How to lighten up, and why we must

It’s all so terrible.

Everything seems to suck.

People are mean. Some are offensive.

The weather is dusty and freaking cold!

Some dude wrote that I was a ‘prat’ on the Internet.

That made me angry. I will get them back for that.

My dad says things that make me cringe.

The world is in disarray.

My gran is dying.

Coronavirus.

Bad sinus.

‘How am I supposed to just ‘lighten up?’

All this stuff is happening to me.

It’s not like I have a say in this.

But you do.

We need you to not take things so seriously. Enough people are serious. We need someone who is light.

It’s good for you, and it’s good for us.

I don’t necessarily mean all bubbly, smiley and outgoing.

I mean resistance-free.

In flow.

Here.

When you do not resist, you are more creative, playful, aware and resourceful.

People also sense this and relax too.

In this way, lightness is contagious.

And the world needs lightness. It is creative. It is home.

Lightness is vital.

‘Lightening up’ is not something we force.

It comes out of understanding…

The reason we take shit so seriously is this:

We believe that stuff outside of us causes our suffering.

We feel like we are at the mercy of the external.

The weather. Harsh words. The economy. Zombie apocalypse.

But we are not.

Our emotional experience is routed to the thoughts in our heads.

When someone says something rude, and we feel stress, that person did not cause our stress.

We did.

Our interpretation did.

If someone says to you:

You’re so cool!

But it’s windy. You misheard. It sounded like: ‘You’re such a tool!’

You are hurt. But not because of the words. Because of your thoughts.

And so in understanding our thoughts, and how much freedom we have when we entertain them less, we can be light.

We don’t need to take things seriously.

Thoughts are personal. Personal is serious.

And we have the choice to let thoughts go.

We have the choice to be happy; to have fun; to be light, right now.

Even if it’s done without a cheesy grin. With or without, that’s fine with me.

You can choose to make someone feel good, whether you’re at a bar, at home, or in a war zone.

Every step we make on this Earth presents an opportunity to be light.

No matter how hard it appears.

We can enjoy it all.

Both the seemingly hard, and the inviting.

At the very least, we can be at peace.

Go against the grain.

Have fun.

Be light.

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If these ideas stirred something in you, I’d love to read your comment below. I read them all.

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Alex