Time Perception in Stress and Flow States: When One Second is Forever

Ep 69.  Explore how stress and anxiety affect our perception of time. Learn about time dilation in relation to familiar skills and the flow state, and discover how self-regulation skills can influence these experiences positively. 

When faced with stress and anxiety, many people perceive time as slowing down or even stopping—a common experience during challenging situations. Conversely, in activities where skills are well-practiced and responses are automatic, time can appear to dilate, often associated with the flow state.

Engaging in healthy, generative activities—whether anticipating social interactions or preparing for exhilarating experiences like surfing—involves expecting, predicting, and practicing responses. Developing self-regulation skills is crucial in shaping how we experience time during these events.

Explore the dynamics of time perception in stress and flow states, and discover how mastering self-regulation can enhance these experiences. walk well.

Transcript

armando (00:27.438)
Welcome back folks to episode 69 of the Running Man Self-Regulation Skills and Self-Improvement Project Podcast. With me, your host, Dr. Armando Dominguez, PhD in Health Psychology, licensed professional counselor and an adjunct professor at the local community college. And what we're going to be talking about today involves a number of things having to do with self-regulation skills and the term skills that we're going to focus on.

and also what is required in development of skills, we'll call this practice and repetition. And also what we're going to discuss is pre-planning strategy and kind of predicting and expecting what's going to happen that requires me to self-regulate. So to start off, we're going to go in and go with the term skill. Whenever we're considering self-regulatory skill, most of the stuff that's available on the net is really very good. There are a lot of good books out there teaching videos.

And there are many wide and varied teaching opinions about this, but very simply, when we're discussing self-regulatory skills, most of what is being proffered out there has to do with children and teaching children how to self-regulate, how to self-sue. And these things are very useful and I'm not disparaging those, but I am focusing more on not so much the educational level, but rather the human.

paradigm and the fact that we have a stress response we have to manage. These are things that are quite applicable to kiddos and if they're of speaking age where we can instruct them verbally and demonstrate by modeling, yes they can learn this stuff too. So really important stuff and there's some things I'll be injecting in here that can be really exciting exercises having to do with a stopwatch or stopwatch timer and when we do that that gives us a sense or a reference point when learning skills.

as to what we're doing how fast things come on and actually when we want things to work and this measuring of things actually means that we're going to manage these things and that's where the change occurs where we actually have a physical reference if we can stopwatch maybe even taking times down not to pressure yourself or test yourself in the sense of grading but realizing length of time and also how sometimes maybe the amount of time we have is a lot longer than what it seems whenever we're speaking about it because we tend to stress and

armando (02:45.185)
In our language we tend to get little hyperbolic and then we tend to respond emotionally to the exaggeration of what actually is and then start realizing that my reality doesn't match the actuality and therefore we feel like man that was kind of a let down. I think I over responded or overreacted. So from that perspective what we're going to do is define skills relative to self-regulatory skills. whenever we develop skill that means we have a component of

physical response that we're trying to emulate or learn and if there is depression, anxiety, panic. Post-traumatic stress reactivity, even those with post-traumatic stress level disorder, we're going to discuss what it is that I need to do to gain a new skill. Well fundamentally we all know this is a very general statement but also

largely true and accurate is that most things that we gain skill in require our repetition, require our practice. And whenever we discuss self-regulatory skills, most of the time we're thinking, whenever I have a hard time with things, situations, maybe things that are scary, things that frighten me, maybe things that get my heart rate racing really fast, maybe I'm worrying about a test, test anxiety, that's a very real thing. I've had that before as well.

and I'm validating you here, that is not a weenie thing, it is actually something that can become rather terrifying for some. And also, what is it that we feel whenever something suddenly jumps out at us? be an angry dog, a rabid raccoon, and I say that half jokingly, but not so much. They run fast and they're pretty vicious. But on top of that, it could be somebody that pops out behind a bush and threatens you and says, hey, I want your money.

