WEBVTT - Magnifying Time 0:00:18.252 --> 0:00:20.772 One of the most surprising things I've ever learned is 0:00:20.772 --> 0:00:25.332 that novelty and attention extend your lifespan, or more precisely, 0:00:25.372 --> 0:00:28.772 attention to novelty, slow time. And the opposite is true 0:00:28.772 --> 0:00:33.572 as well. Pattern and distraction accelerate it. This model explains 0:00:33.572 --> 0:00:36.292 why time moves so slowly when we were children, and 0:00:36.292 --> 0:00:38.892 why it streaks by in large gulps as we get older. 0:00:39.372 --> 0:00:42.172 When we're young, everything is new, and when things are new, 0:00:42.212 --> 0:00:45.012 we can't help but pay attention to them. We're fascinated 0:00:45.012 --> 0:00:49.452 by them and time freezes. As we get older, we 0:00:49.492 --> 0:00:52.532 switch to autopilot. We stop paying attention. We wake up, 0:00:52.572 --> 0:00:55.292 eat the same breakfast, go to the same job. We 0:00:55.292 --> 0:00:58.892 rut into a pattern. We don't notice things we don't appreciate, 0:00:58.892 --> 0:01:01.412 things we don't delight in them the way we used 0:01:01.412 --> 0:01:04.691 to because very few things are new anymore. In fact, 0:01:04.692 --> 0:01:08.532 we barely notice anything at all. Hard to say exactly, 0:01:08.532 --> 0:01:11.732 but I think this accelerates time by like two, five, 0:01:11.732 --> 0:01:15.452 or maybe even ten X seasons become years and years 0:01:15.452 --> 0:01:18.752 become decades. You think you just took out the garbage 0:01:18.752 --> 0:01:20.632 and watched a show on Netflix? But when you look 0:01:20.672 --> 0:01:24.792 at the calendar, it's like 11 years later. One way 0:01:24.792 --> 0:01:27.592 to frame this is the way we already have, which 0:01:27.592 --> 0:01:29.792 is based around the amount of novelty that you have 0:01:29.792 --> 0:01:33.512 in your life. As in, how new are the activities 0:01:33.872 --> 0:01:37.392 that you were doing day to day? But perhaps a 0:01:37.392 --> 0:01:40.112 better way to think about this is less about the activity, 0:01:40.112 --> 0:01:42.472 and more about how much you're paying attention to life 0:01:42.472 --> 0:01:48.151 in general. They tend to go together. The supernatural power 0:01:48.152 --> 0:01:51.832 I learned from Sam Harris through his meditation course waking up, 0:01:52.272 --> 0:01:56.112 is that we can actually slow time ourselves by learning 0:01:56.152 --> 0:02:00.632 to control our attention. After learning meditation from Sam a 0:02:00.632 --> 0:02:03.112 number of years ago, I now have a dead simple 0:02:03.112 --> 0:02:06.312 way of describing meditation itself, which is kind of hard 0:02:06.312 --> 0:02:10.632 to describe. There are basically only two states of living. 0:02:10.632 --> 0:02:16.032 There is aware and there is hijacked and aware is 0:02:16.162 --> 0:02:19.682 when your attention is alive and observant, which makes the 0:02:19.682 --> 0:02:24.482 subject of your focus kind of everyday extraordinary. From breathing 0:02:24.522 --> 0:02:28.922 to an ankle itch, whatever you're focusing on, being hijacked 0:02:28.922 --> 0:02:31.442 is the natural state for all of us, even Sam 0:02:31.442 --> 0:02:34.922 or the Dalai Lama or whoever. In this state, you're not. 0:02:41.442 --> 0:02:53.002 At it. In this state, you're at it. In this state, 0:02:53.002 --> 0:02:56.042 you're not aware of what you're thinking or feeling. Instead 0:02:56.042 --> 0:02:59.882 of observing life. Life is happening to you. You become 0:02:59.882 --> 0:03:03.802 your feelings. You become your thoughts. The separation between yourself 0:03:03.802 --> 0:03:07.842 and your inputs dissolves completely. A good example would be 0:03:07.841 --> 0:03:11.281 imagining a work conversation where some guy named Chris said 0:03:11.282 --> 0:03:15.121 something dismissive about one of your projects in your mind, 0:03:15.181 --> 0:03:17.661 Everyone in the meeting now thinks less of you and 0:03:17.662 --> 0:03:20.582 your work at the company. So you