Don’t worry, be happy! If I had a dime for every time I heard that line that when I was in Jamaica some years back, I’d be rich–and happy! It’s such a simple statement. It rolls off our tongues like some platitude. We try to believe it. When we hear that song, we think of the likes of Bob Marley basking in the sunshine on some beach, reggae music blasting in the background. What’s not to be happy about? Here we shiver and shovel, then complain as more snow falls. I have a dear friend (she shall remain nameless) who reminds me weekly about how much she hates the snow. I cringe thinking about what she’d do with a shovel if I suddenly blurted: “Don’t worry, be happy!”
Is “Happy” the new buzz word? In recent years, there has been a deluge of articles written about happiness and being happy. Relationship gurus spout about the importance of happiness within the self and how that reflects on our significant relationships. A whole spate of writing exists out there to remind us about the nature of happiness…as if that is not reason enough to make us unhappy. Why all this focus on happiness anyway? Why care if those endorphins are coursing through us, keeping us smiling? I think pigs have it right: they sit in IT and they’re still happy.
So yes, it really is that simple: stop worrying for you cannot change the event that has not yet occurred and that you are worrying about, and just be happy about what you do have. I like to say, “Fake it until you make it.” It’s not always an easy task to plaster a smile on your face and face the world. But then again, it is a catch-22. What you put out there, you get back. You smile at the universe and it smiles on you. It IS that simple.
Don’t worry, just be happy!