Time is a very strange creature. I have thought a lot about time lately and how it can seem to move at different speeds for different people or at different times of the day or even depending on your mood. This is something that most people are aware of. Think for example of how slowly time feels to move at work and how quickly it moves when you are at a movie.
Also, as we grow older time seems to go by faster and faster. An article in Psychology Today suggests that one reason for that is because we tend to get busier the older we get and then we have less time to enjoy the novelty of our surroundings. Or perhaps we don’t even give ourselves enough time to have novel experiences.
In my own observations, I have noticed that time seems to flow more slowly and more naturally when I spend a good portion of the day outside. A day spent laying out in the sun, reading, writing or doing whatever, seemed to last much longer and be much more fulfilling than a day spent doing the same thing, but inside all the time. At the end of the day, the day spent inside also felt much more like a waste, whereas the day spend outside seemed worthwhile and important.
Perhaps subtleties such as natural colors and natural light can affect our perception of time. Or maybe it’s just the fact that our busy lives and our endless priorities don’t seem to matter so much when you’re outside in glorious nature.
To be honest, I don’t really know why people perceive time they way they do, but I can give you this one bit of advice:
Take a hike! Get outside and take a walk. Go into nature or at least the biggest patch of grass in your city. Lay out in the sun, even if you don’t think you have time. The worst feeling in the world is getting trapped in an endless schedule when the quiet, relaxing, real world is right there.
Take a little siesta outside and make your day feel a little bit more rewarding.
