Tik tik tik….have you ever felt you are running out of time? You are not doing enough or too little or too much? This blog is inspired by Lin-Manual Miranda’s Netflix film adapted from Jonathan Larson’s Broadway musical, Tik Tik Boom! It got me into thinking why do we fear time? Why do deadlines matter so much? How do we perceive time?
Chronoseption defines as “subjective experience, or sense, of time, which is measured by someone's own perception of the duration of the indefinite and unfolding of events.” Theoretical physicists like Carlo Rovelli have told us time and again (!) that “Time is an illusion”. We, humans, do not actually perceive time but we perceive changes and events in time like past, present, and future. We have temporal and spatial recognition based on memory and cognition. The same old regions in your brain, hippocampus, PFC- Entorhinal cortex are designated to do these functions. The order of the events taking place around us gives a sense of time! If the events have occurred in the past, they are stored in our memory circuit in the form of episodic memory, if they are happening at present- working memory and for imaginary, future events, much more complex circuitry is needed, consisting of temporal lobes, hippocampus, PFC, limbic system etc. Does that mean we only linearly perceive time? Fortunately, NO. Human brain can have chronoception in a linear, cyclical, or helical pattern. To each its own. The networks in your brain are constantly changing to adapt with time…almost every millisecond. It is truly magical to know these things. We are just beginning to dig deep in this matter but no doubt that one crucial element in perceiving time is memory. Memory deficits are directly proportional to chronoception. For example, in Alzheimer's due to dementia one might completely lose track of time.
Why do we fear time? Probably because our brain does not understand it completely or maybe because we don’t acknowledge our relationship with time. In simple words, think about what “time well spent” is for you. Time can fly when you’re occupied and busy and happy….time crawls when you’re afraid and heartbroken…time stops when you experience a catastrophe or a life-changing event. Once you understand that time keeps changing, you will never feel stuck. The anxiety of the uncertainty will be less once you understand that you can’t control time. There is no timeline you need to follow, no specific checklist to get worried about. Live a day, dream, work, fail, learn from your mistakes and repeat. Enjoy your time!
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