Don't Worry, Be Happy
Americans just don't have time to be happy. There are places to be, deadlines to meet, chores to be done and bills to pay. The kids have soccer and ballet and Scouts. Better swing by the drive-thru, no time to cook tonight. Bathtime, bedtime, watch the news and then not quite enough sleep before doing it all over again.
No wonder we're not healthy!
Our bodies weren't made for the way we're living. We aren't supposed to stagger under mental strain while we barely move from a sitting position all day, and then provide fatty fried foods as "nourishment." And if our jobs are boring and don't provide enough mental strain, we actually create it ourselves! We fill our time worrying about how to pay the water bill or borrowing exhaustion by thinking about all of the things that have to be done by the end of the week (or next week or next month). We watch the news, filling our minds with emotional negativity. We read articles and spend hours being angry over what someone else's opinion is.
What happened to happiness?
We spend so much time trying to set up the perfect conditions for happiness (a nice home, new cars, an exciting job title, a big savings account) that we never actually get to the happiness part. Our lives seem to be spent in preparation for happiness. And then, just when things start to come together, guess what happens? We get sick.
Anger, hatred and worry are a more deadly epidemic than cancer. Martin Luther wrote, "Heavy thoughts bring on physical maladies; when the soul is oppressed so is the body." People who dwell in these emotions often have stomach ulcers, bouts of depression or anxiety, insomnia and more. Negative emotions poison the body. They have such power, in fact, that Cleve Backster began experiments in 1966 and discovered that plants actually respond to people's emotions and intents...in fact, all live cells do, including things like yogurt cultures and cells scraped from the roof of your mouth. If you want to see these results firsthand, plant two beans in separate pots (or use petunia seedlings, or whatever). Label one pot "Ugly" and one pot "Beautiful." Every day, pause by the "Ugly" pot and think about how ugly it is. Then think about how lovely the "Beautiful" plant is. Watch what happens as the weeks go by. You can also try removing the "Ugly" label and replacing it with "Beautiful" and see what happens.
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