Creating Your Own Happy Dance

When is the last time you did a happy dance?  That dance that reminds you and lets anyone watching you know that life is good?  When is the last time you looked into a mirror and ignored your wrinkles and other marks of living a stressful life and were able to exclaim out loud, “You‘ve got it going, girl?” I mean … said it and felt it?  If it’s been a while, it’s time for you to regroup and get into that space of appreciating who you are.

I know for myself it doesn’t seem to matter how many times I get into a state where I can do my happy dance when events and people do and say things that begin to unravel the appreciation I have for myself.  And I’m not alone.  We are continually reminded that life is all about riding the roller coaster of frequently feeling up and down and experiencing good and bad happenings.  And we find ourselves easily buying into that and are willing to accept that premise as something that is always going to be there and can’t be changed.  Or can it?

The reality is that we live with other people in our lives, whether on a personal level or a more distant or superficial one.  Through the media, we have become acquainted with what is going on worldwide and have a bird’s eye view into what other people are doing and saying, which can affect us whether in a significant or very minor way. Much of what we see and hear is negative, bringing us down to worrying about things we have no control over. Therein lies the real issue.  For how can we dance our happy dance with so much in the world going sideways?

I have found the best piece of advice of how we can exist and feel good about ourselves is when we understand our limitations – that it doesn’t make sense for us to claim responsibility for anyone or anything outside our control or influence.  That comes from the AA serenity prayer,  “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”  For me, this says it all. 

When we realize that happiness begins and ends within our own power of being, we can become happy, self-assured, confident, and worthy of good self-esteem.  And that increases each time we can put ourselves to bed at night knowing we have done the best we could during the day to live up to that prayer.  That doesn’t mean we won’t have days wishing we could have a do-over because we are human and not perfect in all our choices.  So, my friend, use some of these words from the Happy Dance song and create your own happy dance:

Hey, yeah, you
In the back of the room with those concrete shoes
It’s okay to cut loose
Oh, it ain’t about how you move, but what moves you
We’re so consumed with what we think we’re supposed to be
That we stop living like we know that we’re free.