According to the research of neuroscientist David Eagleman, this isn't just science fiction fantasy.

This power is real, and it's found in the difference between clock time and brain time.

Clock time exists outside of us.

It's constant and maddeningly indifferent to you.

But brain time is shaped by our perceptions.

Brain time can fly by, or drag on and on and on.

See, your brain records the events of your life, laying down data on a memory track as you experience things in the moment.

Here's a car crash, a kiss, a raise.

These moments pass in an instant, but because they're memorable, your brain captures volumes of footage.

Meanwhile, here's waiting in line, updating your phone, inane chit-chat.

Your brain has nothing to do but notice the passage of time, making it drag.

Not much to capture here.

To understand brain time more deeply, Eagleman ran an experiment where he dropped his subjects 100 feet into a net, don't worry, and made them guess how long their falls took.

The fall guys all believed that they were falling for much longer than they actually were.

What this experiment revealed is that we experience time differently in the moment from how we experience time retrospectively.

And this is the secret to slowing time down.

See, when we look back, our memories expand and contract.

The eventful times with a lot of footage, the ones that felt like a blink of an eye at the moment, unfurl and feel longer when we remember them and our brain forms the story.

But the times that felt so long in the moment are then compressed away, the worst of both worlds.

Another one of Eagleman's experiments showed that repetitive patterns cause brain activity to fall, while novelty causes it to spike.

So the core of harnessing brain time is this.

If you want to slow time down and make your life last longer, fill your days with as many novel and memorable experiences as you can.

Give your brain a reason to pay attention.

The changes don't all have to be big.

Learn something new.

Take a different route to work.

Put down the phone and pick up a deck of cards.

It's possible to look back on a life where you accumulated several lifetimes worth of experiences and memories just by avoiding routine and monotony.

If Eagleman's research is true, then variety isn't just the spice of life.

It's the secret to making it longer.

At least in our heads.