An article on National Public Radio’s website by Alva Noe, a professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley,  talks about how to make time slow down for you by adding variety to everything you do.

The author states, “We are now actualized habits. Want to live forever? Break your habits.”

By this, I believe he means that the things we habitually do each day have come to define who we are. Those routines we engage in day-after-day have the effect of becoming almost unnoticeable with respect to the time involved. the more routine and habitual our lives become, the less we notice the passing of time and it flies past us at an alarming rate, seemingly leaving us with less than we need.

It would seem counter-intuitive to add variety to what we do, to actually do more and different things in order to slow the passing of time. After all, the things we already do and have some proficiency in, now take less time than they did when they were new to us – that is, when we were learning how to do them. Doesn’t that mean we should have more time?

One of the essential elements to being in a learning state, movement with attention, was the subject of my last blog post. Variation is another of the Nine Essentials For Lifelong Vitality.

Variation causes your brain to wake up, to take notice of what’s happening, perceive differences and to recognize relationships, similarities and dissimilarities.