Monday, November 24, 2008

It's About Time

If you're looking for a fancy Christmas gift, how about this $6,400,000 hour glass? The sand is crushed diamonds. For collectors of the obvious metaphor? Yes, time is indeed precious.

In blogging time (similar to dog years) about 4 years has passed since my last post. For me, it seems like only about 3 days and I'm not surprised by my perception of time. My sense of time is like Cro-Magnon Man, there is DAY... and there is NIGHT. Obviously, I'm no slave to schedules. Maybe I should be a little more aware of the passing of time though.

How do you go about slowing your perception of time to make the most of it? Time seems to speed up as you age. There is proof of this. Physicist Michio Kaku in his documentary series Time, approached people on the streets of Manhattan asking them to tell him when they thought a minute had gone by. They younger people finished counting before an actual minute had expired, the older people after a minute. There may be a biological reason for this or it may be because as you age life becomes routine and more predictable. New experiences that engage your brain and seem to put you in the 'moment' stretching your perception of time, are less frequent.

I experienced this recently while taking a tai chi class. I'm completely out of shape and needed something more than my occasional walks to get me into an exercise routine. Tai chi sounded enjoyable and well...easy. And when I discovered my instructor was insane and hung out with Kerouac and Ginsberg in the 60's writing beat poetry? I thought, "my god, the universe is so kind to me! How did it know?!" My western mindset is also attracted (a little shamefully) to the idea that since tai chi is a slowed down form of martial arts, if you speed it up, you could really beat the crap out of someone (in self defense of course). The class was good for a while. But then my instructor turned out to be perfectly sane and tai chi is just so, so sloooow. Moving at a snails pace and having complete awareness of every tiny gesture made the class seem like 4 (boring) hours instead of one. Had I enjoyed it, the sense of expanded time would have been wonderful.

Another way to slow down your sense of time is to have adrenaline pumping, life threatening experiences. People who've been in a car crash or even a near crash, experience the event as longer than it was, being hyper aware of all the details surrounding the event. A study was done where volunteers free fell from a drop of 150 ft into a net. They estimated the length of the fall double than it's actual time.

So how does this apply to me or you? Personally I'm no thrill seeker so flinging myself off a plane or a cliff so I can feel like I've lived longer doesn't appeal to me. I'll think I'll just copy children. I'm guessing partially the reason why kids perception of time is lengthened because they bring all their senses to an experience. They're so much more physical than adults. My kids bounce or hum when they're at the kitchen table for dinner. They have a need to touch everything at the store. They're in the moment because everything is a sensory experience. Adults live partially in memory and often with a distracted mind. Our senses diminish with age, no doubt naturally and maybe a little from lack of engagement. Using your senses in the moment really expands time. I'm going to commit myself to really bringing my senses to my daily experience, because even in the simplest things, look what a wondrous world unfolds when time slows down...

5 comments:

andrea said...

I havenb't got the time to watch that! :)

I have heard that it's all a matter of viewing time as it relates to proportion. When you're 5, a week is a huge portion of your life. When you're 95 it's nada. And that's how our brain perceives it.

Ellen said...

Andrea - yes, one of the articles I linked to talked about proportion as well. I imagine it's a myriad of different reasons. And the video is less than 2 minutes long! Hey but thanks for even reading through my ramblings. I think you're right, people don't like reading, pictures, more pictures!

dinahmow said...

Speaking as a support teacher who has just left a class of 9year olds who can't or wont read unless the words are short, the sentences short and the "pichers" big and colourful...I have to wonder how they will perceive time when they get to High School.
I'll check out those links later.Right now I ...wait for it...don't have time!

Caroline said...

I've read that you can use hypnosis to alter your sense of the rate at which time goes by.

I've not tried that but certainly meditating can alter it. You just have to find the time to meditate in the first place...

Oh the word veri says: nizedorg

which reminds me I meant to mention a synchronicity that happened - the day your artwork turned up so did a late birthday card - that card featured a dog, a labrador - so when you offered a choice of images one with a dog and one without and I choose the rainy one - I got a dog image to go with it in any case!

Ellen said...

Dinah: I had no idea so much TIME had passed since your comments. Shame on me.

I wonder for this generation if time perception is different, being raised in an age of instantaneous information and lightning quick images in film and television/video. Time (HA! the pun opportunities are endless)will tell...

Caroline: I love those synchronicities! Yes, meditation makes time stand still, and you're right, it's a matter of finding the time! Slowing down requires mental discipline these days.