Life is so Damn Serious! Too Serious really… Or maybe it’s just me.
It is so easy to get caught up in all the serious activities that encompass our lives.
Sickness. Bills. Baby burning his hand. Everybody stressed. NSA spying.
You name it, there are reasons all around us to get serious and take action. But we have to seek balance. Action is all fine and good, and it’s how things get done. But in some ways I feel like I’ve been living my life in wartime, just waiting for the next bomb to go off.
I’ve always heard growing up of two stress responses, Fight or Flight. However it was only in the last 10 years as I got into my yoga studies that I learned about the more sinister type of stress, being trapped. Here is the scenario. You are a mouse and a cat is in the room with you. You have your choices fight or flight. Let’s face it, you’re a mouse, you can’t possibly take out the cat. So your only option, really, is flight. But here’s the rub. The room is locked and all the little mouse sized holes are sealed up. So now all you can do is wander the room nervously waiting for the cat to get hungry. This third type of stress is what we often find ourselves in. In this civilized world it’s not really appropriate to fight everybody, nor is it appropriate to run away, so we tough it out and sit and take it, nervous and unable to move.
Worse yet, sometimes, the cat is out our own heads. We are still the mouse, but we make up scenarios in our heads where we suffer at the claws of the mythical cat and struggle for survival…
So to my point. So What?!!! So the world is serious. So we get stressed. So that cat is going to eat us. Until then, we can at least occasionally throw a party! We can at least remember to dance and sing and do whatever it is that makes you feel alive! Everyone gets eaten by the cat eventually. Nobody, and I mean NOBODY, gets out of life alive. So the question you have to ask yourself is this “Do I want to go through life afraid? Or do I want to live like I’m… well… alive?”
So last night, as we watched our daughters 7 pm bedtime quickly receding in the rear view mirror, she asked to dance. So I put on music on my iphone and we danced and partied like there was no tomorrow! Baby got in on the action with his 1 year old head bob and Mom joined in as well as we spun in circles and had a fantastic moment.
And it reminded me, in the midst of my scheming and planning and scheduling and recovery, that life is supposed to be fun.
Enjoy yourself! