I’ve been thinking a lot about the challenges we face when try to be more present in our daily tasks. What stops us from just being in the flow of experience? Everything from cleaning to biking to brushing our teeth has the potential to engage our curious present moment awareness, but we often encounter resistance as we attempt to interrupt thoughts of the past and future.  

My resistance usually shows up this way: there isn’t enough time. If I don’t focus on completing my to-do list then I will let down myself and the people that depend on me. Slowing down is a selfish luxury, something best enjoyed in an imaginary ‘later’.

However, there’s a phrase that’s changing the way I approach everything today. I’ve been repeating it to myself since I heard it this morning in Tara Brach’s talk, How Intention Frees Our Heart.

We have no time to rush.

This was the mantra adopted by a woman with cancer who had a four-year old daughter and one year to live. Thankfully, we don’t have to have a terminal illness to acknowledge that life is too short, too uncertain, to rush through all of our moments. Taking some time to imagine what we’ll value at the end of our lives, as that mother with cancer was forced to do, can clarify our intentions and help us to show up for ourselves more of the time. The sadness of impermanence can transform us if we let it.

This doesn’t mean that we abandon dirty dishes forever, or whatever your version of dirty dishes may be, but rather that we bring attention to the choices we have in each moment. We take the time to notice when circumstances can be changed. We also notice when the only thing that can be changed is our perspective. Then we consciously decide how we want to live in that moment.

In the case of dirty dishes, that may mean that instead of focusing on our worries while we wash, we stop to marvel at the fact that we have clean hot and cold water available to us instantly. We may notice that warm water on our hands is pleasurable and that the sight of a tidy kitchen brings us some peace. We may put on some music and dance the dirt away.

It might also mean that we notice that we’re really tired. In this case, we could stop to offer ourselves some compassion. Perhaps we can let those dishes soak while we enjoy a soak in the bath. The choice is ours and mindfully acknowledging that we do have choices in each and every moment can empower us. When I’m feeling overwhelmed by tasks and time, I often think of the following quotation from Victor Frankl.

“We who lived in concentration camps can remember the men who walked through the huts comforting others, giving away their last piece of bread. They may have been few in number, but they offer sufficient proof that everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms — to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

People may ask themselves what they would do if they had one more year or one more month to live, but I think it’s important to ask what you would want for yourself if these moments, right here and now, were your last. When we focus on moments, ever-changing circumstances become less significant and we have a chance to connect with our fundamental attitude towards ourselves and others.    

So how can we bring a sense of peace into our daily lives? How can we always have enough time? By regularly reminding ourselves that this time is the time.