[Music]
when I was a child waiting for Christmas
felt like an eternity for me these days
when Christmas comes around I'm much
more like wow this was a year already
when did all the time pass it's change
isn't it the older we get the more our
life seems to speed up as adults we rush
through our moments we rush through our
years it's like it's nothing so I was
wondering whether we couldn't take
control over time and slow down the
speed of our life to actually live it as
a psychologist I would like to share
with you five steps based on signs that
you might want to try out to slow down
the speed of your life to get back to
the speed you might still know from
childhood
step one is what I actually call waking
up the inner child think of a
threatening moment like a car accident
or falling down from a house in moments
like this people commonly report that
everything turns into slow-motion now to
understand why scientists made people
fall from 31 meter height into a net
think of falling down 31 meters into a
net but it's still a pretty threatening
moment right so while falling people
held a special device in their hand
showing random digits at very high
speeds too fast actually for the human
eye to see one could only see them when
filmed in slow motion now the assumption
was when people fall down and everything
really turns into slow motion then they
should be able to recognize the numbers
but this is not what happened
people weren't able to see the numbers
however they overestimated the duration
of their form by 36% on average which is
quite a lot so the perception of the
speed of time is a function of
retrospection in extreme moments our
brain has to deal with an overload of
information so what it does is that it
makes room it needs space to store all
this information
big memories and this is why our
perception of time is stretched for many
people this happens a lot when they are
kids when they are young because when we
are young this is the time of doing
things for the first time and first
thing's doing things for the first time
makes our brain work because there's a
lot of new information in it think of
your first bike ride or your first play
at school or maybe your first kiss my
first kiss was quite a lot of work for
my brain so I would never forget this
horrible moment now when was the last
time you did something for the first
time for me it's been a while as adults
we think too big when we think of doing
things for the first time but you don't
have to climb Mount Everest if you wake
up the inner child in you and try to see
the world through the eyes of a child
you will find small things everywhere
around you so like cooking a
three-course menu that you never tried
out or take an all different way to go
to work or stop volunteering in a
charity where you have to do something
that is all different from your normal
job take your brain into action and try
to do something for the first time today
step two is doing things for the last
time in my podcast I interviewed Steve
and Steve survived a suicide attempt
he was pretty depressed so on a Friday
night in a bar he decided to kill
himself within three weeks he needed
this time because he wanted to do
various things one last time like
breathing fresh air eating a last cup of
ice cream or saying goodbye today Steve
is a pretty happy man he doesn't think
about suicide anymore but he still
remembers every last thing he did he
could still tell you about every second
of the last cup of ice cream he ate and
especially the last day the last person
he met so what I learned from Steve is
the hidden power of doing things for the
last time and I think that we can all
use this power without even thinking
about suicide at all breaking routines
is what we should do to slow down the
speed of
let's say that for example you eat your
favorite ice cream one last time for a
year you spend one last evening with
Netflix for let's say six months at
least sometimes what could make the
difference is not to start something new
but breaking a habit and do something
for the last time at least the last time
for a while
step three is to stick to your own
moments all human beings are born with a
natural hunger for making experiences
and this is why we love to scroll
through Instagram for example or use any
kind of social media because what we get
here is kind of an all-you-can-eat
buffet of high contrast experiences of
other people strong moments of other
people but these moments don't work like
our owns for our brain think of it like
junk food maybe when you need a Big Mac
what you get is a lot of calories but of
the nutrients your body actually asked
for and this is why you stay hungry and
always want more so it's the same with
social media the next time that you
scroll through in through an infinite
scroll and feed of whatever kind of new
side of social media site be conscious
that you are right now stuffing yourself
with high-calorie experiences of other
people that will actually leave you
empty now I know it's pretty difficult
or maybe even impossible at least for me
to leave or quit social media so what
either is that I muted the 10 profiles I
used to check most frequently it's just
a first step but less social media does
not only free up time it keeps you
hungry for making your own experiences
now step 4 is the push of boredom the
class I hated most in school was
chemistry sitting there and looking at
all these ugly neutrons and protons and
elements which I did not understand at
all made my seconds pass like this tick
tick I could actually count them right
the bottom is so empty of it
experience that your brain does not give
it much storage because there's actually
nothing to star like this boring moments
feel very long in the moment itself but
very short in retrospect now we don't
like bottom right bottom is per
scientific definition a very unpleasant
feeling so this is why we distract
ourselves we get out our phones every
time board and pops up in our brain or
we watch Netflix or do whatever like
cleaning the windows everything but
being bought and this is pretty
dangerous because negative feelings
always have a function think of pain
maybe pain is unpleasant to arrive but
pain is a signal to your body that you
should take off your hand from the hot
oven so boredom is a signal to your
brain it wants to tell you that what you
are doing is empty calories is not
meaningful to you boring moments are
very unpleasant but we need them because
this is a moment when you can question
your bigger story bottom pushes you to
start looking for purpose in your life
and purposes what makes small things
meaningful and hence memorable now step
number five is what I call the
babylonian train and i just recently
read about it and was so so thrilled
about this idea i really loved it so i'm
very happy to share it now with you the
perception of time in our world is fully
focused on the future think of like
investors who seek for the trends of
tomorrow or companies who strive for
innovation or even yourself who always
loves to get the news technology to feel
closer to the future at the same time
what do you think is the most common
mental illness worldwide what is the
mental illness number one in the world
it's anxiety disorders anxiety disorders
there are several types of anxiety
disorders but they all have one thing in
common they are about worrying about the
time to come so we run after the future
like a donkey runs after the carrot on a
stick but it doesn't have to be like
this 2000 BC in the near East
Babylonians had an all different
perspective on time scholars
investigated Babylonian language and
they made an astounding discovery the
Babylonian word for future had the very
same root as the word for behind whereas
the Babylonian word for past was
directly related towards like in front
of you or the face now I think that when
you hear this for the first time it's
pretty hard to imagine right because in
our society we are facing the future not
the past
but imagine riding a train when we sit
in a train we look out of the window in
the direction of travel like this things
approach very fast and this makes our
moment right now a pretty hectic moment
this is how we view time a Babylonian in
the same train going in the same
direction would look out of the window
in the opposite direction like this
instead of stressing out about what's
ahead the Babylonian sees where he comes
from he can grow a past and value the
past so I really love this because I
think that this could change our
perspective time right going backwards
to the future is what Babylonians do now
I was wondering how could I translate
this into my daily fascinating life and
what I do is that on every last day of
the month I sit down and write just like
five lines a quick note on one small
moment that happened to me in this month
so like this your brain gets better and
better at recognizing small moments in
everyday life because it knows that at
the end of the month it has to write
about one of them I strongly recommend
if you want to try that out that you
write the last five lines of the year on
Christmas Eve when you sit there and you
recognize that you have more than three
moments that you can choose off to write
about one of them then congratulations
you're on a good way back to the speed
of life you might still remember from
your childhood when you were sitting
there and counting the days till
Christmas thank you
you