could be potential mugging or even you run into somebody or a situation that you're not prepared for that you had no idea you're going to deal with and this unpracticed unexpected effect is the unknown that often dogs our days but it is one of those things that we tend to fear and we tend to hyperbolically overreact in our mind so subjectively we develop this paradigm where we're painting it bigger and worse than what it would be actually.

armando (05:02.81)
But part of that is saving ourselves pain in the future. Trying to avoid those things and demotivate ourselves from putting hands on things and creating a solution by dealing with things directly. Sometimes it's indirectly. And this is where we start seeing things that are avoidant behaviors sometimes. And not only in children but adults as well. And also where we start seeing things being left undone. Where there's this sense of incompletion in the life because there are lot of tasks that are left undone because

It rouses or brings together moments of memory that are negatives. They have little or nothing to do with the actual doing of the action or the chore, for instance. If we're leaving trash on the throne or maybe the art of this sort of thing. But rather emotional baggage that often will make us very quickly avert eyes and go on to the next because it seems to be a little easier. And this can be called procrastination.

but what we're doing is trying to avoid discomfort and pain. It is an avoidant reaction. Not all of it's unhealthy per se, but it can be something that over time can lead to having a whole mess of stress as a result of too many things piling up because I have basically avoided things over a long period of time in a serial sense. So skill, what is it that we're going to do to develop? That's practice and repeat. And when we discuss self-regulatory skills, regardless of what paradigm we're discussing,

we're going to be dealing with simple things. One is the body, how my body feels in that situation. So I want us to note that. But also two, the heart rate immediately. The heart rate and what level it's at, we're at resting heart rate. And not necessarily resting, not moving, sitting down or laying down to wherever your baseline low is. But rather what we call our resting active heart rate. sense of if I'm sedentary, sitting at a desk, doing my day-to-day task, the level of heart rate I may be at.

assuming there's no stress or threat involved. then what could that be? On the average, we're going to use the number 80. 80 to 85 is roughly what we would call a resting heart rate range for most folks. Not necessarily actively walking per se, but maybe doing the day-to-day tasks that would be considered a sedentary job requiring thinking, balance of the checkbook, this sort of thing.

armando (07:24.626)
Of I could be stressful, but we'll not discuss that. So the next part's going to be, what is my breathing doing? Am I ventilating quickly? Is my breathing at ease? Am I doing a full abdominal breath in the sense that my stomach is driving that and my shoulders are down or am I having to lift my shoulders to make room to breathe at the top of my lungs because I have tension or I'm somehow hunched forward because maybe I'm under a lot of stress and then my heart rate probably at that point if I'm hunching forward.

It's probably a little higher than resting heart rate, my typical average resting heart rate. Now, your heart rate may be lower, and that's cool. It could be a little higher. That's okay too. Just as long as it's not an extreme range, but just for our purposes right now, 80 to 85, it could be as low as 75 as well, and we're talking about an average heart rate range, just doing day-to-day tasks, not necessarily walking or running or lifting, but just...

mostly at ease with very little exertion or effort. Now, the breathing once again, that can change. And when we start to ventilate more quickly, we have to realize that the more active we get, more mechanically are we needing our breath to match what it is that we're doing. So if we're moving our arms and legs quickly, our breath is going to need to match. can't breathe slowly like when we're seated and doing an 85 feet per minute exercise.

and expect to breathe well and not feel out of breath or anxious. Whenever we're moving at a pretty good clip where maybe our heart rate is needing to be at about 120 to 140 which is a pretty mid-range working range that means that you're actually tasking larger skulls, lumbos, this sort of thing and you need more oxygen. So whenever our breathing changes that can determine how active we may be but also

Once again, this is one of the two components that we're paying attention to right now when we're stressing in self-regulatory skill development, the points of focus. And then the next thing is going to be perception. How am I receiving information that might cause my heart rate to change and my breathing to change such that it will go up versus stay really low? Rarely do we get a perception that's going to make our heart rate and our breathing really relax and go down unless we're at a more elevated rate.

