Taking One Minute at a Time

Or a day at a time, if you’re fortunate

Taking one day at a time is a piece of advice that counsellors will provide when sharing how anxious we are. It’s biblical, too. Matthew quotes Jesus saying, “don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.” (‭6‬:‭34‬ ‭NLT‬‬)

There are times when even a whole day is overwhelming. We can switch to three parts, morning, afternoon and evening. That’s what I did when I had my first burnout in 2000. I picked two sections a day to work on and one to rest.

Then it comes when those sections are too big. We change the three units for individual hours; we take one hour at a time. When anxiety and agoraphobia hit hard, I take a few minutes at a time. Gotta do what you gotta do to survive!

What Jesus is recommending is called mindfulness. We choose what we focus on and discard the clutter that distracts us and brings us anxiety. Granted, he adds the trust factor a few verses before, but the gist of it works for Christians and non-Christians alike.