Hakuna Matata: it means no worries!

Now I know it’s A LOT easier said than done to decide not to worry about the myriad of things that are affecting our lives, especially right now. There’s obviously a lot going on around us, and for many of us it may feel like things are a little bit (or a lot bit) out of control. Whether you are still required to physically go to your workplace or you are out of a job completely, times are tough. You either have to worry about getting sick or you have to worry about making ends meet to hang onto the roof over your head that might be helping prevent you from getting sick. You could be a parent who is experiencing a sudden surge in childcare requirements and at-home schooling needs which you may or may not have been prepared for. You could be a child of an elderly parent whose health you worry for every day, but you’re unable to attend to their potential needs for fear that your desire to help will do more harm than good. Within every one of these scenarios there are hundreds if not thousands of varying circumstances and even more so that I haven’t listed or haven’t thought of. And these are just issues that have stemmed from the outbreak of Covid-19, these issues don’t even scratch the surface of the countless obstacles and needs that you were already juggling before all of this and that you will likely continue to juggle well after.

But you know the one thing that’s common about all of the issues we face individually? We get to control our response to them. We can choose stress, fear, and anxiety, letting our problems consume our lives and minds, and all of the light and well-being that we have. Or...we can choose Hakuna Matata! We can choose to acknowledge the pain and the difficulty that our troubles have brought us then let it go and keep moving forward.

I’m honestly the type of person to harp on everything and store every wrongdoing, every slight, in the back of my mind, then unpack each memory one by one when just one thing goes wrong. It takes very little to tip the scales for me. But with the time I’ve been using at home to self-reflect and analyze my approach to life, I’ve decided that it’s time I adopt a little more “Hakuna Matata” mentality. I think we all could definitely use a little more of that right now.