It is easy to feel overwhelmed at the beginning of a year. There are so many things that need to be completed and an equally astonishing number of things that need to be started. The discursive mind makes list after list, attaching itself to timetables and goals, generating stories of accomplishment, and the stories are both self-congratulatory and self-critical.

Nothing has to be overwhelming even though you believe, of course, that a mile-long to-do list is absolutely overwhelming. Where does this sense of being overwhelmed as an objective truth actually come from? To maintain feeling overwhelmed, you must first of all believe in a force or power that is greater than you. This force can destroy you, overpower you, and cause you to feel as if you are buried under something enormous. You feel overwhelmed when you have decided it's too much or that you can't manage it, whatever "it" is. Oftentimes, "it" is undefined or unknown.

We wish to simply point out that there is no force greater than you in the present moment. The concept you are imagining as a force or power overwhelming you is time. Yet time is not really a power or a force with innate qualities. It has no mass, substantiality, or ability to "do" anything. It simply is as you make it. Time depends on your projections to give it power and make it a force in your life. It can be used as an enemy or as a friend. For example, time as an enemy would compel you to generate mental stories of "not enoughness" and "too muchness" — all sorts of stories that negate your intentions and general state of contentment with what is present in the moment. Time is used as an enemy when you are living in the future or living in the past. Time as a friend might look like a simple structure that assists you in maintaining healthy habits and organizing connections with others. Time is a friend when it works with you, you with it, and both are equal in power and force.