Time. There never seems to be enough of it. A precious commodity, it slips by too quickly.

What if you had the power to create more time?

We may be a long way from the psychedelic 1960s, but a mind-bending type of experience is within your reach right now. No drugs involved. Specifically, I'm referring to the ability to stretch time.

Actually, everyone has the capacity to do this, though it might avail itself more often to nature photographers since we spend a lot of time in the natural world.

Nature has the power to positively alter the way our brains function. (As if there weren’t already enough great reasons to photograph the natural world, add this to the list!) Powerful scenes that we so often encounter when immersing ourselves in nature trigger profound feelings of wonder and awe. A fascinating study conducted a while back concluded that experiencing awe expands people’s perception of time.

I’ve mentioned it before, but the word “awesome” has devolved into a synonym for “great!” and is used frequently in casual conversation. The original meaning of the word has been, in large part, lost.

"This pizza is awesome!" isn't going to do anything in terms of stretching time.

Awe
Noun

1. An overwhelming feeling of wonder or admiration

2. A feeling of profound respect for something

This is what the researchers were talking about. Deep emotional reverence; a sense of wonder; the "Wow" reaction which is difficult to describe.

It's what people might feel when they look into the expanse of the Grand Canyon, or stand in the shadow of the Teton Range, or watch Kilauea erupting, or gaze into an ink-black sky filled with millions upon millions of stars. The list could go on and on.

Fortunately, sights in nature that inspire these types of intense responses don’t necessarily require travel to exotic locations. You can feel that kind of awe just as easily when witnessing and/or experiencing something much closer to home.

How does feeling awe stretch time? It resets the brain by grounding people in the present moment in a profound way. They focus solely on the sense of immensity and grandeur they’re experiencing. Nothing else gets in the way. When the present is filled with such vastness, the future seems further away.

Time is perceived to be more abundant.

Another way to stretch time is to savor experiences. This doesn’t mean we must spend more time doing things, but it does require a shift in attention. Be an active observer. When you’re out on a shoot, make it a point to notice everything: the chill in the air, or perhaps the smell of fallen leaves.

Everything is constantly changing. Pay attention. Heighten your awareness.

The act of savoring - paying attention - engages the brain, which extends experiences. That's when the clock ticks a little more slowly.

Simply being in a natural environment slows time down, too. In another study, participants overestimated how long they spent outside walking in the natural world when compared with those who did the same thing in an urban setting.

Voila! Extra time.

A minute is not always a minute.

“Put your hand on a hot stove for a minute, and it seems like an hour. Sit with a pretty girl for an hour, and it seems like a minute. That’s relativity.”
~Albert Einstein

Your mind has superpowers. You can stretch time. Nature will help.