The Closet Academic is diving deep this weekend. Always having been certifiable, I am embarking on the road to meditation teacher certification. Often, in our rushed world today, we find ourselves having been trained out of allowing our natural states. We tend to stifle our natural ease subtly replacing it with hurried anxiety. That’s where meditation comes in handy.

It is interesting to note how natural mindfulness is to us and a part of our many innate abilities. Taking just a few short minutes each morning to breathe in and breathe out – quieting our minds and noticing our breath, our breath, our breath, changes everything. Meditation cultivates our natural mindfulness. We can dive deep in mindfulness and reap its endless benefits. We find life growing better and better and better.

Do yourself, your family and our world a huge favor. Meditate every morning. Do it before life takes over for the day. Make it a part of your personal constitution. When we meditate we dive deep and have more room to maneuver. Mindfulness always bobs to the top. It’s only natural.

Today, I’m compelled to cross over to the dark side. Occasionally, I’ll torture myself and binge on reading headlines, watching clips and perusing print media. Thankfully, I meditate which brings mindfulness and calm to my perceptions. It is interesting to watch how easily people can be manipulated. I live in the #fitn state. My fellow New Hampshire, twitter savvy citizens may know that the hashtag means first in the nation, in reference to the Presidential Primary.

Polling is a major resource for rhetorical puppetry. Here in New Hampshire, after having been polled and polled and polled again, I want to see a poll on how many people would like to rip out their landlines and pole the pollsters where the sun don’t shine. Being in the #fitn state what you, the average non-New Hampshire resident, hear about issues or candidates leading the field or gaining or losing points, with their plus or minus margins of error, can be highly misleading. Typically, once the result of a slanted specific poll shows a hint of fodder, it quickly hits the media cycles to suit their particular commission.

This week we saw the product of an antiquated corporate model in the form of a man named Martin Shkreli, former CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals. He’s the guy who bought a drug and jacked the price into the stratosphere. Though despicable, it’s legal. He was brought before a committee of the United States House of Representatives to explain himself. His obvious, blatant contempt was more than palpable. His lawyer said that the constant smirk plastered across his client’s face was due to nerves. I almost believed the explanation until I read what the twit tweeted. His demonstrated disrespect is beyond comprehension.

It can be tough to stay out of the fray of the mindless ugly, at times. Just opening our snail-mailboxes has the potential to, and often does, explode paper commercials directly into our homes. We look at it as we toss it aside and that’s all it takes. The seed has been planted. It must be physically handled just to get it to the recycle bin. Unless there is discriminating mindfulness afoot, you may find yourself embracing the gecko.

Our world is ever changing for the better. We have intelligent, optimistic, enthusiastic and naturally mindful millennials and meditators. Where once our academic institutions supported practices that inadvertently cultivated the dregs we see in the news, we are now much more aware. We know that when we put well-being first that the bottom line automatically falls into place. We thrive and prosper in mindfulness. Breathe In. Breathe Out. We’re in for a wonderful ride! It’s only natural.

It’s here. Twenty sixteen is officially a leap year. We’re taking the leap. Those born on the sixtieth day of a leap year have the opportunity to celebrate their fourth birthday at sixteen years of age. This year is my fifteenth leap year.  Leap years calibrate our calendars saving us from the drift. In the USA, leap years leap us into another presidential election. We leap and drift and leap and drift.

Where do we find the time? One quarter of a leftover day each year breaks down to nearly one single minute every day. Keep that in mind next time you are at a loss to find the time to leap into a quality of life activity, like meditation, for example. Taking the leap, just a few single minutes each day, into a silent meditation provides a positive upsurge and stretches us. We become more supercharged and may feel like leaping tall buildings in a single bound (metaphorically speaking).

Leap years and meditation have a lot in common. Leap years adjust our time/space calculators to align more accurately with the united global understanding. Meditation adjusts our personal time/space calculators to align more accurately with ourselves enhancing the united global understanding.  The time goes by whether we are paying attention or not. We can leap over our time and not give it a single minute’s thought or we can leap into our time and be happily mindful of every single minute. Take the mindful leap and meditate. It’s only natural.