I am going to find a way to learn how to do this. I have DID which means I have trouble staying “mindful and in the now”. This week I let things snowball and I ended up handling something very badly. This is having some stressful repercussions for me. I need some help in learning new ways to deal with stress that will be kinder to me and easier for others who live with me. Thanks for printing such helpful articles.

Avon, you’re a jerk. Breaks for grocery store cashiers are 10 to 15 mins. Lunch is often only 45 minutes.

I don’t know if the story is true but have some compassion! Working full-time as a cashier for minimum wage to make ends meet is difficult for anyone. Imagine how painful it would be for someone who recently loss their husband and who has a baby.

Lovely story, great example. Probably the greatest revelation I’ve ever had is the idea that becoming the kind of person you want to be requires practice and that we come closer as we keep trying. The idea that no one else need be able to make you mad; and that you can learn to make yourself mad or unmad is really useful Though admittedly this skill is harder than most to master! Namaste.

One thing I take from this story is not so much when it’d be best for the cashier to visit with her bsby, but rather how making assumptions, and judgments can cause negative emotions to swirl up inside us,even consume us when the bottom line is – We don’t know her story.
The soldier brings himself into the moment, realizes the baby is kind of cute- a moment of joy, maybe a smile, and subsiding anger. He then learns her plight- her husband was killed in the same war he was in, a human connection, maybe a feeling of gratefulness to be alive. In the end he wound up connecting with the cashier. This not only produced a positive, rather than negative situation, but one that benefitted himself as well.