You can not add more time to the clock, but by understanding how this phenomenon works, you can at least try to make life seem like it is passing by a little slower.

There are different theories about why our perception of time changes as we age. For one, we perceive time relatively, and that means an hour at age 5 is different than an hour at age 55. So do not age.

I am 55 years old and feel to be 25. In fact I have always felt to be about half my age. My self-image does not update nearly as quickly as my body does. Before looking in the mirror each morning, I feel 25.

The basic idea is that you perceive time relative to the total time you have experienced life on the whole.

The older you get, and the more of the World you have seen, you start to develop a routine. Your days start to blend together, and time seems to pass you by.

Adulthood has fewer new and memorable experiences. The more familiar the World becomes, the less information your brain writes down, and the more quickly time seems to pass.

Meditation can help you slow down and focus. And you do not have to be deeply spiritual or religious to meditate, either. It is as simple as finding a quiet spot, counting to ten and focusing on your breath.

Focusing on the present is all about being more mindful.

You have probably heard a lot about mindfulness, but it is a pretty cool idea that involves being more present in the moment and being aware of your thoughts, feelings, and actions.

Live in the moment. When you are focused on the present, you are thinking about the absolute, not relative, value of time.

Zenosyne.

It’s actually just after you’re born that life flashes before your eyes.

Entire aeons are lived in those first few months when you feel inseparable from the World itself, with nothing to do but watch it passing by.

At first, time is only felt vicariously, as something that happens to other people. You get used to living in the moment, because there is nowhere else to go. But soon enough, life begins to move, and you learn to move with it. And you take it for granted that you are a different person every year, upgraded with a different body … a different future.

You run around so fast, the world around you seems to stand still. Until a summer vacation can stretch on for an eternity. You feel time moving forward, learning its rhythm, but now and then it skips a beat, as if your birthday arrives one day earlier every year.

We should consider the idea that youth is not actually wasted on the young. That their dramas are no more grand than they should be. That their emotions make perfect sense, once you adjust for inflation.

For someone going through adolescence, life feels epic and tragic simply because it is: every kink in your day could easily warp the arc of your story. Because each year is worth a little less than the last. And with each birthday we circle back, and cross the same point around the sun. We wish each other many happy returns.

But soon you feel the circle begin to tighten, and you realize it’s a spiral, and you’re already halfway through. As more of your day repeats itself, you begin to cast off deadweight, and feel the steady pull toward your center of gravity, the ballast of memories you hold onto, until it all seems to move under its own inertia.

So even when you sit still, it feels like you’re running somewhere. And even if tomorrow you will run a little faster, and stretch your arms a little farther, you’ll still feel the seconds slipping away as you drift around the bend.

Life is short. And life is long. But not in that order.