Don't Worry ... Be Happy!

I know, it's easier said than done!  Everyday we all have something to worry about, its just human nature. One church service, many years ago, the Minister said "Don't worry - just pray".  Now that was a hard one to swallow. How can one not worry about their family, their bills, their health and how can one just learn to overcome their fears and anxieties? So I thought I'd try a little experiment, about a year ago, I said to myself "Okay Karen, no more worrying, just pray about it". Wow, difficult thing to do. I was worried about my husband's health, I was worried about our children's future, I was worried about what bill to pay first and how we were going to manage. From that day on, I have tried my hardest not to worry and I just take it to the Lord in prayer. One of my girlfriends came to me with problems and troubles in her home, her family life, her job, her finances and I said "Don't Worry, Be Happy!" She just looked at me with those frozen eyes of the deer in your headlights. I told her remember what the Minister said in service awhile back "Don't worry - just pray!" I gave her my word that I would also pray for her. I'm not saying things got better but we put all our faith in God.  I can't say I've been honestly faithful in doing this all the time since then but I try to do it most of the time. I find myself less of a worry wart. I find that I don't have anxiety or as much stress in my life as I use to have. Try it my friends, if even for just one day.  You might surprise yourself and find that you are worrying less and that you are praying more and there's nothing wrong with that!

Then about a year ago, I went in search of quotes on the internet, each and every morning, I post one on my facebook profile page.  What a great way to start off your day and the day of your friends.  It puts a smile on your face when someone clicks "like" on your post knowing that you may have helped change and influence someone's day in a positive way.  What is even more rewarding is when you see a friend post it on their page. They're spreading the joy and it's almost like something contagious.  Before you know it, hundreds of people are reading it and changing their day.  Don't Worry, Be Happy!  

Below are some of the quotes that I have posted over the past year to help me and others deal with anxiety and stress in the hopes that I can change just on one person's life!

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

Imagine every day to be the last of a life surrounded with hopes, cares, anger and fear. The hours that come unexpectedly will be much the more grateful. ~Horace

The mind that is anxious about future events is miserable. ~Seneca

How much pain have cost us the evils that have never happened. ~Thomas Jefferson

It is the trouble that never comes that causes the loss of sleep. ~Chas. Austin Bates

Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influences of each. ~Henry David Thoreau

Thus each person by his fears gives wings to rumor, and, without any real source of apprehension, men fear what they themselves have imagined. ~Lucan

I never think of the future - it comes soon enough. ~Albert Einstein

It is idle to dread what you cannot avoid. ~Publius Syrus

The rose is fairest when it is budding new, and hope is brightest when it dawns from fears. ~Walter Scott

Don't waste your life in doubts and fears: spend yourself on the work before you, well assured that the right performance of this hour's duties will be the best preparation for the hours or ages that follow it. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

No longer forward nor behind

I look in hope and fear;

But grateful take the good I find,

The best of now and here. ~John G. Whittier

It is not work that kills men, it is worry. Work is healthy; you can hardly put more on a man than he can bear. But worry is rust upon the blade. It is not movement that destroys the machinery, but friction. ~Henry Ward Beecher

MY FAVOURITE

Ask yourself this question: "Will this matter a year from now?" 

~Richard Carlson

And my favourite quote is a story in itself, I'll save for another time, my husband thinks it's quite funny actually. Remember - Don't Worry, Be Happy!