This anxious sense we experience, sometimes, of missing out on something more important than what we are doing is a sign that we are not fully inhabiting The Present Moment.
In fact, it is one of life's paradoxes that the more present we are the more likely we are to be transported --no longer slaves of our body or times-- but as absorbed as children at play... Attention is a big part of this equation and listening, profoundly, to our commanding inner voice ... that silences all chatter.
Here's an ode that I wrote to this mysterious state, aka Inspiration
Transportation
When beside yourself, blindfolded and bundled off
where all is winking confidences, suffused smiles
and a sense of imminent revelation
here the mind’s eye must no longer squint
for symbols embedded in the day
the trick is not to steal from this capital of riches
but to cultivate organs of appreciation
breathe the pregnant, wriggling air
acquire a taste for the return and
above all, remember the way…
© Yahia Lababidi, author of Learning to Pray