot: performing super familiar tasks family life, while most of their attention is in some past, future or hypothetical moment. As children, we are immersed, quite helplessly, in the experience of the present moment, which creates long, bright days with many touchpoints for memory and evaluation.
Mindfulness begins to shift the balance back, effectively lengthening our lives, deepening our days and years. The more life is loaded with paying attention to the experience of the present moment, the richer time seems.
Ordinary life becomes richer and newer, much like childhood, except you retain all your adult wisdom. Tiny events, like hanging up your coat or getting into your car, can provide a sense of accomplishment and completion because you don't feel like you have to be somewhere else already.
It's possible to fulfill your adult responsibilities by paying attention to the experience itself- work, driving, cleaning, whatever it is. If you practice this, much less of your life will be spent filling the experience of the present moment with obsessive views about what will happen later.
You don't have to think to slow down time . You just have to invest more attention in the experience of the present moment, one way or another.
Here are two simple ways do it:
Create more physical activity which you cannot do absentmindedly: applied arts, sports, gardening, dancing
Spend more time with people you enjoy talking to
Both methods provide memories and rewards and require that a lot of your current attention be directed towards them and not wander off into rumination. A year spent focusing on the things you can't do absentmindedly will be a memorable year that won't fly by unnoticed.
It's only when we think about the future or remember the past that life seems too short, too fast, too uncontrollable. When your attention is invested in the experience of the present moment, there is always enough time. Each experience perfectly matches its moment.published.
based on an article by David Cain
Any questions left - ask them
P.S. And remember, just by changing your consciousness, we are changing the world together! © econet
When I crossed the 30-year mark of my life, I noticed that a certain psychological miscalculation was happening more often: a year had actually passed since a day that seemed to be three or four months ago.
Or, for example, I thought about what I did last year, and then realized that it happened two years ago.
Almost all of us can say that this effect only gets worse - time seems to speed up as you age, until you die. Apparently, by the time you're ninety, you're eating breakfast, and by the time you put the dishes away, it's already midday. Then you read the book for a while, and when you pause to look up, it's already dark.
Supposedly, this accelerating sensation is inevitable because it is inextricably linked to how young one particular year is compared to your age. For a one-year-old baby, a year is a whole life, but for a fifty-year-old it is only 2% of life. This growing discrepancy makes us feel like time is slipping away.
Whatever one may say, this is still a popular explanation - I have heard and repeated it for many years.
But this is nonsense. It doesn't make any sense when you think about it. The sense of duration of an hour, a week or a year is constantly changing. Five days spent in a foreign country feels much longer than a normal work week. An hour spent coping with tragic news can drag by, and an hour of frantic cleaning before guests arrive slips away like a bathtub with an open drain.
Our perception of time is psychological and subjective. There is no reason to assume that this has anything to do with how long ago we were born. Did my three-hour plane ride seem fast because I kept comparing it to my entire life? Was this feeling the same for all 37-year-old passengers? Nonsense.
Time does seem to speed up in adulthood compared to childhood, and this seems to be quite universal. As a child, ninety-minute car rides were excruciatingly long, a week was a rich and varied chapter of life, and a year—the distance between birthdays—an ocean of time.
So what causes this difference, and why do so many people feel like time is gradually speeding up? It seems to be a combination of things.
Why early years seem longer
As we become adults, we tend to take on more time. We need to work, maintain a household, and fulfill obligations to others. Children usually don't have any time commitments, and if they do, they don't have to think about them much - someone tells you when it's time for school or sports.
Because these commitments are important to success, adult life is characterized by thoughts and concerns about time. For us, time always seems to be a limited and scarce resource, whereas for children, who are busy with life, it is mostly an abstract thing.
Our early years also seem longer because they contain so many first impressions - the first thunderstorm, the first encounter with the ocean, the first kiss, the first car, the first real job - each of them makes the year in which it happened more meaningful for the rest of our lives. , creating strong feeling progress and time.
Contrast this with the life of a middle-aged adult, which is characterized by routine and repetition. Day after day we perform the same tasks, play the same roles, we have identical shapes entertainment. In the medium term, you'll likely be making new friends much less often, traveling much less, and trying new things less often.
This is fine. As your career and inner life stabilize, these years begin to resemble each other more and more, except, of course, current year, which ticks every 365 days exactly the same as always. This creates the feeling that every year there are fewer and fewer “live” events.
In addition to all this, some scientists also say that children have the ability to form better memories - sharper and longer lasting ones - than adults. Some memory-related receptors in the brain work less well as we age, making early years feel much more rich in experience and meaning than recent years.
So don't worry. You are not speeding towards your grave. It's just a series of illusions that tend to happen when we normally think about time. And there are things that can help us dispel these illusions
Lengthening our years by deepening our days
Recently, on a friend's birthday, we had the usual conversation that, when you're 30-somethings, is a common unmemorable affair. I think I said I couldn't believe I'd been living in my current neighborhood for a year.
