According to Stowe, no one should miss out on being as happy as they can be because they don’t know how to be, or they are following the wrong formula. For many years she was following the wrong formula for happiness. She was doing all those things you are “supposed to do.” She ended up being busy, stressed out and unhappy, and it almost cost her everything.
When host Donna Gunter asked if we should strive to be happy all the time, Stowe answered, “Heck NO! We are NOT meant to be happy all the time! However, I do believe we are supposed to be happy MOST of the time. I do believe happiness is our natural default way of being. Suppose a saber-tooth tiger is chasing you. This is a life-threatening situation and is not the time to ‘stop and smell the roses.’ This is the time to run for your life. Forget happiness. You are in survival mode. The thing is to know when those saber tooth tigers are just real or just our imagination. When people have a significant event, that is like being chased by the saber-tooth tiger. You are maxed out on the stress scale. You are in survival mode for a period. Significant events are life-threatening and you need to survive them first, and when the time is right, you can get back to being happy.”
