Learning new skills and gaining new experience is an important part of healthy aging. Participation in new activities has been shown to help you maintain brain function and prevent mental decline.
There are additional benefits as well.
Time becomes more memorable and your days go by more slowly.
Learning new things can improve memory, mood, and motivation. It can increase your adaptability and help you overcome fears. However, did you know it can slow down time?
Yes! No joke. New experiences can act as a time machine.
As you get older, it becomes routine and the days can blur. According to David Eagleman, a professor at Stanford University, new experiences can actually slow down your time experience because novelty marks time for you.
Eagleman explains why time passes so much faster as an adult than as a child: “As a child, everything is new and you set new memories about it. So when you look back on the end of a childhood summer it seems to have taken a long time to remember this and that, this new, this learn, experience that. But when you’re older, you’ve seen all the patterns before. “
