What we’re going to talk about today is how to remain calm amid the chaos, how to feel centred and present even when you’ve got a lot going on in your life.

This is a subtle method but it’s very powerful and it goes against pretty much everything we do when we’ve got a lot going on in our mind.

What I’d like you to realise is that when you’re busy, you repeatedly run your to-do list through your mind.

You know, it’s “in half an hour I need to do this, the next hour I need to do this, and then I’m doing this, and I’m doing that.” And it feels like the day is just one unending list of things to do.

When you do this, you end up living in your list. Your mind is always with your list, and you’re never really in the present moment.

Even as you’re completing each task, you’re so absorbed and focused on what you’re going to be doing next that you’re not here. This only increases your anxiety and unease when it comes to getting things done. And it doesn’t actually help you get things done any more effectively.

This method is simple but powerful. What I want you to do first is to get your to-do list sorted. If you’ve got a really busy day from dawn till dusk, you’re all booked up, you’ve got things to do, I want you to have that all very clear.

You don’t need to plan it minute to minute to minute, but do get a good idea of all the tasks that you’ve got to complete so that you don’t have to think about it later. You already know what’s going to happen.

Now, what I want you to do as you’re going about your day for the next 12, 16 hours, however long you’re going to be busy for, I want you to really cultivate being present.

And there’s a couple of things I want you to do here. First of all, resist the temptation to keep thinking ahead, to keep looking five hours ahead, 10 hours ahead. It doesn’t help.

So I want you to resist the temptation to do that. When you notice you’re doing it, just sort of disengage from it, step back, feel back, feel back into the body and just cut off your continuing all the energy that you’re putting into this planning and the to-do list.

Next, what I want you to do is try and maintain the body nice and relaxed throughout the day.

What happens when we’re busy, we’ve got a lot on the to-do list, and we’re stressed, is that the body will tense up and it sort of drags us through the day.

Have you ever seen someone walking down the street and it’s like they’re so keen to get to where they’re going that it’s like their body is dragging them there?

That’s what happens when we’re busy. The body sort of drags us everywhere. When you’re doing that, you’ll notice there’s a lot of tension in the body.

What we need to do is try and relax, feel, try and have your shoulders nice and low throughout the day. Don’t have any excess tension in your hands. Try and keep your arms loose, as well as your chest, your stomach, your legs and your face.

Don’t walk around with your face all screwed up. Have your face nice and loose. Try and have the body really loose because this is a sign that you’re flowing.

It’s a sign that you’re not accumulating tension in the body throughout the day. Even though you might be busy for the next 16 hours of your day, you’re not going to be struggling through it so much. Having the body loose makes it much easier to be present, as you’ll notice during spiritual practice.

The next point, and this is really the crux of the matter here, is I really want you to try and just cultivate presence.

Even as you’re going about your tasks, I want you to live more in the senses rather than up in the head, planning all the things I’ve got to do and all the emotional turmoil that being busy can bring. Try and ground yourself in the senses, in the sense of sight, in the sense of sound.

What’s going on around you at this very moment? Because in this moment, this is all you have. You don’t have the next 16 hours. All you’ve got is this moment.

And your idea of the next 16 hours is also in this moment. You don’t know what’s going to happen. You don’t even know if all those events are going to happen.

You’re going to deal with them in that moment. Just try and come back into your senses, into this moment and really live each moment.

And that will take you out of this automatic tendency to live a few hours in the future all the time. It will really bring you back here and you’ll feel a lot more centred and grounded.