How to slow time down

Practical strategies to make good times feel less like they're flying by

Here is a universal truth: all time passes. Sometimes this is a blessing. If you’re spending a night in the ER with a family member, or you’re on a miserably bumpy flight, or enduring a painful dental procedure, you can take comfort knowing these things won’t last forever. Eventually you will be on the other side of these things.

The flip side of this is that good times pass too. Every Christmas morning, after we have emerged from the frenzy of opening gifts, one of my children will note that oh, it’s over. Unspoken: they have been looking forward to this for weeks. Yet in a few hours it’s on to next year.

All time passes, and it turns out that all time passes at the same pace. Yet 60 minutes with the dentist’s hands in your mouth, or 60 minutes stuck in a maddening traffic jam, feel like they pass at a very different pace than 60 minutes spent grabbing lunch with an old friend. The first two can feel like they take a lifetime; the latter goes faster than the blink of an eye.

It raises the question: is it possible to make the good times move as slowly as the boring or bad ones?

The short answer: no. However, the longer answer is that it is possible to stretch good experiences to make them seem richer and longer — with a few special strategies.