How to slow your perception of time
Travel might not actually extend your life, but new experiences and adventures will make you feel you've lived longer, particularly in midlife
I stopped making New Year’s resolutions more than a decade ago. Instead, I started doing some kind of year-end review. Lately this has involved making a lost list of activities I did over the previous 12 months - from country walks to poker games - and scoring them out of 10 for enjoyment and what the Greeks called eudaimonia, perhaps best translated as human flourishing.
This year I also scrolled back through my camera roll and found something really interesting. One of the common experiences of getting older is that time appears to speed up. When you’re in your teens and twenties, a year can go on for ever, but in midlife the years start to tick over much faster. There can be a sense of watching your life flash past you. The main culprit is routine - we sleepwalk through our lives.
But this last year for me has been filled with travel adventures. I spent eight weeks between mid-January and mid-March in south-east Asia, mainly in and around Chiang Mai, with a side trip to Central Vietnam. Then another eight weeks between mid-October and mid-December, again in Northern Thailand with a side trip to Cambodia.
There were travels in between: a week’s sailing in Turkey, a fly-drive to Croatia, a week with my daughter in Kefalonia and a weekend in Kent with a group of old friends. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to report this.
Looking at my camera roll, that trip to Thailand last January seems way more than a year ago, more like two or three years. So much has happened in 2023.
Even more strange is the sense that the year didn’t pan out in a straight line. There are photos of Chiang Mai taken in January that feel relatively recent - because I’ve returned to those exact places since. Whereas the trip in June to Kefalonia - an island I’d never previously visited - seems like it happened much earlier. Strange.
There’s a lot of talk these days about longevity. Many people are working on ways to extend their lifetimes by a few years (and tech bros in Silicon Valley have literally set their sights on living forever). But what’s the point of existing for longer if you’re just a spectator in your own life?
I’m not a huge fan of the mindfulness movement when it instructs us to “live in the moment”. I get the point, but I think anticipation and memory do a lot to enrich our lives. The more we plan, and the more we actually do, the richer our lives. And the richer your life, the more you experience it as slowing down.
So, for me, the way to extend life is to pack it with excitement and novelty, accumulating experiences rather than things, meeting new people while deepening my connections with the people who remain constants in my life. This also means I’m freed up from the urge to do ultra marathons or week-long water fasts. Living a longer, richer life needn’t involve ordeals I don’t enjoy.
My drug of choice is travel - going to new places, returning to the same places and delving deeper, expanding my horizons and occasionally nudging myself out of my comfort zone. So in two weeks’ time I’ll be flying back to Asia for another adventure, starting with a yoga retreat in Thailand, a new experience for me. Then perhaps time on a beach, or a return to Vietnam.
Happy New Year!
* Tell me about your plans for 2024 in the comments section below. If you’ve enjoyed this piece, please hit the like button. It’s good to know people are actually reading this!
I love that line, “My drug of choice is travel.” I’m painfully aware that at 75, I won’t get everywhere on my wanderlist. I’m still trying, though. Last year, Japan and France (France through the eyes of my 18-year-old granddaughter was a revelation, Paris became new again.). This year, Belize and Iceland. Next year, hopefully returning to Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.
Love your idea that new experiences and adventures make you feel you're living longer, and most importantly, living well. We have the good fortune of living in Thailand so even a trip to the laundry lady is usually filled with laughter and fun. Thanks for your writing Mark. Really enjoy your attitude to life.