Pump the brakes.
Has anyone figured out how to slow down time?
I’ll turn a year older in about a month. After 25, the panic has lessened with each approaching birthday surprisingly. My trick is to start seeing myself as the age I’m about to turn months before I actually turn it. I’ve learned to give less and less weight to the number and try to give more attention to the growth the year has brought me and where I want to grow next.
This TED Talk from Jedidiah Jenkins resurfaced in my memory today. The jist of it is that we can slow down our perception of time by interrupting our routine, pushing ourselves outside of our comfort zone often, and working to make the way we live our lives dynamic and memory-rich.
He tells a story of how at age 30 he rode his bike 10,000 miles to places he’d never been, saw things he never knew existed, and had a fully immersive experience for 16 months. He says those months felt like an entire lifetime of discovery. It was scary, it was out-of-the-ordinary, and the lasting effect was that he had not necessarily slowed down time, but those months felt deeply vibrant and therefore his perception of the year that had passed felt stretched.
It makes sense.
When we’re intaking new information—by accident or by intention—our brains are activated. We’re inviting the range of emotions that that information or those experiences elicit. We’re living fully as opposed to a routine that may feel safe and may be par for the course so we can hold down a job to pay our bills, and therefore, the days come and go. They are forgettable so our brains literally forget them.
Whole days! Sun up, sun down. As we’re stacking up forgettable days, clocking in and clocking out, we’re growing older nonetheless.
Interrupting routine doesn’t have to look like taking a year off to ride a bicycle to South America like Jenkins.
It can look like:
Asking out your crush
Trying a new food
Going on a weekend getaway
Investing in an experience
Wearing a color you don’t normally wear
Hosting a party
Engaging loved ones in a way that’s out-of-the-ordinary
Going to a karaoke bar with some friends
Signing up for an open mic night
Cooking a new recipe
I need this reminder just as much as the next person. Routine puts its cozy blanket around me and lulls me to apathy and living in autopilot constantly.
Safe isn’t always better.
I remember this quote that’s undertone is very “live, laugh, love-esque,” but it rings true regardless:
“Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.”