Braking the wheel of time!

Time, according to Hawking’s explanation is relative to speed & distance. Which is why its genesis is directly connected to the point of existence of all three together. Thus, tracing it’s origin to the Big Bang. However, the passage of time from the ‘Big Bang to the Black Holes’ as metaphysical as it is, would be quite perplexing for the layman to understand. Unless you want to go through the extramundane laws of physics, lets stick to the real-world where time is just a little more than what we know from our glance at the watch or a clock.

Time would appear both as boon & a bane. It is what ages you to grey and weak. But on another note, it is also that heals you from the bitterness and sorrows in life. Your present moment and your immediate future is the time-space on which you plan how to craft your future self. Time already transcended are irreversible under any circumstance. It is the ultimate element that perishes and is never-renewable.

We surely remember how protracted each calendar year was for us during our school days. Dr. Kesari, MD, PhD neurologist & neuroscientist says-

“For a 10-year-old, one year is 10 percent of their lives. For a 60-year-old, one year is less than 2 percent of their lives.”

This perception of children to experience time to move slowly than adults, is due to their novelty in experiences and the neurological factors associated with it. According to neuroscientist Dr. Patricia Costello, children’s neural transmission is in effect physically slower compared to adults. This in turn affects how they perceive the passage of time. On another angle, children have so much new to learn, explore and experience. Each day in their life, they have activities and exciting affairs that has a freshness at some point slowing their pace of time.

Now it might seem a bit ironic that children would feel that they had only a little time for their exciting ventures but later on, has an impression that those times lasted longer. This, is due to the Vacation paradox, a.k.a. the Holiday paradox, coined by the psychology writer Claudia Hammond in her book “Time Warped: Unlocking the Mysteries of Time Perception.” Perhaps, a topic to discuss for a later time.

As the children & teenagers advance to the mid-20’s, getting into a job and starting to take on serious responsibilities, the pace of time would (sarcastically) be like throwing the clock right through the window and see how time flew.

For me (in my late 20’s), I noticed that the busier I got, faster the time elapsed. When I tried to watch over the saucepan boiling the egg for my breakfast for about 11 minutes, each minute seemed like an age. However, when I multi-tasked by simultaneously cutting some veggies, preparing sandwich, making coffee, and by the time I was washing the dishes- alas! The egg had overboiled. I didn’t know it had already been 14 minutes.

So, what had changed here?

When you focus on time itself, each tick would take its pace. And when you get involved, the pace seems to be moving faster. Now we know that the pace of time is constant in both scenarios. For what I believe, it was the involvement in newer activities that got me ‘forget’ the passage of time, which in turn ‘increased’ its pace.

As you get deeper into the corporate world, working your life away, an hour would seem like ten minutes and ten minutes whooshes even before you know it. Such a hectic schedule of work for 12 hours a day, 6 days a week left me exhausted for every 7th day, leaving me no option but to limit myself to unproductive screen-time on bed for the weekend. Things changed drastically when I decided that I needed more time. Time to enjoy time itself.

The change brought in new challenges & experiences. By the time my neural circuits comprehend the pattern of my daily routine to accelerate the passage of time, I will be having newer projects and challenges. In fact, I already have them lined up.

If the world is moving too fast for you, take a break. A time-off to introspect whether your routine from waking up to falling asleep have been monotonous off late. If so, pull yourself out. You’ll be too old before you take your next break. Challenge yourself with a new pattern. Ask your manager for a change in your current assigned works. Look out for lateral opportunities in the same organization. Or even better, put down the paper and move out to a different one. Life is too short to waste away living a machine’s drill.

Focus on the moments. Memories of the moments will soon fade away. But the best moments will have a lasting impression on your future self. We obviously don’t expect to have a smile on our face thinking about the overtime hours we spent at the office. How bizarre would that be. But even the slightest memory of the beach, the vacation in Maldives, the road trip across Europe or even the milestones in raising your baby– Imagine that.

Time is of the essence. Each word you read in this article, is time over and done with. Nevertheless, I presume you all are now enlightened enough to make that essential change in life to make your forthcoming precious time worthwhile.

#smile_n_twinkle

#FaStories