“Ain’t it funny how time slips away”; or how to slow down time and make the most of what you’ve got

Image by annca from Pixabay

“Ain’t it funny how time slips away” is not only a line from a Willie Nelson song but it’s one of those clichés about how time seems to speed up as we get older. How cruel — that when we retire and want to enjoy the time we have left, it seems to slip away even more quickly than it did when we were young.

To put time in perspective, we live for about — assuming a ripe old age of 80 — four thousand weeks. I just turned 71, which means I’ve lived for 3,692 weeks. I’m now talking of having hundreds, not thousands of weeks left! And long gone is the youthful notion that I would live forever.

Of course, time doesn’t really speed up but our perception of time does. According to research, there are psychological and physiological reasons for that. We tend to fall into more predictable routines and patterns as we age. When our daily lives become more familiar and repetitive, our brain processes this information more efficiently, leading to a sense of time passing quickly because our days seem to blend together.

The antidote to routine — and perhaps to slowing down time — would be to try out new experiences. Shake up your routine. Wake up at different times. If you’re a night owl, try going to bed earlier and waking earlier. Learn new…