I want to talk a little bit about O's Guide to Life (The Best of O, The Oprah Magazine) which is something like a greatest hits collection of The Oprah Magazine compiled of 100 of her favorite articles.

In the first place, it is visibly pleasing to the eye, with its hot pink, glossy cover featuring a beaming Oprah. A perfect coffee table book. Yet inside is where the delights really begin.

The book is divided up into 3 sections, Your Personal Best, Relationships and Living in the World, wherein you will find an array of alluring articles covering such topics as Happiness, Health, Dreaming Big, Spirituality, Talking and Listening, Giving Back and many many more.

The book features a few articles written by Oprah herself in her celebrated, "What I know for Sure: Oprah" column. I was particularly drawn to her article titled, "Your base level of pleasure is determined by how you view your whole life" (page 77), wherein she discusses the merits of living in the moment. By this, she means consciously staying attune to how much pleasure you are receiving at all times. She achieves this by rating each moment on a 5 star pleasure meter. For example, the simplest activity of, "waking up 'clothed in my right mind,' being able to put my feet on the floor, walk to the bathroom, and do what needs to be done", she rates as a 5 starrer. Now, how many of us would give such a minute task even a second thought? But, in thinking of all the people who aren't even healthy enough to do that, indeed it is a blessing!

Lets think about this for a moment. Many of us go through life never really paying attention to the here and now. In today's society, we are pre-conditioned to think of the future and all of its promises, especially if we feel that the present leaves a lot to be desired. Often we are dwelling on grievances from our past that cause us to reach desperately for a better future. I personally don't think there is anything wrong with dreaming big, in fact I think it is extremely important, but if the future is all that consumes us we are losing the most important part, and that is the journey we are taking to get there.

By being aware of the present, we start to notice that we have so many things to be thankful for. And life starts to take on a new, more optimistic meaning. For example, when you have had a really long, hard day at work, it is so easy to come home and complain about all of your problems and thus, unintentionally magnify them. In

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