Do Not Worry

  “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” Matthew 6:25-27 (New International Version)

I was going over some of the notes I took at Lifest last week. Yes, I carry a small notebook with me and write down things that people say which inspire me. Or that was the idea.

Tiffany Thompson, one of my favorite speakers at Lifest each year, talked about what psychologists claim makes people happy. Number one thing was gratitude, and not necessarily just feeling grateful, but the actual act of searching (and hopefully finding) things which you are grateful for.

Next was sleep, but it’s not about getting enough sleep; it’s about not worrying about it.  A lot of people (ok, always me) get to bed late, and right away are thinking “I have to get up early in the morning and now I’m not going to get enough sleep and I’m going to be shot all day.” Instead of thinking, “oh, well, I’ll get whatever sleep I can tonight and tomorrow is going to be just fine”.

Third was decision-making. And again (maybe you are starting to see a trend), it’s not about making the right decision; it’s about just making it. Another huge stumbling block for me. I will obsess for days before I am able to make the tiniest, inconsequential decision. “I need a new pair of work shoes, but I really need to wait until they go on sale, but when will that be? And am I going to get to the store while the sale is still on? What if they go on sale right after I buy them? Do you think the store would refund the difference if I took them back when they did go on sale? I’ve always worn white shoes to work, but everyone else is wearing colored ones? Think it would be okay if I wore colored ones too, or would I just be following the pack by doing what they do?” And it goes on and on. Holy cow! Just buy the stupid shoes. Who cares if they cost ten dollars more this week. The amount of stress you are causing yourself is costing your mental health way more than ten bucks!

The last thing which I wrote down was exercise. And you guessed it. It’s not about getting in those 30 minutes four days a week, it’s about doing whatever you can do that makes you feel good. I still wish I could start running again, but my Achilles tendon is still killing me. I need to get over that and accept the fact that I’m not meant to run and just do exercises which make me feel good.

Or that’s what I got out of what Tiffany had to say.

It seems to me, then, that the number one key to finding happiness is to keep it simple, do the best you can, then move on and be thankful for what you have. And in the end, remember that God’s got it covered.