Where or where does the time go?

"We do not remember days, we remember moments." - Cesare Pavese

Sometimes it seems like our days just slip away, and months quickly disappear. But what if we could stop time? What if we could do what we really want and what would stay in our memories for a long time? And what if we told you that this is not so impossible? And that stories from our parents about how time passes faster with years may not necessarily be true? When we were children, time went by slowly. When we were in high school, it sped up a bit. When people get their first job, they often talk about how the last decade of their lives has just flown by. What happened?

Our brains are very interesting because they tend to work by the path of least resistance. They like to create patterns for us, which we call habits. When we first drove a car in driving school, that hour could be quite stressful and exhausting. Where is the clutch? How do I go forward? Is the handbrake light on? Is someone behind me? What does the speedometer say? Our brains are then taking in a lot of information or, in other words, we are learning something new. When we pass the exam successfully and drive for the next year or two, everything becomes automatic. We no longer think about clutches, brakes, or anything else. Our brains have ensured that all this happens in the background, and sometimes we arrive at a place an hour away and barely remember the road there. This is a great advantage because otherwise, we would have to monitor so many different factors during driving that each hour of driving would be very exhausting. This is just one example that is well-known to most people, but our brains create habits for everything that appears repeatedly in our lives. We tie our shoes on autopilot, cook lunch, brush our teeth, hold a spoon, and so on. So, remember your first driving lesson and how long it seemed? Have you noticed that now an hour of driving passes by in a flash? This eventually happens with everything we do daily and is essential so that we can adapt very well to our environment and not need a lot of energy every day just to go through our morning routine.

The problem arises because we only fall into the habits we have and never do anything new. We watch TV, drive cars, go to work, and not much new happens. If we return to the driving example - time extends when we learn something new. That's why our childhood years seem infinitely long because everything is brand new. We learn to speak, write, do math, ride a bike, see the sea for the first time. Everything is new. That's why time seems to go very slowly for us. The older we are, the fewer new experiences we have. And even our brains really want to stay in this bubble where they use little energy to get through the day. Unfortunately, this is precisely why our days just fly by. So we have to make an effort to keep learning new things and creating new experiences, even though learning something new can be exhausting. Let's take a walk with our loved ones on a new path we have never taken before, visit a museum, join a dance group or a yoga class, sign up for an English course, pick up a book in a genre we've never read before, teach our faithful companion a new trick, buy some seeds and start gardening. It can be anything, as long as it is something new and special to you.

So, how will you extend your day today?