Why Time Feels Faster Every Year - And How Japan Helped Me Slow It Down
Manage episode 509157000 series 3555005
Let’s explore how travel, memory, and presence can help us reclaim a slower sense of time:
Have you noticed that time seems to move faster with each passing year? What if we could slow it back down?
In this episode, we explore the psychology of time perception - and how it shifts as we age, as we travel, and as we live through global disruptions like the pandemic. Drawing on my recent travels through Japan, I share moments of awe, stillness, and unexpected chaos (including a story involving a Tokyo train!) - and reflect on what a Zen monk in Kyoto taught me about presence.
We’ll explore why novel experiences stretch time, how technology may compress it, and what we can do to reclaim a more expansive, mindful relationship with the passing of days.
Chapters:
00:00:00 Main material
00:14:08 Bonus content
00:25:22 What’s next
Video version of the episode (without podcast bonus content but it does have videos and photos from our trip as visuals!) https://youtu.be/Rg-hQ3jtcAo
Podcast episode on technology referenced at the end: https://www.buzzsprout.com/2318937/episodes/17789635
Resources / citations:
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-does-time-seem-to-speed-up-with-age/
Video referenced on Ghost time by Wobbleverse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZi0fUocGyo
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/out-of-the-darkness/202409/why-does-time-seem-to-speed-up-as-we-get-older
Not mentioned but processing speed and routes information takes as we get older may be another factor: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7571507/
Dacher Keltner is the professor referenced who studies awe
Fact checked and yes there are dining in the dark experiences
Chapters
1. Main material (00:00:00)
2. Bonus content (00:14:08)
3. What's next (00:25:22)
22 episodes