Bee Happy
"Most of the things you worry about NEVER happen!"
It does seem like worry puts a damper on your current happiness, doesn't it? It is hard not to worry when you are going through some rough patches. We all go through them. The rough stuff: failing health in yourself or in someone you love, the loss of a job, the loss of a companion, the loss of a home, the loss of loved ones, the loss of trust, the loss of your future. The big worries are usually about loss.
Then there are the constant, personal niggling worries that eat us up: Success in school or careers or sports as well as weight issues, bully issues, child issues, teenager issues(!), are we good enough? Smart enough? Worth loving? You know what I'm talking about.
And the state of the world? We won't even go there!
The fact is, there is very little about our lives that we do control other than our attitude. We can spend our days worrying about what we can't control, or we can spend our days looking around and loving what we have.
It is a choice, you know. Really. You have to make the effort, but you can change your attitude to one of happiness just by recognizing the good things around you. Little things, big things, inconspicuous things that only you find pleasure in.
Find something beautiful about today and be happy with that. Want to make it last longer? Point it out to someone else!
Play Bob Marley's "Don't Worry Be Happy" song. Then play Pharrell William's "Happy" song. Then sing your own happy song!
I get a daily e-mail from the Story People. They have the kind of quirky, colorful, unexpected thoughts that make me giggle and add a little brightness to my day. What little delightsome things lift you up? Think about it. Work on it. As they say, "Happiness is a choice."
Have you ever read the book, Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl? It is a powerful little book about what he learned while in the concentration camps. Here are three of our favorite quotes:
- "Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."
- "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."
- "Between stimulus and response, there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom."