The Subjective Nature of Time
How Our Perceptions Shape Our Reality
Time is strange, isn’t it? Not just in the way it passes but in how it’s felt. It can stretch out endlessly or rush by in the blink of an eye. And yet, for most of us, there’s this underlying frustration—an awareness that we’re not moving through it the way we think we should be. It’s like we’re always running out of time, trying to hold onto moments that refuse to stay, or struggling through days that feel like they’ll never end.
But is time actually the problem? Or is it our relationship to it?
We’ve all been there. One moment feels like an eternity, another is gone too soon. Hours slip by unnoticed while we’re caught in the current of daily life, yet a single minute of stress or uncertainty can feel like it lasts forever. This contradiction is unsettling. And maybe, like many of us, you’ve come to suspect that time isn’t as objective as we’re led to believe.
What if the real question is not about how much time we have, but about how we’re experiencing it?
The Experience of Time: Why It Never Feels the Same Twice
Our lives are governed by schedules, clocks, and deadlines. Everything is measured, segmented, divided into neat little units of hours and days. We move through life as though time is fixed, like a commodity we can either waste or manage. But if we’re honest, none of us truly experiences time in that clean, linear way.
There’s a reason for that: time is subjective.
How you perceive time can shift dramatically depending on where you are in life—how engaged you are, what emotional state you’re in, and even what memories you’re holding onto. Remember the endless stretches of childhood summers? Or how an hour at your desk can feel like a day, while hours with someone you love pass like seconds? These aren’t just quirks of perception. They’re the reality of how we experience time on an emotional level.
It’s not just about how much time you have. It’s about the quality of time—and how much of yourself you’re bringing to each moment.
Why Time Feels Different As We Age
There’s a curious shift that happens as we grow older. When we’re young, time feels expansive—like we have all the time in the world. Yet, somewhere along the way, the months blur together, the years move faster, and the sense that time is running out becomes more palpable. It’s not because the days are actually moving faster. It’s because our relationship to time changes as we age.
When we’re young, everything is new. Every experience is novel, which means our brains are paying more attention, logging more details, and essentially slowing down our perception of time. But as we grow older, life falls into routine. The brain stops logging every detail with the same intensity because so much feels familiar, and that familiarity compresses our sense of time. Days blend, weeks disappear, and soon a decade is behind you.
This is why so many people wake up one day wondering, Where did the time go?
The Emotion-Driven Nature of Time
It’s not just routine that alters our perception of time. Emotions play a significant role too. When we’re deeply engaged, when we’re present in a moment, time seems to stretch, expanding around us. This is why moments of joy, love, or awe feel richer and more layered—they’re not just moments, they’re experiences. On the other hand, boredom, anxiety, and fear have the opposite effect. These emotions slow us down to the point where we feel every uncomfortable second.
Think about it. Moments of anticipation or fear can make minutes feel like hours. When you’re waiting for something, or dreading an outcome, time drags, each second felt in excruciating detail. Compare that to a moment of excitement or deep focus, where time simply evaporates, leaving you wishing you had more of it.
It’s not time that’s the issue—it’s how much of yourself is invested in the moment.
Our False Sense of Control Over Time
We like to think we can manage time—schedule it, control it, or carve it into productive segments. But the reality is, time isn’t something we can master. We can’t control how it moves, and we certainly can’t control how much of it we’re given. What we can control, however, is how we experience it.
When we try to force time into structures that don’t suit us—by adhering to rigid schedules or constantly worrying about productivity—time becomes an adversary. It becomes something we battle, something we race against. And we’ve all felt that sense of panic as time seems to slip through our fingers, no matter how hard we try to hold onto it.
Yet, when we relinquish the illusion of control, when we allow ourselves to be fully present, time softens. It expands. And we begin to realize that time is less about minutes and hours, and more about how deeply we are experiencing life.
Cyclical Time: Breaking Free from the Linear
Our culture pushes us to think about time in a linear fashion—always moving forward, always running toward the next milestone. But what if time isn’t linear at all? Many indigenous cultures and ancient philosophies see time as cyclical—something that loops and repeats, with each moment containing echoes of the past and seeds of the future.
In this cyclical view, time is something that grows with us. We revisit themes, lessons, and experiences not because we’re stuck, but because life moves in rhythms. When we stop viewing time as something we can waste or run out of, we create space for reflection, for deeper engagement, and for appreciating the moments we’re in.
Reclaiming Your Time Through Presence
In the end, the only way to truly expand time is through presence. It’s in slowing down and experiencing the depth of a moment that time begins to feel less like a burden and more like a gift. The more we focus on presence, the less time we waste worrying about where the hours went or how quickly the years seem to pass.
Time itself won’t change. But your experience of it can.
So, the question isn’t how much time we have left, but rather: What will you do with the time you have right now?