Novelty in the New Year
With 2024 just a few days away, I’ve been thinking about how HUGE the calendar change felt half a century ago when I was a young girl. The excitement of living in a whole new year built up for weeks, and staying awake until midnight was a challenge I was eager to accomplish. I just knew the world would feel different at the stroke of midnight. The exhilarating countdown was charged with tremendous anticipation.
Back then, years passed slowly. Time truly does seem to speed up as we get older. The “proportional theory” of time perception attributes this to the fact that as we age, each successive day represents a smaller fraction of our entire life, which makes our days appear progressively shorter. For example, one year represents 20% of a 5-year-old’s life, but only 2% of a 50-year-old’s.
Another explanation of this phenomenon is the “novelty theory,” which states that our subjective perception of time is largely influenced by the amount of new experiences we have. Novel experiences require more brain power to process than those that we’ve become habituated to, which is why time seems to unfold more slowly and in greater detail when we do something new. With age, we generally encounter fewer novel experiences, so it can feel as if time is just flying by. For instance, tying our shoes as an adult is so routine it’s done on autopilot and barely registers, but tying our shoes for the first time as a 5-year-old was monumental.
It turns out that human beings are evolutionarily wired to want to learn and grow, because novelty triggers our brain to release the feel-good hormone dopamine. Eureka moments of problem solving, personal insight, and creative innovation feel particularly wonderful because they’re accompanied by a burst of dopamine. In contrast, things we’ve become habituated to don’t provide the same pleasurable reward.
I entered my seventh decade earlier this month, which has given me a heightened awareness of the finite nature of my life. When my son asked me how I was feeling about my upcoming 60th birthday, I realized that I was entering this new decade with a surprising amount of enthusiasm. Initially, I attributed my current zest for life to how much I’ve been enjoying my new pursuits: playing guitar, studying astrology, practicing qigong, and this Quest for Eternal Sunshine platform that keeps me writing, growing, and connecting. But now I realize that it’s not just the actual activities that are bringing me so much pleasure, it’s also the act of learning and the novel experiences I’m having that are providing me with regular boosts of dopamine—a positive feedback loop that keeps me motivated to learn more.
My father was a great role model of someone who became happier as he got older. A big part of his healing journey was focused on rediscovering and connecting to his inner child, which helped him stay curious and look at life with eyes full of appreciation and wonder. As a meditator and a brilliant inventor, he always paid close attention to his surroundings, looking deeply as if seeing everything for the first time.
My dad never stopped trying new things—writing, painting, photography, breathwork, inventions of all types—and he was never concerned about getting approval for what he did. He always moved directly towards what brought him more love, joy and freedom, and he continuously worked to shed old beliefs and entrenched patterns that kept him down.
So, in addition to wishing you joy and peace in 2024, I also wish you the gifts that come with novelty, learning and growth.
Happy New Year!
Myra
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