basically think about 0:03:20.582 --> 0:03:24.221 this constantly for like the next day, perhaps multiple days. 0:03:24.382 --> 0:03:26.582 Maybe it's been a couple of weeks now. You've just 0:03:26.582 --> 0:03:29.102 been thinking about it over and over. Can't believe he 0:03:29.102 --> 0:03:31.942 said that. Why would he say that? I can't believe 0:03:31.982 --> 0:03:35.902 you know Julie believed him or whatever. Whether you're driving 0:03:35.902 --> 0:03:38.262 to do an errand or eating a sandwich or sitting 0:03:38.262 --> 0:03:41.142 on the couch, your brain goes through the scenario thousands 0:03:41.142 --> 0:03:46.262 of times in different iterations. You imagine different ways you 0:03:46.262 --> 0:03:49.342 should have reacted what you can possibly do to fix it, 0:03:49.382 --> 0:03:51.742 whether or not you should look for another job and 0:03:51.742 --> 0:03:54.182 you hope that Chris gets fired, you just keep thinking 0:03:54.182 --> 0:03:57.622 about different ways he could be fired or whatever. You 0:03:57.622 --> 0:04:02.462 are not yourself. While this is happening, there is no you. 0:04:02.782 --> 0:04:06.222 While this is happening, you've become a cockroach in a 0:04:06.222 --> 0:04:09.502 garbage can on a freight train heading towards a distant, 0:04:09.502 --> 0:04:13.862 silly place. That does not matter how many minutes or 0:04:13.992 --> 0:04:17.152 hours or days have you spent thinking about this one 0:04:17.152 --> 0:04:20.352 particular thing? The real problem is not even that. One 0:04:20.352 --> 0:04:23.992 particular thing with Chris that you're thinking about. The problem 0:04:23.992 --> 0:04:27.551 is that our lives are full of situations just like these, 0:04:28.072 --> 0:04:33.392 over and over, annoyances and ruminations about them. If you 0:04:33.392 --> 0:04:35.952 were to check in on your mind at any particular moment, 0:04:36.192 --> 0:04:40.192 of any particular day, of any particular year in your life, 0:04:40.472 --> 0:04:42.432 and you were to see a text transcript of what 0:04:42.432 --> 0:04:46.512 you were thinking, it would be the ramblings of rumination 0:04:47.552 --> 0:04:51.551 for the hijacked. When we feel emotions, we become those emotions. 0:04:51.752 --> 0:04:56.072 When we have negative thoughts, we become those negative thoughts. 0:04:56.832 --> 0:05:02.312 This is a state of being distracted. The lack of attention. Unfortunately, 0:05:02.592 --> 0:05:05.032 it's the vast majority of people, the vast majority of 0:05:05.032 --> 0:05:10.111 the time, including me. So where does this leave us? Well, 0:05:10.112 --> 0:05:12.912 there are ways to break free from this. We can 0:05:13.012 --> 0:05:16.132 learn to meditate even a little bit. Give yourself the 0:05:16.132 --> 0:05:19.372 ability to get to the aware state, even if it's 0:05:19.372 --> 0:05:23.051 just for a brief moments during the day. Number two, 0:05:23.092 --> 0:05:26.252 we can build more novelty into our lives new books, 0:05:26.252 --> 0:05:30.652 new foods, new people, new art. And third, we can 0:05:30.692 --> 0:05:35.332 bias towards creation versus consumption. Creation takes focus, which is 0:05:35.332 --> 0:05:38.732 a type of attention and often requires novelty as you 0:05:38.731 --> 0:05:42.412 learn and master a craft as well. If we quiet 0:05:42.412 --> 0:05:45.812 our minds and pay close attention to great food, great friends, 0:05:46.012 --> 0:05:49.491 great books, and great walks with our loved ones, if 0:05:49.492 --> 0:05:52.372 we honor the present moment and the feeling of her 0:05:52.372 --> 0:05:56.292 hand in yours, if we create instead of consume, if 0:05:56.291 --> 0:05:59.892 we build instead of bicker, we magnify the quality and 0:05:59.892 --> 0:06:02.572 duration of the time we have in this life. We 0:06:02.572 --> 0:06:06.372 can turn seconds into lifetimes. Doing this well means ten 0:06:06.412 --> 0:06:10.052 years can become 50, and doing this wrong means we 0:06:10.052 --> 0:06:12.572 could die at 90, never having lived.