The last-time awareness practice

Periodically notice when you might be doing something for the last time — and let that awareness deepen your engagement.

Why it works

We are rarely conscious of last times as they happen: the last time we carry a child, the last family meal in a home we’re leaving, the last conversation with someone who will move away. The retrospective awareness of these moments is often painful precisely because they passed without full presence. Deliberately applying a "last time" lens periodically — not obsessively — activates the same impermanence awareness that mono no aware cultivates.

How to do it

1. Once a week, identify one recurring activity and genuinely ask: "Could this be the last time?"
2. Allow the question to heighten presence for the duration of the activity — not as morbid obsession but as sharpened attention.
3. Note afterward what you noticed that habitual repetition had filtered out.
4. Do not apply this to every experience daily — it works through selective, deliberate application.

Evidence

Research on savoring through imagined endings shows that contemplating the termination of a positive experience increases present engagement with it. "Last time" framing is a specific, powerful application of this mechanism. (observational)

Research tests single-session interventions; habitual last-time framing could potentially activate anxiety rather than appreciation if overdone. The practice works through deliberate, limited application.

Sources

• Kurtz (2008), looking to the future to appreciate the present, Psychological Science

Common mistake

Applying the "last time" lens to everything and every day — which converts the practice into death anxiety rather than engaged appreciation. Selective use is essential to the practice working.