Question: How can we have presence of mind in all situations?

Sri Chinmoy: If you as an individual human being want always to do the right thing at the right moment, it will be impossible. No human being is always able to do the right thing at the right moment. But if you ask the Supreme to act in and through you twenty-four hours a day, and if you can feel that anything that you do in those twenty-four hours belongs to the Supreme and not to you, then God will take the responsibility. Feel that you don't belong to yourself but only to the Supreme. If you can make yourself feel that you don't belong to yourself, you belong only to God, then it becomes His headache, not yours. If you feel that it is your responsibility to do the right thing at the right moment, then it will be your worry and your responsibility. But if you give your responsibility to the Highest Absolute Supreme, it becomes His responsibility; and as soon as it becomes His responsibility, then you become His instrument. Whoever has the responsibility is the doer. So when you have given the responsibility to the Supreme in you, then He becomes the Doer and it is up to Him to do the right thing and to say the right thing in and through you.

As long as you maintain your own individuality and responsibility, the Supreme will say, "All right, let her try. Let her try in her own way." So the best thing is to feel that you don't belong to yourself; you belong to somebody else and that is the Supreme. If you belong to the Supreme, then He is the Doer and naturally He will do the right thing in and through you.