Don’t Worry, Be Happy!

Don’t worry, be happy. I never really liked that song or that saying. What do you mean don’t worry? In life, that is all we do if we are responsible adults trying to have a productive adult life. We worry about our relationships, our children, our parents, our jobs, and how well we are doing in life at that very moment compared to everyone else in your life and everyone who imposes their life on you by posting their greatness all over social media. It is human nature to worry, right?

Now the second part to that little saying, be happy. You are asking me to forget about all the things that I worry about throughout the day and just give it a smile or change my attitude about the confident fit women my husband works with every day or the fact that my three-year-old child has just asked me what is suicide?

I guess I could approach everything with a happy attitude and laugh at the bills that are piling up or cheer about the store clerk who is watching me ready to attack and accuse while I am at self check-out, checking out.  

I bring this up because my husband is that person who walks around with the attitude of not worrying and just being happy. His famous saying is, why worry about things you can’t change or things that are going to be what they are? Worrying will not change things at this very moment. Use that energy to be happy and focus on the positives that are happening around you and look for solutions to your worries instead of dwelling on them.

I always say easier said than done. I am a worrier. I worry about everything and my husband is right, it does not change my situation. I worry about how I look, how I smell, how I sound when I talk, my family, my health, money, my writing, and the list goes on. These are daily worries and it feels like each of my worries have a weight that is added to an imaginary bag that I carry on my back from the moment I wake up until I fall into a deep sleep. I don’t take the bag off when I sleep I just hope that the bag of worries doesn’t suffocate me in the night.

I am happy when things go according to plan or when I see the joy in others. I love and cherish great moments and accomplishments. I am happy when there is a reason to be happy, but I know this is not what it means to live.

Living life is being happy and not worrying. If you are worrying you are not living. We are our harshest critics and we judge ourselves more than we judge others. In a perfect world judgment is not a factor, but we don’t live in a perfect world. We need to find ways to take back our lives and either change our situations or enjoy the parts of it that make it worth living.

Why worry about my health every time I eat a morsel of food, why not be happy I am walking and breathing this day and make better choices in my life that will eliminate the worry of if I am going to have a heart attack or stroke today. Why worry about my children going to school when I should be happy that I get to drop them off and pick them up from school and if something were to happen I would be notified and then my worrying would be justified.

We must make a choice in life to either be happy productive adults or to be emotionally unstable adults and accept a life full of worry that creates sadness and anxiety.

I am not fully there but every day I challenge myself to worry less and enjoy the small accomplishments that can be as simple as taking my next breath.

When you lift your head out of the fog you see all the beauty that surrounds you every day. I am happy my husband kisses me before he leaves for work, my children say they love me before they leave for school, on my commute to work I have radio personalities that pull me into their conversations and lighten my morning with laughter, that my boss only interacts with me maybe 2 hours out of my 8 hour work shift, that my car started up and got me home, that all the ingredients for the dinner I am making tonight are in the refrigerator, how I am blessed that my children can not wait to tell me about their day. and that I can rest my head at night knowing that I am blessed to have shelter, clothing, and food and that things could be much harder.