time travel (part 1)

stress and time

time doesn’t pass at a fixed rate.
it stretches and compresses depending on the state of the nervous system.

when the system is calm, time unfolds with depth.
moments register. novelty imprints. patterns form.
you feel the passage. it moves slowly, but you remember it.

but when the system is under stress —
bracing, compensating, managing threat — time collapses.
entire years can pass without ever being fully felt.

chronic stress compresses time.
not metaphorically — physiologically.

• cortisol blunts memory encoding

• adrenaline narrows attention

• sympathetic dominance strips context

• grief fragments continuity

• disconnection from people or place removes anchors

the result is a kind of temporal blur.
days feel long, years feel short.
you look back, and the decade is gone.

stress steals the punctuation.
the emotional peaks and rituals that help mark time — gone.
no seasons, no ceremonies, no coherent story.
just maintenance, avoidance, and recovery attempts.

it’s not just survival mode. it’s flat chronology.
a timeline without texture.

for many, this becomes clear only after the fact:
a sense that something important didn’t register.
a decade that moved too quickly, yet didn’t seem to move at all.
a loop of effort, without narrative.

healing can reopen time.
as the system downshifts, moments regain resolution.
simple rituals start to mark the day.
the body re-enters pace.
time expands.

what was once a blur becomes available again — not to relive, but to witness.
and what comes next moves slower.
not because life has changed, but because the system has.