How to learn to slow down and speed up time, neurocoaching instruction

neurocoach

As a child, time seems endless. In a year, it seems like an eternity passes. As we get older, everything starts to accelerate rapidly as our perception of time changes. And this is one of the most striking features of our psyche.

The law of relativity is at work here. So, an exhausting workday can stretch like viscous molasses. But a month flies by in an instant, and all the events in it are reduced to a few frames. That’s how the brain works. It, like a brilliant scriptwriter, can speed up and slow down the passage of time depending on the internal mental processes of a person.

Why does time speed up with age?

It’s all about the daily routine that fills our lives. When we are young, we are active, meet friends, fall in love, travel, study. Impressions remain in the memory as vivid imprints and this gives a sense of duration in time.

Then comes work and family. Then comes routine and the monotonous actions we perform every day. The brain combines all the repetitive rituals into one continuous memory. The result is a single gray frame. It feels as if time has been compressed.

You could say that routine shortens our memory. If nothing significant has happened for a certain period, the brain will not be able to record anything on its server, and time will subjectively shrink. Hence the feeling that a year is like a week and a month is like a day. For example, if you take the subway to work all the time, your brain will turn a hundred trips into a single memory.

This function of the brain manifested itself vividly in the pandemic. All days became exactly the same as people were in the same place, with no entertainment or colorful experiences. After long periods of isolation, many people left home and found that more than a year had passed and they hadn’t even noticed it.

So how do you escape this gray monotony? I suggest introducing new activities into your life.

How to give yourself more time?

1. change your daily routine

Break your workday into fragments and try to insert new actions into them. For example, take a lunchtime walk in the park, explore an unfamiliar part of the neighborhood, or meet a friend for a cup of coffee in the middle of the day. Go to yoga in the morning if you don’t usually do it. Listen to a new artist or podcast every day.

Think about what might make your whole day a little different and take away the “Groundhog Day” syndrome. Attend interesting events after work, learn a language, master a musical instrument, try new foods and flavors.

2- Take a trip

In an unfamiliar place, time stretches especially long. In one day, it’s as if we are living several, as the brain receives a huge amount of new signals and information. Even if you spend a weekend away from home, it feels like several times as much time has passed. When you are in your apartment, there is nothing going on for the brain and there will be no recording of a new day either. For a couple of days spent in a new place, there will be a lot of impressions on the “servers”, which will then pop up with vivid memories.

3. Break down goals into milestones and celebrate what you’ve done

Sometimes achieving a big goal seems like an endless monotonous process. But if you break it down into a series of smaller tasks, it becomes more real, your inner speed and sense of time accelerates. Even if the steps seem tiny, completing them will make the distance to your goal more accessible.

Make a to-do list, include your smallest goals. Reach them and cross them off the list. Your brain will see this as forward motion. And you’ll want to keep going.

4. Meditate, do yoga

Being present in the present moment slows down time. Techniques such as mindfulness and focusing on the breath help to control it. There is no organ of time perception in the body itself. We experience it through the passage of our bodily states. When one focuses on oneself and the internal processes of the body, time expands.

Among other things, meditation and yoga help relieve stress and anxiety.

5. Keep a diary or blog

The brain can’t record all the repetitive monotonous memories, but a diary can. If you write down your thoughts, feelings, and events that happened throughout the day, you’ll save those memories before your brain packs them into one gray frame. And then when you reread them, it will help you remember lost time or hotel nuances.

Also, keeping a journal is a great way to strengthen your narrative memory and learn self-reflection.

6. Take photos

Taking photos will retain memories even after your brain has recycled them. That said, it is important not to overdo it and take too many pictures. An active fascination with photography can distort the real feeling of the event. It will no longer be a memory through your eyes, but through the prism of the camera, where the accents are slightly shifted and a special angle is chosen.