I had a thought today as I looked at my calendar thru the end of the year, and was filling in one thing after another, that time was just speeding by. It's mid September, yet it feels like it's going to be January in a blink of an eye. It's not like that for Romeo. He's 10, and each day seems to last forever, and when he has to wait for something (like Christmas), a month feels like it might as well be a year. I remember days feeling like forever when I was little too. The sensation that summer was a lifetime of time, a weekend stretched on forever.

So it made me wonder, what is it about getting older that makes time feel like it goes faster? Is it that we are busier? Is it that everything is no longer "new"? I decided to do a little digging, because I'm not down with this warp speed time thing.  Here's what I found out. In a Harvard University article , scientists postulate that in fact time DOES speed up as you age. "...Bejan posits that slower processing times result in us perceiving fewer ‘frames-per-second’ – more actual time passes between the perception of each new mental image. This is what leads to time passing more rapidly.When we are young, each second of actual time is packed with many more mental images. Like a slow-motion camera that captures thousands of images per second, time appears to pass more slowly." Basically, we process things slower, whereas when we were little our brains were working at lightening speed.

As if I didn't need more evidence that I've officially crossed the 50 year old mark, now there is a scientific reason behind why my days feel like minutes, and it's that my brain is working slower.  Not even sure how to wrap my brain around that, it's taking me too long AND I'm getting too depressed.

So is there hope? I googled that question too. Apparently meditation and mindfulness is the key. Breathing techniques help, focusing on little things helps too. The other advice was to expose yourself to as many NEW things and experiences as possible. This makes a lot of sense to me, because one thing I know is that as you get older your days can take on a very structured, regulated and monotonous tone. You pick the kids up at the same time, you do the house chores the same way, you eat the same foods. Basically you have your ruts and you stick to them.  

So here's to getting out of ruts, doing new things, being mindful, and slowing down so that we can hold onto time, and literally make it slow down.

Signed, ME {lv}