Exclusive: Dolly Parton Talks Spirituality, Choosing Happiness: “I Was Born With A Happy Heart”

Parton shares how she practices her spirituality in a sneak peek at an upcoming interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell.

Dolly Parton might be the busiest woman on the planet. Between her charity work, Dollywood, a rock-and-roll album, a new fashion book, and preparations for her Thanksgiving halftime show, it’s hard to imagine her ever sitting still. Yet somehow the living legend always seems to make time to speak about what’s important to her.

In an upcoming interview with CBS News’ Norah O’Donnell, Parton did just that. The Tennessee songbird sits down for a candid conversation about everything from her lifelong love of butterflies and filming 9 to 5 to how she practices her spirituality and her commitment to staying positive in a world teetering towards darkness.

“Oh, I live my spirituality. You know, that's how you practice it,” Parton, 77, tells O’Donnell in an exclusive clip (below) shared with Southern Living. “Mostly. You just live it and be it. A lot of people overthink spirituality, you know? And they, therefore they think it has to be some big ritual, but the kingdom of heaven is inside. It's right inside of you. And you can draw from that wisdom, whether you call it God or higher wisdom or a higher knowing, there's something bigger than you.”

“I just think you just need to claim it and live it,” she continues. “And you're gonna apply that to whatever you do. I don't think you have to be a saint. I don't think you have to be so strict that you can't have fun. You know, it's all about the intent of your heart.”

Famously quick to laugh and crack a joke (often at her own expense), Parton has spent her career rising above negativity. Even with the rest of the world in what O’Donnell describes as a “happiness slump” or “spirituality deficit,” Parton chooses to be happy.

That slump, Parton believes, is “of our own making.”

“You know, you can change things,” she says of the depressing news cycle. “You can change things for the good, you can change things for the bad, but you can't be so damn stubborn that you're not willing to even try or to give up on an idea that might not necessarily be the right one, just cause it'll make you feel wrong.”

But Parton says that despite her “very positive attitude,” even she feels the strain sometimes.

“I often say that I was born with a happy heart, but boy, my heart gets heavy so much these days. And then I just keep trying to think of ways that I, as I said before, can make a personal difference,” she says. “But we make our own choices as to whether we're going to be happy or whether we're going to be miserable. It's a choice. Everything's a choice.”

Norah O’Donnell’s full interview with Dolly Parton will stream on Thursday, October 19, on Person to Person at 9:30p.m. EST. It can be watched for free on CBS News Streaming  or on demand via the CBS News app or Paramount +.

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Read the original article on Southern Living.