But there's an alternative to this stress-inducing, actually counter-productive type of "time management": To tune into your inner energy in a given moment and let it guide you in the most appropriate-for-this-moment action to take next.

In hindsight, it seems a little crazy that I couldn't see where all this was heading given all the synchronistic arrivals of one "just what I needed at the perfect moment" circumstance after another in those years. But that's how it is. We're ready for what we're ready for when we're ready for it.

The more we resist, the more we suffer, and, without making a conscious choice to do things differently, the more we suffer, the more we'll resist. Eckhart Tolle puts it this way: "The intensity of the pain depends on the degree of resistance to the present moment." 

But when we stop taking our "small s self" so seriously, our "capital S Self” reminds us it's been there all along. And the (capital S) Self is constant. It's whole and centered and perfect and at ease, and its wholeness depends not one ounce on concepts or circumstances. It just is.

Our tendency is generally to try to "fix" our way back into balance once we realize we've fallen out (and we of course have to be fortunate/willing enough to have the awareness to notice that we've wandered from center ground to even do that). But balance is actually our natural resting place.

With too little awareness and intention, we stay stuck in the same place. With too much force, we bulldoze right past the present moment. But when you hit it just right, you get to hang in that ease-y space, where it feels like you're being magically supported. You know when you've hit that sweet spot because the effort suddenly doesn't feel like work.

At first the details will likely seem fuzzy. No problem.

Pieces of your ideal day vision that at first might seem frivolous hold powerful information about what your soul is longing for.

The ability of a consistent mindfulness practice to enhance our physical and emotional wellbeing, among a long list of other benefits, is truly profound. And ultimately most profound in its ability to open us up to the reality of how inextricably interconnected all beings are, and the love and compassion that gets uncorked with that clear seeing.