armando (09:43.449)
anticipation or half expecting anxiety, stress or negative response and then it's okay then that let down and that happens but it doesn't really drop it below our baseline a whole lot unless we're just literally laying down sitting still and just trying to get to the deepest relaxation possible, close to sleep almost. So these three things are perception. What do I mean by perception? Of course our senses if we touch something that's hot

and it's painful and I didn't expect it that will raise your heart rate. It could be pain, then ding ding ding, alarm bells and heart rate goes up. I just snapped my fingers, sorry about that folks. It's just a habit, but notice what I did. I indicated by that snap that ouch, very quickly. Heart rate goes up by touch or tactile sense. Then what do we hear? Something that's alarming, such as an alarm, a fire alarm. Maybe there's an alarm I set for my cell phone. My cell phone, I do lots of those. And also maybe we hear

baby crying because, baby woke up, I think they're hungry, or baby's dirty, or maybe I hear someone yelling and they're angry. And we attune to that and try to determine whether or not it involves us or if it's a threat. Is it potentially dangerous, this sort of thing. And then also smell. Smell can awaken our senses whenever we are hungry and we smell food, heart rate goes up, breathing changes, become much more alimentation focused and we're seeking where that meal is going to be.

and if it's going to be in my stomach soon. We tend to strategize and make sense of it and find direction and know where the tortillas are. That's a good thing. And then, ultimately, and not finally by any stretch of the imagination, but the visual perception. What is it that we're seeing? Often our eyes can be tricked very easily into thinking something is, such as the cardboard cut out of the individual holding the beer at the

local grocery store and they look very lifelike but we know it's just a cardboard cutout but it's pretty real looking in the sense that it transfers that picture. It's much more compelling than a line drawing of an attractive individual male or female holding beer or whatever it is we may be trying to procure and we could still get the idea of it were a line drawing even if it's not well done but if it's more lifelike and it tends to be more believable in that sense or

armando (12:03.029)
Our lower brain that interprets a visual stimuli tends to be more apt to respond and pay attention. And even though we consciously know that's not a real person, it's just a piece of paper, it certainly gets our attention and that can change our heart rate and our breathing and our physical sense of arousal that we might experience at that moment. So we've kind of described not only perceptions that we're taking in, environmental stimulus or signal.

but also our heart rate and our breathing, those are fundamental to how we react. But also the next thing that I want to pay attention to, and this is the fourth aspect that's really, really crucial, is the skeletal muscle tension. How do my arms and legs feel? How does my neck and my mouth and facial muscles feel? Do I feel like my eyes are squinting? Do I feel tension wherever I feel like my ears perking up or pulling back? Do I feel tension in my calves and my feet? Do I get stiff or tense wherever my body gets?

more board-like and upright wherever my back doesn't arch, but rather straightens up or maybe I curl down and try to hide because maybe what's happening is so sudden that it shocks me and I go into fight-flight mode. So, taking into consideration once again perception, of course, from all the five senses and also the heart rate and breathing, those are fundamental to whatever response we have, but also the skeletal muscle tension generally.

referring to how our body is responding based on how we're perceiving that signal and interpreting whether or not it's either a stress, a threat, or possibly dangerous to us as an individual. The reason for this foundation that I'm setting and I've covered it in some of the other podcasts early on is that if we look at building skill and self regulatory skills in particular, any skill for that matter, but in this case, self regulatory skills, there's some time that's required in

practicing and doing strategically these things in expectation of those events that may be stressful to me, maybe those events that give me anxiety. And we know those times will come. And instead of being avoidant, being proactive by practicing those skills, the more time you put into practicing, the better strategically because you're pre-planning, not that you're expecting an anxiety attack.

armando (14:24.671)
But rather, if we look at the event itself that may be precipitous to the anxiety response or the panic response or the traumatic reactivity, we know that sometimes it's not an exact event, but things that may be stressful, things that may move too fast or are unexpected. And if we can plan by practicing, we know that I have a prescribed set of skills. And no matter how

things may unravel, I'll be able to respond to them. So this is where we have to look at not only practice, but actually maybe getting your cardio in a little better shape. Walking is one thing that is very helpful. Even if you stay at the list state and that's low intensity, steady state, about 110 beats per minute. And that is something that Mike Dolce talks a lot about just for fat burning if you're fasted. But from the perspective of being functionally able to speak and move and be able to think with the best of your capacity while