But when I thought about it later, it seems that this was not the case. I just said so. Last year really felt like a year.
In fact, I would have said the same thing last year, which points to the main reason time has slowed down for me: meditation. Over the past two years, I have deepened my meditation practice significantly. Much more of my life is spent on currently, and much less is spent on designing, analyzing, rehearsing and experiencing things in my head.
This reinvestment of attention into the present moment actually causes time to slow down, and provides a powerful clue to what is causing it to speed up.
Adults tend to operate much more on autopilot: performing over-the-top tasks inner life, while most of their attention is on some past, future, or hypothetical moment. If we, like children, immerse ourselves in the present moment, this creates for us long, vivid days, with many more accurate moments of memory and evaluation.
Mindfulness, one of the qualities developed in meditation, begins to shift the balance back, effectively lengthening our lives, deepening our days and years. How more life weighed against the presence of the present moment, the more time we have.
Ordinary life becomes increasingly rich and romantic, like childhood, except you retain all your adult wisdom. Tiny experiences, like a new coat or a new car, can feel like full experiences in themselves because you don't feel like you need to be anywhere else.
You can fulfill your obligations with all your attention and experience - working, driving, cleaning, whatever it is. If you practice this, much less of your life will be spent compulsively thinking about what happens later.
I am always wary of promoting mediation - you are probably either already practicing it, or have definitely abandoned this practice.
But you don't have to meditate to slow down time. You just need to pay more attention to the current experience.
Two easy ways to do this:
Do more physical exercise things you can't do automatically: arts and crafts, sports, gardening, dancing
Spend more time with the people you like
Both practices are memorable and rewarding, and require too much attention for your mind to slip into automaticity. A year spent focusing on what you can't do absent-mindedly is a long, memorable year that cannot go unnoticed.
It's only when we worry about the future or remember the past that life seems too short, too fast, too uncontrollable. When your attention is focused on the present moment, there is always enough time. Every experience fits perfectly into it.
Just make it a motto: chop wood, carry water, communicate with friends.
The older the person, the faster for him time goes by. According to psychologists, there is no mysticism here. It’s just that in the life of an adult there is most often no place for bright moments. Workdays fly by gray and dull. But for a child, every day is a discovery. During 12 hours of wakefulness, a lot of interesting things happen to him. Moreover, the situations are so impressive for the child’s psyche that every event of the day is remembered as a bright spot. This is why it seems to people that minutes passed much slower in childhood, and of course, as a child, a person had no questions about how to slow down time.
How can you slow down time?
Once adulthood hits us, time becomes less kind. But changing his perception is actually a completely controlled process and is within the power of each of us. Here are a few practical advice how to slow down the perception of time:
- Create a stressful situation for yourself. It is in seconds of danger that many people notice time slowing down. In fact scientific experiments proved that technically the minutes do not change in any way during force majeure. But brain function increases sharply: stressful situation the instinct of self-preservation forces us Gray matter work for survival, look for ways to escape. In one minute, the brain produces and analyzes much more information than in a calm environment. Increased brain activity creates the effect of slowing down time. In addition, in moments of stress, one of the brain regions, the amygdala, is activated. He collects impressions created in a life-threatening situation. Such detailed memory further enhances the effect of slower time perception.
- Fill life bright events. Experiment, try something that has never been done before, and so on. In other words, psychologically begin to live the life of a child.
- Before going to bed, try to reproduce the events of the past day - from its beginning to its end. Even if it seemed quite ordinary, you will be surprised how much is accomplished in just 12 hours. Try to feel this time in every second of it. By doing the exercise regularly, you will notice that throughout the day you will begin to attach importance to those events that previously seemed unnoticeable. You will begin to feel your time, to live full time, and not as a gray projection of it. Such exercises make some people think about the meaning own life– what precious minutes are spent on and whether the events lived and the actions taken are worth these seconds.
- Fulfill special exercises, helping to understand how to slow down the perception of time: our goal is to learn to concentrate our attention and throw extraneous thoughts out of our heads. To do this, sit comfortably in a chair or on the sofa. Look around, what surrounds you? If a person is sitting next to you, now try to study him thoroughly: catch the rate of breathing, the slightest changes in facial expressions and gestures. Take a deep breath and hold your breath slightly. You should try to feel every second of time passing. This effect will be enhanced if you start counting down the seconds. The minute will begin to drag on. Try to capture this feeling for yourself, to feel the passage of time. Now restore your breathing and mentally return to the state of concentration in the seconds of lack of air. It may not work the first time, but with regular training the effect is guaranteed.
These few tips will help you learn to control your time. Now you can use time to your advantage, getting everything done and not forgetting anything.