3 ms·

I think mediation and gratefulness is a good way around this too. If your take explicit time to recognize and examine the world around you, even in your backya

by dartos 3y ago

I think mediation and gratefulness is a good way around this too. If your take explicit time to recognize and examine the world around you, even in your backyard, time seems to stretch and you notice and retain more. I’m lucky enough to have lots of different colored birds show up in my backyard, so sometimes I sit out there and wait for them. It’s not exciting, but every time I see one it’s a new memory and those new memories make time feel more.

bwestergard 3y ago
If you're not already aware, Cornell offers a bunch if resources to enhance your birding experience. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/
- radlad 3y ago
  I love Cornell's Merlin app for sound-based identification of birds.
- dartos 3y ago
  I know literally nothing about birds lol. There are just some pretty ones around me.
alsetmusic 3y ago
I heard someone on a podcast talk about the compression of new experiences during the pan / lockdown as a reason why time became meaningless. That seemed right, to me. I can hardly believe that it's been almost four years since that started. > If you have a stable job, you can pretty much mentally time travel a full year and find your days to be similar. > But if I ask you to imagine doing a PhD in Sanskrit at a foreign university, you would have no idea what your days are going to look like. This also feels right, to me. But also, I spent nine months learning new languages to try to build a service to launch with a friend and that didn't turn into a long memory of effort. In fact, I recall it as sandwiched. It was a blip. I think the real key is new experiences, not the aspect of study. Maybe that's the foreign university aspect: what happens when you aren't at study. The people you meet, the places you go, etc.
avgcorrection 3y ago
Around this? Assuming that it’s something that needs to be gotten around.
AltruisticGapHN 3y ago
Completely non scientific theory, although inspired by McGilchrist's "The Divided Brain" I'd wager that as we age the left hemisphere takes more and more of our awareness as we map the world internally and we tend to live more and more from "what is already known" as opposed to present experience. I too have hundreds of hours of meditation and I remember the feeling of time was very much affected. One night I remember out of sheer stubborness I sat for 5+ hours and I always remember the next week felt like it was a month. It doesn't have to do with having "new" experiences, or new memories, or doing anything "interesting". It has to do with how we attend to the world. And as Gilchrist pointed out this is being worsened as the devices we use day to day like smartphones, which aren't inherently bad, tend to stimulate mostly the left hemisphere unless you just listen to music. All the time you're going after buttons, notifications, looking at the icons, you're just continually sucked back into the world of the left hemisphere : icons, words, symbols, "things" to do or that could be done, things that could happen, emails, posts, likes, whatnot. Actually I think it was already shown through EEGs that long time meditators, buddhist monks, had some areas of the brain more developed.. which would seem to support my theory likely those areas are related to the right hemisphere (and hence the right hemisphere's qualities such as ability for compasssion, seeing the whole, seeing things in context, ... and therefore seeing one's life in context as well instead of an old tape repeating in your mind everyday). edit: also if you think logically, then it makes sense that the common intuition that having new experiences, or adding more variety in your life would make time feel like it goes by slower, but it is not because of "new" experiences, but as in my theory above, because those new experiences stimulate the right hemisphere, as you become more focused and attentive to what is happening NOW. In fact by definition any new experience will stimulate the right hemisphere. So if you dont have the $$$ to go out and enjoy the world, or take a vacation the good news is you'll probably enjoy the benefits of right hemisphere activation by doing... NOTHING! (ie. meditation, focused attention on the breath or any one of many techniques all revolving around developing concentration and attention) :)
smokel 3y ago
I've meditated quite a lot, and I am now often able to "live in the moment" so much so, that I only experience the most recent bite that I'm taking out of a Snickers bar. It gives me the strange feeling that I might as well not have eaten the entire bar, just the last bit.

by dartos 3y ago

bwestergard 3y ago

If you're not already aware, Cornell offers a bunch if resources to enhance your birding experience. https://www.allaboutbirds.org/ https://www.allaboutbirds.org/

radlad 3y ago
I love Cornell's Merlin app for sound-based identification of birds.
dartos 3y ago
I know literally nothing about birds lol. There are just some pretty ones around me.

alsetmusic 3y ago

I heard someone on a podcast talk about the compression of new experiences during the pan / lockdown as a reason why time became meaningless. That seemed right, to me. I can hardly believe that it's been almost four years since that started. > If you have a stable job, you can pretty much mentally time travel a full year and find your days to be similar. > But if I ask you to imagine doing a PhD in Sanskrit at a foreign university, you would have no idea what your days are going to look like. This also feels right, to me. But also, I spent nine months learning new languages to try to build a service to launch with a friend and that didn't turn into a long memory of effort. In fact, I recall it as sandwiched. It was a blip. I think the real key is new experiences, not the aspect of study. Maybe that's the foreign university aspect: what happens when you aren't at study. The people you meet, the places you go, etc.

avgcorrection 3y ago

Around this? Assuming that it’s something that needs to be gotten around.

AltruisticGapHN 3y ago

Completely non scientific theory, although inspired by McGilchrist's "The Divided Brain" I'd wager that as we age the left hemisphere takes more and more of our awareness as we map the world internally and we tend to live more and more from "what is already known" as opposed to present experience. I too have hundreds of hours of meditation and I remember the feeling of time was very much affected. One night I remember out of sheer stubborness I sat for 5+ hours and I always remember the next week felt like it was a month. It doesn't have to do with having "new" experiences, or new memories, or doing anything "interesting". It has to do with how we attend to the world. And as Gilchrist pointed out this is being worsened as the devices we use day to day like smartphones, which aren't inherently bad, tend to stimulate mostly the left hemisphere unless you just listen to music. All the time you're going after buttons, notifications, looking at the icons, you're just continually sucked back into the world of the left hemisphere : icons, words, symbols, "things" to do or that could be done, things that could happen, emails, posts, likes, whatnot. Actually I think it was already shown through EEGs that long time meditators, buddhist monks, had some areas of the brain more developed.. which would seem to support my theory likely those areas are related to the right hemisphere (and hence the right hemisphere's qualities such as ability for compasssion, seeing the whole, seeing things in context, ... and therefore seeing one's life in context as well instead of an old tape repeating in your mind everyday). edit: also if you think logically, then it makes sense that the common intuition that having new experiences, or adding more variety in your life would make time feel like it goes by slower, but it is not because of "new" experiences, but as in my theory above, because those new experiences stimulate the right hemisphere, as you become more focused and attentive to what is happening NOW. In fact by definition any new experience will stimulate the right hemisphere. So if you dont have the $$$ to go out and enjoy the world, or take a vacation the good news is you'll probably enjoy the benefits of right hemisphere activation by doing... NOTHING! (ie. meditation, focused attention on the breath or any one of many techniques all revolving around developing concentration and attention) :)

smokel 3y ago

I've meditated quite a lot, and I am now often able to "live in the moment" so much so, that I only experience the most recent bite that I'm taking out of a Snickers bar. It gives me the strange feeling that I might as well not have eaten the entire bar, just the last bit.