Mindfulness Doesn't Take Time—It Takes Remembering

Are You Living Your Life or Just Managing It?

I was talking to a friend about mindfulness recently, and she said something I hear all the time: "I really want to do it, but I'll take the class later when things calm down. I just have so much going on right now."

She's not alone. So many people who make it to my classes say the same thing—they don't feel like they have time to practice, so they give up and never integrate what we're learning into their daily lives.

And honestly? Even though I live and breathe mindfulness, even though I know that when I'm connected with myself I'm more creative and easeful in everyday life, I still forget to return home to myself sometimes.

Driving in the rain after this conversation, listening to Sofia, soulful music by Aurora, I felt the music deeply moving through me, returning me to myself. It didn't take anything special—just being here, connected, listening to this beautiful piece of music while driving in the rain. That's when this thought arose:

Saying we're "too busy for mindfulness" is like saying we're "too busy to breathe."

When Managing Becomes Living

I know this feeling well myself. Days where I'm accomplishing what I set out to do, staying on top of responsibilities, maybe even feeling productive and capable. Yet something feels off. There's a difference between managing life efficiently and actually living it.

When we're managing our lives rather than living them, we can be highly functional but disconnected. We're present for the logistics but absent from the experience. We handle everything that comes our way, but we're not actually there for any of it.

We can be incredibly successful at managing while feeling completely empty. We accomplish our goals, but joy feels elusive. We maintain control over outcomes, but we've lost touch with what truly matters to us.

The Spaces Between Moments

But here's the thing: just as breathing doesn't take time away from our day, mindfulness isn't something we need to squeeze into an already overpacked schedule. Breathing happens in the spaces between everything else—it doesn't require us to stop our life or carve out separate time.

Similarly, mindfulness isn't about adding meditation retreats to your calendar. It's about breathing intention into the moments we're already living.

Setting an intention takes no extra time—it happens in the pause between waking up and reaching for our phone. Returning to ourselves happens in the breath between one task and the next, in the moment before we speak, in the split second before we react.

When we're truly living our life instead of being lived by it, there's a conscious presence behind the wheel. We still respond to circumstances, but from a place of awareness and choice rather than automatic reaction.

The Paradox of Busyness

Here's the ultimate irony: those who are most disconnected from themselves—most caught up in the whirlwind of reactive living—are often the most unaware that they need mindfulness. They're too busy managing their lives to notice they're not actually living them.

When we run on autopilot, we're running with blinders on, not seeing the possibilities, repeating what we always do. Even if we're creative in one area of life, other domains are likely running on autopilot. We may be successful in our careers, but our relationships, our bodies, our spirit—that which gives us purpose and vitality—are ignored, are suffering.

What if all it took was to remember to return to ourselves? To our beating hearts, our breath, our emotions and underlying thoughts, what truly matters to us beneath everything we've been told. When we live from this place of connection, we are living our most authentic lives—fulfilling ones. When we live for our Self, we're also benefiting others and the world we inhabit. When we’re awake we see our connectedness with others, with nature. When we feel connected, we naturally care.

Another song I heard today had this line that resonated with me:

"You are not here to suffer. You're here to remember who you truly are."
— From "Amen (It Is Well)" by David Onka & Lorie Ladd

I invite you to try this today: before you begin any action or interaction, return to your intention and what you care about.

This space to remember and return to yourself—it's not something you need to find time for. It's already there, waiting in your next breath.

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Listening to Sofia was deeply moving and made me tear up. When I went to link the Sofia song for this post, I discovered the heartbreaking inspiration behind it. Sofia was a young artist who died at age 8, but her spirit lives on through her paintings and this beautiful tribute by Askjell, Iris, and Aurora, allowing all of us to know Sofia. Let me know if this piece of music, especially when Aurora starts to hum made you cry too - not from sadness but because it touched something deep inside…