Five Minutes Is Enough To Dream A Lifetime

When you look into the eyes of a person you love, a second before you put your lips to hers, time stops, it seems like everything slows down, you can dream and not wake up, and later when you remember that moment it will feel like that it was fleeting.

However, on the day we receive bad news like the death of a person, it seems that seconds turn into an eternity and that time slowly drags on before our eyes.

the perception of time

We can say that there is a chronological time and a subjective time. It all depends on what we perceive as a function of what each moment transmits to us. This subjective time refers us to the past, present and future and we use it to understand the duration of events and place them in a given moment.

Our sensitivity to time also affects mental tasks like thinking about solving a problem, making decisions, or planning for the future. Psychologist John Wearden argues that the perception of time is related to memory and the ability to visualize.

If you feel that time passes slowly, you will see more and remember more easily. Psychologist Hudson Hoagland, in 1920, observed that the perception of time is related to body temperature.

Hoagland’s wife was sick and had a high fever. He left for a moment and his wife thought he had taken too long to come back. So Hoagland made her count for 60 seconds each day and realized that the more fever she had the faster she counted, that is, when the temperature rose, her internal clock got faster.

A new experience activates our neurons

Neuroscientist David. M. Eagleman is an expert in the study of phenomena related to the perception of time by the human brain. He did several MRI scans and concluded that when an experience is new or surprising, it increases the activity of our neurons to register those moments.

This happens because in cases of new and interesting experiences, we pay much more attention and keep all the details in our memory. When we remember a new experience, it seems like it lasted longer.

Slow down the time to dream

We cannot stop time, but we can make the most of every second, being aware of every moment and feeling alive. Everything that happens around us, whether good or bad, teaches us something, and if we stop for a moment we can learn and remember the teaching.

The seconds, the hours, the days, the weeks, the months and the years pass relentlessly and we cannot stop them. What we can do is help our brain so that the passage of time is slower and allows us to dream. Here are some ways to accomplish this:

Never stop learning. Have the curiosity of a child, explore the world, ask questions, read, this will activate your brain, your memory, and you will feel that time passes more slowly.

Discover new places. Visiting new places, getting out of your routine, traveling and seeing the world will open your mind, activate your brain to keep all this information in your memory, and time will pass more slowly.

Dare to meet new people. We always live in the same circles of friends and create a routine. Friends, family, acquaintances, co-workers are usually always the same. Go out and talk to new people, let them get to know you and dare to meet them too.

Follow your heart and your intuition. We often think too much to make a decision without realizing that the more options we have, the more confused we can be. Follow your heart and your intuition, learn to be spontaneous, dream and enjoy every moment.

You can dream a lifetime in one minute and make that minute stretch and stretch into thousands of moments. It is possible to recall a moment that was in our memory and remember the smell, how our heart beat or who was with us at that moment.

“Being or not with you is the measure of my time.”
-Jorge Luis Borges-