Are you laughing?

In this edition of the journal, I want to address a problem that I've noticed a lot recently as I see too many people suffering from it.

People have a tendency to overreact to the most normal situations of their lives. They almost always think about the most outrageous negative possibility.

See, this is a massive problem as it teaches you to develop a fearful attitude towards life and fear itself is a massive impediment to living. Not only that, fear prevents us from growth.

Most people are way too stressed about these things, proceeding to act with too much caution. It's exhausting to always restrict yourself to act like you want to act.

Thinking-

"If I speak to a stranger, they'll definitely ignore me"

If only they realised that other people are too preoccupied with their own fears and insecurities to be really focused on you. They think the same way about you.

This causes most people to never do what they want to do.

For example, recently, I took up Muay Thai because I wanted to learn how to fight. This was something that I've always wanted to do but didn't get to it sooner.

Anyway, in my most recent class, I was sparring with my coach so I was told to do some warm up and shadow boxing. So as told, I started throwing some basic combinations, until I threw the roundhouse kick.

Now to the embarrassing part, I slipped while throwing the roundhouse kick and fell hard on my face. In came the voice from the background saying

"K.O. by shadowboxing, that's a new"

That was my coach, it was pathetic really, and embarrassing for 2 seconds. But then even I started laughing because in truth it was quite funny.

See, whenever you take up something new, you have to pass through the gates of beginners hell. It is impossible to not only embarrass yourself but have your morale shaken by self doubt.

Why am I even doing this. I get nothing in the beginning.

All the actual rewards lie after that gate. But to get to that point you must always have a particular attitude.

It's the playful attitude. This is the opposite to the fearful attitude. This is the attitude that unlocks great possibilities for you.

In the state of play, a human learns at a rate that cannot be replicated in any other state.

In this state work feels like play.

To take yourself seriously but not so seriously that it suffocates and strangles you.

It is to know that most of what you're stressed about doesn't happen, and if such an outrageous event occurs worrying about it doesn't do you any good.

Instead if you approach it with calm and playfulness you are much more likely to find the solution to the problem.

In the worst case that you can't, you will find enough strength to laugh about it.

Playfulness should be your resting state. I recommend trying it, it's fun. Life becomes really funny.

Have a full fledged conversation with a dog in bark-speak and then laugh about it (If something weird like that doesn't make you laugh, get yourself checked).

Act like a chimp without a care in the world if you want to.

People that are way too serious about everything actually live in a constant state of worry and misery.

Too preoccupied with what other people would think if they acted like a goof for a second. They slowly lose their sense of joy in this world.

How could anything ever be fun if you're that serious about everything.

Know that play state is a precursor to and sometimes synonymous with flow state.

Whether that playfulness be used to get past the beginners hell to learn a new skill, to persist in mastering a new one, to crack a good joke, to be creative to make music and write or to even laugh at yourself sometimes.

Use it till you exhaust it and when you exhaust it, use it some more.

So don't let your soul reek of fear, let it project love. Smile in the face of your fears.

In the spirit of play, cause mischief, learn intensely, love passionately, work rigorously, laugh loudly, behave obnoxiously.

And if someone has a problem with that, fart at them and run away.

Alright, that's it for this week. Bye.