Psychological time is a category that determines the perception of temporary relationships and events of the life path as a reflection of the human psyche. The difference from classical astronomical time lies in the subjectivity of perception, depending on many different factors that are not always related even directly to the individual. Psychological time includes such parameters as the speed of events, their remoteness in the past or future, the compression or elongation of the same time period in personal perception.
In addition, the concept of psychological time affects such categories as understanding the finitude of life or the feeling of timelessness, age stages (time in which also stretches at different speeds), as well as the existence of everything earthly and the historical connection of events.
The psychological time of a person concerns not only the individual path, but also subsequent and previous generations, a sense of continuity of events or their cluster sequence. Each person evaluates the time of his own life inseparably from the cultural and universal context, experienced events and historical moments that are significant for the individual. The psychological minute rarely corresponds to what the second hand measures, and depending on the mood, it changes either over a longer period of time or is subjectively shortened.
The concept of psychological time
The psychological characteristics of time perception have been studied for a long time, the features and mechanisms of this phenomenon. The very concept of psychological time always implies an exclusively subjective perception of a time period by a person. The direct feeling of the speed of time is related to the level of a person’s interest in what is happening, the activity being performed, or the interlocutor. Numerous observations show that when interested in what is happening, a person does not notice how the hours fly by, but when bored or negative, one minute can seem like an eternity. There was a difference in the perception of time depending on age, so in children one day can be equivalent to a whole year, while in adults a whole year can flash by like one day.
Cosmic time is constant and continuous, while psychological time can slow down or speed up, like rewinding a movie. The continuity of what is happening or the fragmentation of time can indicate a person’s state of mind, possible mental and physiological disorders. Some explain this by memory lapses or selective remembering, but if for a person time is often interrupted and the flow of events is not connected with the categories of past and future, then this indicates neurological disorders (usually damage to the right hemisphere). The option when time is interrupted, but there are no organic lesions, may indicate a serious life crisis, psychological trauma, or a certain mental breakdown.
The close connection of the sense of time is considered in psychology, since it directly affects the experience of the finitude of life, the existential understanding of its meaning or the dead end of the current situation. A person’s psychological time is a criterion for the harmony of life and personality - the more evenly it flows, the fewer breaks there are in it, the more semantic and value connections there are in a person’s entire life.
In the socio-cultural aspect, the ability to perceive and analyze the past and future is necessary for direct individual self-awareness of oneself as part of a single large process. The ability to compare oneself with others in a time context and historical perspective gives an understanding of the finitude of one’s own life and the options for its duration, which ultimately directly affects the construction of a life path, the choice of goals and meanings.
Age crises also occur not according to passport age, but according to psychological age. So in interpersonal relationships a person can feel like he’s forty, among friends he can feel like he’s twenty, and at work he feels like he’s thirty-five. This is all determined by the emotional state, social environment and present requirements.
Mechanisms of time perception
The perception of time is determined by certain mechanisms and factors, since there is no separate organ of perception, such as visual or olfactory. Of the main subjective factors and patterns, those that depend on the degree of fullness of the segment and passion are highlighted. When there is a high density of events per unit of time and they are all extremely interesting to the subject, then such a period in direct experience is perceived as shorter than objective time.
The opposite occurs with monotonous activity, lack of events, or lack of interest in what is happening. When the experience is assessed over time, then where there were more events and more interest, the person evaluates it as a longer period. The time that was spent without passion or waiting is then perceived as much shorter and devalued. In this pattern, one of the key roles is played by switching attention - the more moments of switching, the longer the segment is perceived, therefore, the more diverse the events and activities, the faster time is felt in the present (attention does not become overtired) and the more it stretches during assessment (due to for multiplicity of events).
The influence of emotional experiences over time periods can shorten or lengthen them. The property of the psyche is that all negative emotions are experienced subjectively longer, while positive emotions, on the contrary, are compressed. This is due to the need to get rid of the unpleasant and gain joy - the psyche is not adapted to long-term experiences of fear or pain, so the perception of these experiences is prolonged so that attempts to change the situation are made more quickly.
The initial sense of time is formed on the basis of cyclical environmental phenomena - sunrises, changing seasons, features of life and the body's reactions. It is precisely this cyclicity that initially allows a person to acquire basic skills of approximate orientation in time space. Then the previously described mechanisms of fullness and interest in the activity are activated.
Over time, the perception of time begins to change, since the individual correlates any event and its duration with previous experience. This is how students begin to navigate when the class ends or when they get up for work without an alarm clock. But then this correlation changes, since the current intervals are correlated not only with each other, but with the entire lived period. This explains the feeling that time passes faster with age. One year for a three-year-old child is a third of his life, or maybe half if he does not remember infancy. But a year in the perception of a fifty-year-old person is a very tiny part, comparable to a week of life for a child.
Lost time - how to realize it and not waste it?
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Now I'm 40 years old. And I'm apparently going through my midlife crisis. I’m summing up what I’ve done, and I’m not happy with what I’ve done. Therefore, I try to act differently from what I’m used to and not as always. And I’m radically changing my approach to business. Transforming from a loser to a normal person. And, of course, in the process of change, I look back at my past, analyze the mistakes I have made.
