Living Lightly
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive. – Elbert Hubbard
I find it boring how serious some people are. And I love the quote above. Life is temporary and I think that it is our job to enjoy it.
I have a natural ability to find things funny. Every time you find humour in a difficult situation, you win.
I'm serious about humour! People who can lighten up, who can find fun and laugh at themselves have great energy. Heaviness drags people down. Laughter lifts rooms.
As children we laugh. We giggle. As an adult, I got thrown out of a yoga class once for laughing at a fart. I was told I was very immature! I am 55 years old and I still think that farts are funny!
Finding things to be amused by is one of my focuses each day. Funny people, funny situations, funny memes and funny comments.
When you find something amusing you are more likely to smile - smiles invite people in, seriousness kicks them out!
When my kids were younger, there were moments when I wanted to put each of them in the wheelie bin. They'd go from being my favourite humans on the planet to the most annoying in about three seconds flat. The trick was to stay light and know that nothing is forever. Everything in life is a phase.
Staying light in heavy situations is an excellent tool and a powerful decision. It means you respond rather than react. It means you stay in your power, managing yourself and responding in the way you want to.
Life is hard enough without making it heavier than it needs to be. Finding the funny doesn't mean you're not taking things seriously - it means you're refusing to let the weight of it all crush you.
When I catch myself getting too serious, too heavy, too invested in the drama, I ask myself: will this matter in five years? Usually the answer is no. And if the answer is yes, then finding the humour in it becomes even more important because that's how I'll get through it.
"Honour everything but know nothing matters.” - Eckhart Tolle
Your energy responds to how you show up. Heavy energy attracts heavy situations. Light energy creates space for possibility. Feelings need to be felt but once you have felt them, you get to choose what you do with them.
I choose laughter. I choose to not take myself too seriously. To look at the light. To be light.
“It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days… Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me…So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling....” - Aldous Huxley, 1962
