Tell me.
Do you take life seriously?
Years ago, I had a friend who would always start laughing when she received bad news. At the time, I found it somewhat strange. What was it about the laughing? Was it a simple defense mechanism, meaning that the item was actually so painful that she had to find a way to prevent it from entering her body and wreak havoc? Did the laughter somehow allow the news to change into a liquid consistency that could run down on the outside of her body and then drain into the ground?
Hmmm.
I only realized years later, that in principle, she was onto a good thing. I always took life and everything around at face value. It was all serious business. I had to pay attention. I had to make the right decisions and if I didn’t, there were serious consequences. I had no tools to help me keep challenges at bay. They all entered freely, and I was suffering. I became an awesome martyr.
When I learned about energy clearing, I realized that my feelings could be influenced by the location I was standing or sitting in, and they would shift if I moved a few feet over. This provided me with a whole new understanding that I actually have a choice whether I pick up and engage in a particular life story or not.
When we feel angry, frustrated or sad, there are at least 10 stories relating to this particular emotion hanging on an imaginary clothesline next to us. If we want to, we can pick up the story that seems most closely related to our feelings and engage in it. As soon as we do, there is a sense of weight and reality, our feelings intensify, we get sadder, angrier, more frustrated. And down the rabbit hole we go…
If you know that feelings are temporary and influenced by your physical and energetic environment, then you can choose not to pick up a story from the imaginary clothesline. It can stay there while you give your feelings permission to move through your body. The less resistance you offer, the faster they will shift and change. I imagine them like ocean waves. They can be big and powerful or small and gentle and anything between.
Here then is where the laughter comes in.
When you come across a situation that you have experienced multiple times before, then one of two things can happen. One is, you get triggered. This means you are reacting automatically. You don’t even know that there may be a choice and you are responding immediately in the same way you have endlessly before. You get serious, become entrenched in an opinion and pick up a story from the clothesline. And off you go into another repeat cycle that usually does not solve anything and causes just more grief.
The other option is to take life more lightly. This is often easier said than done. For this to happen, you have to actually become aware that you are in one of those frequently repeating situations. This is the point where the chuckle of recognition, the laughter can come in: “Oh, it’s that one again!”
Can you see the humor in noticing that even though you have been working internally with an issue and thought you were “done” with it, at some point it shows up yet again, sending out feelers to test if it can catch you unawares and trigger you?
I hope you do, because only then can you actually choose to respond differently.
When we are able to laugh about a challenging situation, we have just saved ourselves. The energetics may flow through us, but do not take a hold of us. We can stay on a more even keel and can go on without being side tracked into martyrdom.
It makes all the difference!
Next time you get caught in seriousness, allow yourself a conscious breath. See if there is room for a chuckle and notice what changes.
So, go ahead and take yourself lightly!
Let me know below in the comments, if there is something in your life that you used to take seriously that have you now learned to laugh about.
P.S. If you find some challenges in creating this change in perspective for yourself, let’s have a conversation and explore how I can support you in making this happen. Go here to book a free 30 min. Discovery call with me.