The most common reason that we don’t make the game-changing tweaks in our lives is the lack of time.

The changes could be anything from meditation to exercise to writing or learning something new.

Most of my friends cite ”lack of time “ as the number one reason they aren’t healthier, more peaceful or more successful.

I believe that this is bull sh*t .

Here are five reasons we don’t ever seem to have enough time.

1. We all hate change. 

Change unsettles us, makes us feel uncomfortable.

Strangely enough, good change brings out our fear-goblins the fastest.

At some level, we just want to be comfortable.

We would much rather roam in the swamps of automatic thinking for years without purpose, without real joy, just so we are protected from the ups and downs that are inevitable when we reach beyond the boundaries of who we think we are.

2. Our resistance is overwhelming.

Fear is only one of them.

Throughout our years, we have attached ourselves to a million nonsensical ideas:

I can’t do this and be a good mother; it’s just too much work; there is no point; meditation is for people who want to avoid life.

These thoughts amalgamate to make a firm, real boundary between who we want to be and who we are right now.

They reign us in and ensure we never achieve our potential.

The good news is, the more I look at my own unique fears (none of which are very unique), I transcend them for that nano second.

And if I commit to looking at them every day, suddenly they start to shift.

It’s quite dramatic how much energy and time that releases.

3. We think we have forever.

Belief in our individual immortality is a ubiquitous human defense mechanism.

Very few of us of us want to accept that our lives are finite, our moments are sacred.

This last year, my dad’s illness has brought home to me how short my life truly is.

We wait for our kids to grow up, to have more support, the list goes on and on. We envision a mythical tomorrow for ourselves without recognizing that unless we start doing things differently now, the future cannot be much different.

Unless we get a move on, we are going to sleepwalk our way through our lives.

Ever since my dad’s brain tumor, I have shocked out of my stupor and started urgently acting upon my creative impulses.

Time is mysteriously manifesting in my life and it has become so clear that time, like energy, follows intention.

5. We are not mindful of our emotions.

The days I have not dealt with whatever anger, anxiety or trifling hurt I have felt in a conscious way passes by in a blur.

As I attempt to cover up the feelings inside, I am distracted and working at a very knee-jerk level.

It isn’t surprising that I feel rushed, out of sorts and like I am chasing my own tail. I just need to find a small pocket of time (sometimes it’s walking up the staircase at work very slowly) to breathe and feel.

As soon as I am in touch with my authenticity, I can get back to whatever I was doing in a creative way.

Without being in touch with my self, either through meditation or any other reflective time, I tend to get caught up in the prevalent culture of “Busy without Purpose.”

5. We are not doing what we truly love.

When I am doing what my heart desires, time stops.

It could be writing, painting, playing with my daughter, baking or just sitting in the sun with the wind in my hair.

When I elbow out mind-space for the things that make my heart sing, time and energy seem to organize around me and make so many things possible.

We are so conditioned to be small that our gorgeousness and our innate genius are foreign to us.

We have all learned to play small so we fit in with the mediocrity that we have been conditioned to accept.

Marianne Williamson says it best:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world.”

The more we commit to seeing how resistant we are to allowing our authentic voices to shine through, the more mindful we are of the sheer precious gift human life is and the more time we have.

What is our time but the sum total of where our heart lives?

Look at your life and your dreams with naked honesty. And today, right now, start bridging the gap between where you are and where you want to be.

 

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Author: Megha Consul

Apprentice Editor: Brandie Smith/Editor: Emily Bartran

Photo: Courtesy of Author