It's around us more than bad news and chocolate. We're endlessly being measured by how and when we are growing. As much as we want to point an evil crooked finger at bosses and or other decision makers, I believe we do more damage to ourselves without them. We spend months and years wondering why an inch doesn't feel like a victory but rather a twelve mile high mountain of doubt, fear, shame and guilty. Through meditation and learning the strength connected to mindful thinking and living you begin to develop a process of forgiveness. What is reality but what we're dealing with in the moment? That's not a free ticket to check in with your 16 year old self trying to get away with something your parents wouldn't like. Nor is it the visionary in you planning for peaceful new beginnings sometime next week. Opening your heart and mind isn't a magic trick. It's putting focus on your present. It sounds wacky and out of shape to put your power of thinking into a mode of being nothing more than a willow swaying with the wind. It works. There is no distance in the present. It's happening now. You don't have to reach or bend backwards. Getting caught up in what you can't control infects the layout of how you greet people, perform on the work front and welcome life after you've given it all away. Is it easy to live in the now? If it was everybody would be doing it. When you are stressed and feel like being broken is the new you. Calmly tell your inner self, "Open your heart. Open your mind." Listen to the atmosphere as it moves through you. Take notes. No matter who you are in life. You're always a student.