Removing yourself from a situation. It's a fundamental thing. That's not only useful but Incessantly helpful and developing more resilience to those things that are stressful and not getting stuck in that freeze response the freeze response within the fight-flight-flee is Very uncomfortable and many people state that I only freeze well They have a belief and a bias to the fact that you know They can just lay down and die and I'm just gonna lay down and let it happen I can't do anything about it in that belief system

is faulty because there's always something that can be done. notice that is an absolute, but generally speaking in argument to the, can never do anything. There can be something done. are times that, minuscule amount of times that we do not have anything that we can do and we become overrun and overcome. And we don't have to get into the details of that, but just understand that if we know that we're going to run into social events or situations.

Those aren't life endangering, which means we have a little wiggle room. And even expecting a test, it is how we entertain them in our minds. This is where we become hyperbolic hyperbole being what an exaggeration in terms. whenever things are subjective, this is truly all in your mind and the way you see it. I can't say all because the reactivity is physiological based on how compelling and how believing you make that. So.

armando (16:50.643)
by allowing yourself practice time, even whenever you think those thoughts and practice these skills. Whenever you have those thoughts, whenever you start worrying about those things or expect to try to remember what it felt like, work on these skills. And this is how the practice is referenced to the very point. We'll call that an index. It's indexed to in the sense that you can reference the experience by remembering it and then you index it to the skill and there's a connection.

By remembering that, that's a practice method. And then doing the method, whenever you're trying to remember it, if do it often enough, you will gain practice. This is what actors do. Method actors, they put themselves in a situation, they gain the response that they want. This is something that people that are very skilled in martial art and sport do, but they do it in their mind. And it starts there. And if we know that it starts there, it doesn't mean it's all in your head. That is such a colloquialism that it's hard to fight, but...

it's useful for our terms today, then we know that we're going to have an impact that is not only physical and palpable, but useful in outcome. Now there's three points that I want to point out relative to whenever we run into a situation. Not only do we know it's coming, but if we couple the breathing, the square breathing, and the the psi, the neurological side that Dr. Hupman put out, that is absolutely useful and quickly applicable and

It doesn't take long or a whole lot of skill to use it because it's one of our endowments. Using these tools for moments at a time to seconds and using a stoplight, give yourself a little time to use these methods and see how long it takes. Now, before I get into reaction time, response time, this isn't just ducking punches and hitting a ball out of the air with baseball bat. This is knowing how long it takes for a situation to unravel very, very few people.

do situational, not just awareness, but time effects that are studied within a situation, looked at as in I have this much time to respond to when he says this or she says that. Or whenever these things occur, I have these many moments. And being able to map it out, might seem a little, for some of you that are a little rude and speech anal, a little obsessive, but it's okay. Do this for a moment.

armando (19:14.426)
So you can get a sense of how long it takes for things to unravel, then you realize you might actually have more time than you think. When we're anxious and nervous and stressed and scared, time changes the way we perceive it. Time itself will continue on. It will march on with or without us. And the quote that says, time is the fire in which humans or people burn it, you know, that is in a lifetime rather interesting. But there doesn't always have to be a fast burn. We can make it.

slow burn or we can make it an over at all. So what I want to proper is a little exercise in time and if you have a stopwatch you get something on the internet where you have a stopwatch clock where it actually resembles a clock with hands I like that I'm kind of old school versus the digital countdown and have the start stop button this is really helpful in that it just as an exercise get a stopwatch and allow yourself to let one second to lapse literally just one second

Turn it off turn it off and you know that to the left of it You're gonna have the thousands of seconds hundreds of seconds tens of seconds within the second rather and Then you're going to have a second exercise of letting it run for five seconds Okay, then after that see how much time Feels like how it feels like rather between one second waiting and five second waiting to touch that stop button by letting it run Then try 15 seconds

then up to 30 seconds. Don't go a whole lot and go to a minute or an hour unless you just like doing weird stuff like that and that's okay, I'm kind of weird that way and I've tried it before. But you will realize by playing with a stopwatch you realize how long one second actually is. One one thousand. How can we chop that up and put more information into it? How can we gain a skill within that one second but we can employ it quickly before an event that takes five to 15 seconds to unravel?

