Don't worry, be happy

One of the keys to really living life is to stop worrying. It devalues someone else's experience of life and dampens your own. When we shift away from worry, we begin to fly.

In every life we have some trouble But when you worry you make it double Don't worry, be happy - Bobby McFerrin

Worry is a theft of our creativity.

Sometimes we worry about unforeseen events—the things that have not yet happened and probably never will. This is a theft of our attention and creative energy. It takes energy, literally calories burned in the body, to worry about something. That energy is better spent creating what we want, by placing our focus and energy on that. The things I have spent my energy worrying about have never happened, and now I wonder about what I could have accomplished instead.

Think of yourself as a glass of clean water where the water represents how much energy you have in a day. This is your creative potential to grow, learn, create and give back to the world. Worry drains the water from the glass leaving less for you. Worse yet, it can permeate the other parts of your life, polluting the water left in the glass. When I sit in worry and fear about one area of my life, I hold myself back in all areas of my life.

Worry places our attention on what we don't want.

Sometimes our worry is the mantra that leads us to the event. My brother and I signed up for an introductory parachute jump some year back to spend time together and to try something new. During the training that was to prepare us for jumping out of a small airplane the instructor said, "Now this is important. Look at where you want to go and that is where you will land. Do not look at the fence posts along the edge of the field or you will impale yourself on one." I think he was trying to make a point.

We literally go where we are looking, where our attention and focus is directing us. When we look at an obstacle, like the only tree stump in the field, we are very likely to land on it with unwanted results. We essentially invite drama or obstacles into our lives. By looking at where we want to be and maintaining our unwavering focus there, we invite that into our lives and are more likely to get there.

Worry cannot exist simultaneously with love.

It is not our place to judge what we see, but to see the soul that is in front of us and meet them with kindness and love. I had forgotten this and was wracked with anxiety for a family member, so a friend sent me the following quote as a reminder.

Worry is another way violence gets masked as caring. Worry is a lack of faith in the other and cannot exist simultaneously with love. Either we have faith in the other person to do their best, or we don't. Worry says I don't trust you to do your life right. Worry comes from a place of arrogance that I know better what should be happening in your life. Worry says I don't trust your journey, or your answers, or your timing. Worry is fear that hasn't grown up yet; it is a misuse of our imagination. We both devalue and insult others when we worry about them.  - The Yama & Niyamas by Deborah Adele -

When we are sitting in the place of worry it is a big jump to go to the place of feeling happy. A next step might be to move to a place of compassion. Compassion for the situation, for the person in front of us and most importantly for ourselves. When we are sitting in the place of compassion, our thoughts and actions can begin move us towards understanding and contentment. From there, we may land into sweet moments of happiness.