Its all in the mind .... our perception of time , space , distance is a by-product of how our mind thinks at that moment. The seasons are the best example - as fall progresses into winter , a day with 50 degree F temperature feels cold. In the peak of winter when days and nights have temperatures in teens or single digits , a rare day with 50 degrees feels so nice and warm.
Another attribute of the mind I have noticed is it seems to attract thoughts of similar kind. So the day I am happy , I notice everything happy around - I meet happy people , hear good news and feel my life is riding on the right lane. And the day I am sad , it seems to be infectious too - I hear about hardships and sufferings in others' lives , sad events and news , and life seems to be taking all the wrong turns.
So it turns out everything is relative - a minute on the freeway feels like an instant while a minute in a traffic jam feels like forever . When I was working , the day used to just zip by , and the calender just kept rolling . Now it seems time is barely inching forward . The clock takes way too long to tick and even a winter day seems so long .
Our actions and others' reactions are all based on their individual relative states. Same is for others' actions and our reactions. Human psychology is truly complicated !
