When you’re 5 years old, a year is 20% of your life. And when you’re 50 years old, a year is 2% of your life. This is an explanation given why time speeds up as you age. It's called Janet's law. It states you’ve experienced roughly half of your perceived by life by 20 years old. Or to put it another way: A summer holiday for a 5 year old feels as long as the 10 years from 40 to 50 years old.
But Janet's law can be broken with high agency.
You have agency over the speed time. You're not a passive victim. A better explanation of why time speeds up as you age is because you have fewer new experiences as an adult, so your brain deletes the memories. If you take agency over your life, do new things and create memory dividends, time slows down.
If you live your life on autopilot, you may die at 80, but feel like you died at 20 years old.
If you take agency over your life, you may diet at 80, but feel like you died at 200 years old.
🚨 Research shows repeated complaining physically rewires your brain to prioritize stress and negativity.
The way we speak about our daily challenges does more than just vent frustration; it physically alters the architecture of the brain.
When we engage in chronic complaining, we repeatedly activate neural networks responsible for detecting threats and processing stress.
Through the biological process of neuroplasticity, these circuits become stronger and more efficient every time they are used. Essentially, the brain learns to become more adept at finding things to be unhappy about, turning a temporary mood into a permanent biological predisposition toward negativity and fear-based thinking.
As these negative pathways become the brain's default setting, individuals often experience a measurable increase in baseline stress levels and emotional volatility. This heightened sensitivity means that even minor inconveniences can trigger an intense stress response because the brain has been conditioned to interpret the world through a lens of threat. Findings discussed by the Stanford University School of Medicine emphasize that while this mechanism is powerful, understanding the science of affective neuroscience is the first step in consciously redirecting those pathways toward more resilient emotional patterns.
Source: Stanford University School of Medicine. (2023). Neural Plasticity and the Impact of Negative Thought Patterns on Emotional Regulation. Stanford Medicine News.
the scariest part about this Super Bowl?
this was supposed to be the year to knock off the Chiefs
Mahomes was most expensive cap hit in NFL at $37M
his OL was weakened
his WR1 was a rookie
they were forced to play SIX STRAIGHT GAMES at a REST DISADVANTAGE weeks 12-17, the ONLY time a team had to do that in NFL history
they had to play in Germany
they didn't get a 1st round bye
they had to play on the road in the Divisional Round as an underdog
they had to play on the road in the Conference Championship round as an underdog
they were underdogs in the Super Bowl and were losing by double digits
it was the TOUGHEST PATH to a Super Bowl based on strength of opponent faced EVER
and they STILL won the Super Bowl