I never knew how other people would have memories, everyone I spoke to about their memories were very clear, they didn’t remember a lot of things. Especially being young. I remember leaving the hospital, where my mother laid me in the car, the temperature in and out of the car. I know it was dark outside. That is my first memory. I would really love to stash some of mine, I remember too much. I’m 65 now. I keep a headache…
I’m 68 and I have noticed that time definitely seems to move faster now. I will definitely take your advice to slow down, look around, appreciate, and be present to sense and feel, taste, see and hear as much as I can.
"Split attention means lost time." @drdominicng explains that memories are what makes time move faster or slower. When we are not attentive we lose the moment, it doesn't get recorded, so time seems to move faster.
This is one of the biggest lessons we can learn from children. When you spend time with a child you have to slow down to their pace, pay attention to things you have seen a million times before, but now with fresh awe and wonder.
Poetry for me is a way of paying attention so that life does not slip away unnoticed.
Thank you for this brilliant article. I've been thinking about this lately, now that I'm 50. I've been wondering if time slows again as we age, or slows differently when we are no longer in the age of doing.
Time does not run faster as we age; it simply finds fewer places to land. The hours disappear when days become copies of one another, smooth and forgettable. A child lives inside wonder, so even silence becomes an event worth remembering. Perhaps the secret is that life never lost its depth—we only stopped noticing the edges. Attention is a gatekeeper: what it welcomes becomes memory, and what it ignores becomes vanished years. To slow time, you do not need more days, only deeper presence within the ones already given. The clock was never the thief; distraction was.
Would you recommend anything different for people who struggle with baseline adhd, depression, anxiety? Those things limit focus and attention and impact emotional experience, as well as the desire/energy to engage.
I never knew how other people would have memories, everyone I spoke to about their memories were very clear, they didn’t remember a lot of things. Especially being young. I remember leaving the hospital, where my mother laid me in the car, the temperature in and out of the car. I know it was dark outside. That is my first memory. I would really love to stash some of mine, I remember too much. I’m 65 now. I keep a headache…
Wow those are early vivid memories! Do you have hyperthemesia?
What is that?
Life moves so fast, so from today I choose to enjoy every single minute.
Feeling grateful as I sit on my sofa with a warm coffee at 6:30am, watching the morning begin and waiting for the hottest day in London this year.
A beautiful reminder to slow down, breathe, and appreciate the little moments 😀
I’m 68 and I have noticed that time definitely seems to move faster now. I will definitely take your advice to slow down, look around, appreciate, and be present to sense and feel, taste, see and hear as much as I can.
The reminiscence bump !!!!!!
"Split attention means lost time." @drdominicng explains that memories are what makes time move faster or slower. When we are not attentive we lose the moment, it doesn't get recorded, so time seems to move faster.
This is one of the biggest lessons we can learn from children. When you spend time with a child you have to slow down to their pace, pay attention to things you have seen a million times before, but now with fresh awe and wonder.
Poetry for me is a way of paying attention so that life does not slip away unnoticed.
https://drjonathanewilson.substack.com/p/recovering-poetry?utm_campaign=post-expanded-share&utm_medium=web
What changes isn’t time.
It’s how much of it you actually encode.
When you’re young, everything is novel—your brain is in a constant state of updating, so time feels dense.
As you get older, patterns stabilize. Less novelty, fewer updates, less “recorded experience.”
Time doesn’t speed up.
Your brain just compresses it.
Great article and it's really helpful especially during recent times when attention has become a commodity.
Thank you for this brilliant article. I've been thinking about this lately, now that I'm 50. I've been wondering if time slows again as we age, or slows differently when we are no longer in the age of doing.
I was going to charge in and say "because as adults we live the same day over and over again" but you beat me to it with your first point.
I think the moment people's lives become super routine, predictable, with zero novelty, everything goes into fast mode.
Wonderful how being curious makes the ordinary feel infinite again.
The last line hits me so hard to the realization that we’re not kids anymore
This actually makes so much sense. Thank you for sharing! I hope to apply these soon.
I wrote a song about this exact thing! https://open.spotify.com/track/0WVASOIvTGDNeDO2Nxe7Sf?si=9385f7eb3b4e415b
Time does not run faster as we age; it simply finds fewer places to land. The hours disappear when days become copies of one another, smooth and forgettable. A child lives inside wonder, so even silence becomes an event worth remembering. Perhaps the secret is that life never lost its depth—we only stopped noticing the edges. Attention is a gatekeeper: what it welcomes becomes memory, and what it ignores becomes vanished years. To slow time, you do not need more days, only deeper presence within the ones already given. The clock was never the thief; distraction was.
Would you recommend anything different for people who struggle with baseline adhd, depression, anxiety? Those things limit focus and attention and impact emotional experience, as well as the desire/energy to engage.
Heyy!! Great article . Would be glad if you check out mine too. https://richamaurya.substack.com/p/time-and-potential?r=6l84ui&utm_medium=ios