I can have it go in and get the benefit of those self regulatory skills rolling for between 1 to 13 seconds before the actual event happens and that means not only am I a little cooler but I'm a little more chilly and a little more in control. This is a good thing. But whenever you do things, wherever you may do something physical, I usually do this in the martial arts where I will test my students and have them stand there and feel what it feels like to have one second in laps.

armando (21:37.455)
then have them reach out and touch a little student on the arm or the chest or anything. Not strike them, just reach out within that one second. They realize they don't have the speed to do it. One second's a long time when you're moving physically. Now, if you want to get out of the way from that touch, it might seem like a long time as well if you can perceive the motion early. And whenever we have self-regulatory skills, much of this is pre-planned. We expect and we predict

things that are going to happen in our lives that will cause us stress again. So this is not new. So what I'm trying to focus on today is a review of how I self-regulate against stress, anxiety, post-traumatic stress reactivity PTSD. One of the things about traumatic recall is that whenever it surprises us, we're in for a ride, then it cools down, it takes about 10 to 15 minutes before you start getting back. But now you have the after effects of the adrenaline.

the tired, the slog, and that ugly feeling you have after the fact that it's a negative. Then, you also have to realize that whenever you pull up negative memories, they don't feel so good. But you're in control. You called it up. It didn't call you. You have its zip code, you have its phone number, you can call it when you need to. And you can do it that way. It's not always going to feel pleasant when it starts, but it will not be an out of control moment.

like when it takes you by surprise like a panic anxiety event. So just some things to think about. But once again, whenever we're discussing about reaction time, we're talking about moments in time. Use this exercise. Give that stopwatch that stop clock. If you have a kiddo that wants to learn how to do this, get a physical stopwatch. That's fun. It's just nice to have that palpable old style stopwatch or if you want to do it on the internet or on your cell phone, do that.

But get a sense for how long one second is and what you can do in one second. Can I reach out and touch something? Can I take a step? Can I step two steps within that one second? It doesn't have to be everyone. You realize that you have a lot of time within that one second. And often what we're told is fast is not so fast. It just depends on how we're looking at it. And this is one of the skills and self-regulatory skills that isn't always talked about but is assumed to have been gotten or learned by a virtue of doing the skill. And that's not the case at all. We have to...

armando (24:00.783)
define it. We have to talk about it. We have to give it a name and a label because once we can label it and name it, we have control of it. Now it's one of ours. This is one of our skills and this is a great use of technology to benefit us so we can get better, stronger, faster, or even more calm, more safe, more resilient, less stress, less anxious, and just more chilly generally. And who doesn't like to be cool and chilly? I certainly do.

And for now, thank you for sharing this Sunday evening with me and I hope you continue to listen. If you know anybody that could benefit from this podcast, please share it with them. And if you have any feedback, you can send that to RunningManGetSkillsProject at Gmail. I'd like to hear from you. And also, I have a presence on X as far as YouTube. I do load the videos and audios there.

I have a presence there under Armando Dominguez and also Running Man if you look him up you can find him there. As far as these podcasts in addition to everywhere all podcasts are acquired. So certainly good talking to you once again. Self-regulatory skills. It's not all it's cracked up to be because there's so much more to it. Not that it's a bad thing, it's just often it's misunderstood and there is definitely a skill or practice component there. Expectation prediction.

But above all else, it is really perceptual and time dependent in many cases. And if we know it's coming, no surprises. Endless variation, no surprises, You know it's coming, we can prepare. Best of luck in that sense. And certainly enjoyed talking to you once again. Take care. Share this podcast. Walk well.