“Don’t Worry, Be Happy” The title and lyrics of the 1988 song by Bobby McFerrin, from a real world perspective, sounds like a fairly trite philosophy. Come on … who is going to wander around without worry and be perpetually happy (unless they are medicated)? Is it even possible? Well let’s break it down and look at the possibilities. Don’t worry. Let’s flip that one on its head. Go ahead and worry. Now tell me how that feels. You might respond by saying that it is not a choice. It is just something that happens as a result of an action, behaviour, or circumstance. Worry is an outcome (a resultant state of mind). Okay, so if a group of 10 people all experience the same event, action, behaviour, or circumstance, do they all inherit the same state of mind? Did they all start off with the same state of mind? Is it possible there was either a broad or narrow spectrum of responses to the stimuli? Let’s pretend the answer to all the above is yes.

As you ponder your response, let’s pretend we are out on a walk in the woods in Alaska, on a shore-excursion trip with a group of 8 to 10 unrelated adults. As we walk along the path adjacent to a salmon-spawning stream, in the hopes of observing a bear (or bears) in their natural habitat, our most fervent hope is realized. A brown bear stands up, not 10 feet from the group, and starts sniffing the air in our general direction. A few members of our group are very calm, trusting blindly that nothing can go wrong, and too busy being amazed at the beauty and grandeur of nature to worry about potential danger. A fair number of people in the group are tense, but calm enough to behave logically—staying very still and quiet—hoping that the bear will prove to be more interested in fishing than in us. Two women start screaming and pointing and wailing. One man starts hyperventilating and yelling, “Oh my God!!” over and over as he moves away from the group. The bear becomes agitated by the noise, and their seeming aggression, and charges toward the group. Extreme agitation doesn’t look to be a helpful response in most cases. In this one, it certainly wasn’t helpful to anyone, regardless of their response. So can your emotional response be controlled?

Yes it can, but it takes another emotion to pave the way: faith and belief in a power greater than yourself (greater than the bear as well). As the true warrior knows, with faith and belief, you have the foundation upon which you can live free of worry—as that state or condition can be handed over to your higher power. If you are more or less worry free, because you have faith and a belief, then you might possibly be living the kind of life that results in happiness as your default setting. There is no point in trying to change things that cannot be changed, and this is often a source of worry. (“I can’t change the past and it’s going to catch up with me!”) True warriors accept the futility of trying to fight this, so they don’t try—never engaging their worry button. You can be happy, and you can be free from worry. This is a gift for you, so take it! If you can, let go of those things that seem important enough to you that you potentially hurt yourself, and those around you, with the power of your worrying.

You are warriors, and if you give up worry and embrace happiness—through the practice of your faith and belief—you will be able to move mountains. You can claim mountain mover status. Your success will be the herald of the day, and songs of your exploits will be sung around the end-of-day fires across the land. So it is written.