Don't worry...be happy

“Do not anticipate trouble, or worry about what may never happen.  Keep in the sunlight. 

~Benjamin Franklin 

All that any of us really want is to be happy.  The trouble is, most of us are looking for happiness in all the wrong places.  Money, relationships, acceptance by others.  These are common culprits in the pursuit of happiness, but sadly, all of these things ultimately lead us down a road to unhappiness.

with most things we pursue in life, we are focusing on the result.  Try focusing on the action, the doing.  This goes back to the notion of mindfulness, of being present, which is really the key to finding joy and happiness.  I’ve found that I’ve had to integrate this into my life a little at a time.  I’m practicing this now every time I go for a run (the action).  I’m training for a race in November (the result), but when I’m running, I’m with nothing but my breath, the feeling of the cool air, the sounds of the birds and the early morning traffic. If my legs feel tired and sluggish I take notice but without thinking about or analyzing it.  If I’m feeling energized and refreshed, I again notice but don’t analyze.  This is simply accepting what IS.

The moment we stop accepting what IS, worry, anxiety, fear, guilt, and stress are free to creep back in.  But with all this worrying, fretting, or being irritated, all we're really doing is creating our own problems.  I'm reading The Power of Now, a Guide to Spiritual Enlightenment by Eckhart Tolle and, among other things that stopped my in my tracks, he explains that problems don't exist.  They are nothing but illusions that our mind creates.  “Problems are mind-made and need time to survive. They cannot survive in the actuality of the NOW.”  To bring me back to this idea, I love this exercise that he offers:  Ask yourself, what problem do I have at this moment?  Try it, and I bet you’ll find you don’t have a problem because they exist only in the past or the future.  You messed up a project at work today and your boss is upset with you.  This is not a problem because it happened in the past. It is not happening right now.  You’re worried about getting fired because of the mistake.  This is also not a problem.  That is the future.  How silly to be worrying about something that hasn’t even happened!  This is all just a waste of energy.  Instead, take Tolle's advice:

“Surrender to what IS.  Say “yes” to life – and see how life suddenly starts working for you rather than against you.”

~Eckhart Tolle