In the period from 12 to 19 years old, I did not develop at all. How much time I had! After all, this is a stage in life when you can do anything! You don't have to think about making money and providing for your family yet. You don’t have to devote time to your children yet (you simply don’t have your own children yet). You are capable, quite independent and can devote a huge part of your time to yourself and your interests, with the exception of only 10 percent of the time to help your parents.
It's such a great time!
And I screwed him up! – I’m very sorry for such an expression, but even it does not convey the feeling of severe annoyance that I now experience!
What is the reason why there is so much wasted time in life?
It's all about very strong feelings. In the described case, my story is explained as follows: during adolescence, young people begin to actively communicate and gather in groups. Boys court girls and all sorts of romance begins. So, I didn’t have this.
The main reason for any loss of time is very strong experiences that overshadow everything (your whole life). With very strong feelings, a person turns into a robot who eats, sleeps, but does not live.
The lack of a sense of fullness of life gives rise to loss of time.
But there is no fullness of life - because something most important, yours, has not been fulfilled. And because of this, you despair of living like this. What are your reasons for wasting time?!
Those past lessons have already been completed, the main reasons are understood, key tasks have been solved, the main feelings have been worked out, the strength to live has been found in difficult situations, and I am still reaping the consequences of those mistakes.
What is my wasted time?
- Due to very strong experiences that overshadowed the rest of my life, I didn’t even understand what I wanted, what I liked, and what I would like to do. Nothing of mine mattered in my mind because the most important thing was missing - personal relationships. Accordingly, I didn’t do anything interesting. This path has been overcome with the first book, which tells about how to learn to love yourself.
- Looking back into the past, I realized that I had interests. And not alone. But I did not pay enough attention to them due to my excessive dependence on public opinion. It seemed to me that everyone was looking at me disapprovingly, and I was very shy. And this is the second reason why I didn’t do anything interesting for myself.
- As a consequence of the first and second points, I had absolutely no personal development. I was completely absorbed in thoughts about how they would look at me and why no one communicated with me.
- I haven't overcome a single difficulty! I preferred to run away from them or just avoid them. It’s simply scary to think how many opportunities I lost along with this! Not only did she acquire and develop an inferiority complex! – So now, in the course of working on mistakes, life seems to deliberately return me to unfinished business from the past!
- And am I, by any chance, wasting time now due to worrying about my failure? Isn’t this what self-observation tells me?
What is your wasted time? - Do you already understand?
Now what?
Most of the unrealized interests have sunk into the past. It is unlikely that now I, a forty-year-old aunt, will begin to seriously engage in dancing or become interested in horse riding. It is doubtful to return a subject like chemistry and, having studied it, open the door to your dream: becoming a doctor. And it is reasonable to consider this loss from the point of view: what did I miss in this life due to ignoring my own resources for development! The corresponding conclusions should be in the context of thinking about how to avoid making similar mistakes in the future.
Perhaps interesting: The main question, the correct answer to which guarantees the fulfillment of a desire
I now know for sure that if I had mastered what my soul was about back then, I would not be tormented now by the worries that “I am a useless, unnecessary, worthless person.” I could feed myself with my own resources! And this is called freedom and self-sufficiency.
And now I have to make up for lost time and learn what I missed in the past.
There are no people who have no interests at all. And there is ignoring one’s talents, for whatever reason.
This is discussed in great detail in the “People from the Closet” series. For those who are tired of constant mention of it, read the history of the creation of this site and the connection of books with the site.
But, despite the losses of the past, the present and the future grow before me. Right now, when the issue of breaking away from people is acute (transforming oneself from a loser into a healthy person), it has become so important to remember your important, unfinished business and implement them. And in them - to realize oneself. Which is such an important process of self-realization, which should occur not at the expense of other people (their expected positive opinion of you), but at the expense of yourself, at the expense of your own pleasure from what you have done.
My unfinished business, to which life is now returning:
- Now I want to draw. Only, alas, the task has become more complicated. I don’t have much time at my disposal for a reason: now there are children, worries, family, social affairs - and I am responsible for all of this.
Elena Kravchuk https://www.shutterstock.com/g/kle555?language=en
How sorry I am for the lost time that was absolutely at my disposal in the past! How I would like to convey this experience at least to my children! But, alas, everyone goes their own way.
Now, against the backdrop of adult life and worries, drawing seems like a waste of time to me. But maybe I have to finish something in order to understand something. And at least stop depending on the presence of recognition from people for a feeling of internal success.
- I returned to drawing. What an incredibly interesting subject this is! But then, back at school, I didn’t understand something, got a bad grade, and failed to cope with my own task of mastering it myself. Here it is - the inability to cope with difficulties. The one that gives birth to real losers!
- I look at the dancing. But, alas and ah, apparently, I definitely don’t have enough time for them.
- I took up the guitar - this is also unfinished, but started then.
Each age is a certain stage that we may or may not go through.
And our task is to snatch the most important thing from life, what we should get from it right now. And what unfinished business does your life bring you back to from time to time?
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