Have you ever had the thought there isn’t enough time?
It’s almost laughable to ask the question, I know. It seems to be a common thought. Even children say “I didn’t have enough time!” to finish their homework, clean their room, watch a favorite show, play with their best friend.
It’s a complaint, a reason to be upset.
The other day, I was working with a client who was so frustrated with going to work. Spending time at a job she felt sure she didn’t like.
The thing is, when you have this kind of thought, about absolutely anything–and there’s not enough TIME–you feel like you’re in prison, or trying to achieve something impossible.
I need to get “x” done. I need to choose what I’m doing all day long (and if someone else tells me to complete a task, I’m on THEIR time, not mine). I need to check off all the boxes on my list. I need to buy all the presents. I have to go to the gym. I must clean my house.
Oh the list!
I need MORE time!
Like it’s so scarce and limited, since we’re packing it all in, and the mind screams for more. Have you ever heard people say they wish there were more than 24 hours in a day? Kind of funny. As if that would help this dilemma.
As I sat with the client I was working with, I loved opening up to the concept of time, even more than I have in the past when questioning stressful beliefs about it.
Is it “mine”? This “time” I’m thinking I need more of?
Is it really better to be doing whatever I want, vs what someone else asks? Am I sure what I want is what’s best for me, for the world? Am I positive what they want, isn’t what I want?
Do I really need to finish this list, in order to be happy? Or skip lunch, or meditation hour?
I’ve had so many thoughts in the past, very repetitive, about “time” and what should be accomplished in it. Success, accumulation of money or savings, cleaning, transporting people (kids, myself) from here to there, learning, buying, improving, errands, gaining, achieving, changing….even getting enlightened. I need to have these things “done” and THEN I’ll be happy!!
But who would you be without any thought whatsoever that you need more time, you don’t have enough time, that time is limited, that time is the stepping stone from here (not so great) to there (much better)?
What if nothing is required, in order to be happy?
For some reason, the whole thing makes me laugh. The mind comes in with its ideas about the passage of time and the accumulation of time and almost immediately the thought there’s not enough. (I need to live LONGER…right?)
Who would I be, what would I be, without my conditions or thoughts or complaints about time?
Turning the thought around: I do not need more time. Not in this moment “now”. The whole entire future is unknown and mysterious. The past is a bunch of images and memories and replays at this point. In this NOW moment, I don’t need more as I’m simply pulsing with life, doing what I do, being here.
The client I was working with then noticed a most lovely thing, in the middle of turning her thoughts around about time:
What is this “I” that apparently thinks it needs more time?
Only the mind imagines a need for more.
The inner “I”, or “I am” has nowhere to go and nothing to do. It is itself, being alive, already. It’s just….here.
Does your very force of life need to go out and make sure you complete all your tasks today to “get ready” for whatever is coming in the future?
No.
And it doesn’t mean you won’t move towards the car with your keys in hand to head off to acquire something.
But you don’t have to be in charge. You don’t have to get it done. You don’t need it to be different in order to be happy. You’ve made friends with the universe and reality and what is (even if your mind isn’t so sure).
You are free to be simply alive, no “more” time required.
“I follow the way of it, which is always revealed in the moment. It’s God’s will, and it’s always crystal clear. When you no longer have a will of your own, there is no time and space. It all becomes a flow. You don’t decide, you flow from one happening to the next, and everything is decided for you.” ~ Byron Katie in 1000 Names For Joy #68
Much love,
Grace