Time flies – and how to slow it down again

I said in one of my last blog posts (this one) that despite what you heard, times does, indeed, NOT fly.

Ah, I can almost hear the shocked gasp in front of the computer screen!

 

Time flies
Why time doesn’t fly

 

How dare I, right now, at one of the peak points of “Where is the year gone” posts, sit here and state the opposite?

The other peak points are shortly after Christmas and on March 1st, just in case you hadn´t noticed before.

It seems to be a rite of passage in becoming an adult to sigh and mourn your lost youth, when summers seemed to last forever and a fortnight felt like an eternity.

Time flies, we will tell each other, nodding our heads. Time flies.

Well, it doesn’t. It is just your mind playing tricks on you.

See, our brains like routine. And who can fault them? With so many information they need to process every day, they relax at the sight of repetition.

Because doing things repeatedly means that a part of your brain can switch off. Or turn to other things, like worrying about What Suzie Said or if these white trousers were really a smart choice.

 

Time flies
The repetitive movement in the sea is soothing, I agree

 

Now switching off isn’t a bad thing, it is in fact a necessity. But the side effect if your brain doesn’t need to focus on the task ahead is that the task you are doing kind of melts into the time you did it yesterday and will do it tomorrow.

This period of time just gets forgotten, playing no part in your personal story. It is like it never existed.

It feels like it never existed.

It feels as if time just flew by.

Now compare your days now to the days of your childhood. See how much more repetitive they have become?

Same cereal, same morning commute, same job, same late night tv show.

How could that compare to the Summers of Firsts?

First kiss, first night spend at a friend, first visit to the public pool without parents? First time buying fries on your own, first time discovering Young Adult Novels, first heartbreak?

Your brain was there! It was new, and exciting, and really, really scary, it couldn’t just switch off and think about Suzie. Or taxes.

Sadly just switching your lipstick every day won’t bring back that feeling (believe me, I’ve tried), but once you’ll start introducing new and scary things again, time will slow down. Learn something new, travel, just challenge yourself every once in a while.

And the next time people around you nod their heads and reassure each other that time flies, just smile.

Smile and enjoy your endless summer nights.

 

Why time passes
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