Did you know one of the primary reasons people worry is that they are afraid to be too happy? People actually worry that if they allow themselves to be too happy, others might think they’re selfish and insensitive.

Suppressing happiness is a terrible thing to do to ourselves. It won’t save anyone from their misery. In fact, it could possibly compound theirs and our own!

Restraining happiness becomes a very serious issue if it is the surviving partner’s response when a spouse dies. Far too often, the surviving partner worries that they might be perceived as “happy too soon.” The result is that they live “dead-like,” afraid of what their children might feel or how others will judge them.

Consider me your cheerleader for getting happy in any and all circumstances. The only thing being happy will prevent is being sad! Nobody gets a medal for allowing sadness to linger the longest. There’s no virtue in it.

If you think I’m wrong, try this: Use your imagination to visualize your own personal tragic fate—because you decided to be happy. Like a Shakespeare tragedy—only it’s a comedy! Define your character. Build out the absolute worst-case scenario, like any disaster scene from a Michael Bay movie—with a “must save the world” element from the disaster you’ve created via your happiness. Think Armageddon or Transformers. Add explosions and floods. The end of humanity is coming because you’re allowing yourself to be happy—and it’s being delivered by a hockey helmet-wearing, chainsaw-carrying, mutant amphibian. Go large in your mental production; spend billions!

Hopefully, when you realize how getting happy cannot possibly be worse than the movie you’ve just imagined—chillax and get happy. Cast yourself in your own really-in-love-with-life romance movie.

And with that, I’ll close with a popular quote often (mis)attributed to Willy Shakespeare: “Love me or hate me, both are in my favor…If you love me, I’ll always be in your heart…If you hate me, I’ll always be in your mind.”

It’s time to get with the program of today—and get happy! Life is for the living.

I’m @DianGriesel aka @SilverDisobedience