Thank you, Abby. My old friend would say, "This is real something". First of all, the way I am so aware of my feelings all the time, I often wonder if I am not a nut case. I am always watching my emotions very closely. Perhaps it is for that reason that I am always in a hurry to get back to happiness whenever I leave it even for a moment. But I was not always like that. When I was younger, I spent most of my life in a form of sleep, allowing events of my life just pass as a continuous collage without paying attention and without any exertion from myself. But losing a couple of loved ones seemed to wake me up. But that was not the kind of awakening I needed. My thoughts were completely sad. I am the kind of person that liked rationalizing things so this rationalization helped me to make peace with their loss.

When I achieved that, I deliberately replaced thoughts of sadness with thoughts of the incredible quality times I spent with them and how we could not have made better use of our time together like we did. With time, I was able to smile whenever I thought of them. This does not have anything to do with your post but the point is that I learned acceptance and the process never left me. Whenever I feel sad, I try to ascertain the reason I am sad. Did I mess up? Did someone else mess up? So why do I feel bad about it? Most times, what it takes is for me to take full responsibility for the events that led to my sadness, accept the sadness as a consequence of my actions and inaction, forgive the other party and let it go. This technique has worked wonders for me.

For instance, there was a time I had a bad breakup and there was nothing I could do to move on from the hurt I had received from the other person. I kept playing it over my mind how I did not deserve the way I had been treated and how I deserved more until I came across an article that said I was responsible for myself and my happiness, therefore if someone else made me sad, it was my fault and that I should swallow that bitter pill, take full responsibility and forgive myself, then forgive the other person and wish them well. As soon as I did these things, I felt much better than I had felt in months. It appears that I am determined to plague you with things that are unrelated to your post today but you are my friend and you have to take it.

As I said in a comment somewhere, true suffering is just immediate craving for things that we cannot have now. As you said, this craving is a disease that is endemic to modern life. There is constant craving for bigger cars, bigger houses, making good grades, getting a good job, meeting sales target, surpassing sales target. As Shawn Achor (Yes I love that guy) said,

Human beings have pushed happiness over their cognitive horizon.

In my opinion, this is the major reason why we find it difficult to be present. I like that your drifting mind is just because of little things like where to find cartoon for your steemit post. Most people are never in the present and their thoughts are on things they have no control over. I have difficulty in being present too. Attempt to do the meditation exercise you gave felt like forever and my mind kept drifting from my heartbeat to the stuff I need to write on steemit, to what I should eat for dinner and many other trivial things. I am certain that I need to improve on being present. I should have been better at it because my mom always told me.

Be present because in the present, everything is complete. The thing you are regretting is in the past and the thing you are worried about is in the future. And the sad thing about it is neither the future nor the past exists. Only the present.

Finally, let me just say that I agree with you that acceptance does not equate staying in one place. Acceptance, in my opinion would enable a person to move on from a painful experience.

I looked forward to your post and you did not disappoint. I can't guarantee that the thoughts in my comment will make any sense to you but they are my thoughts. Thanks, Abby.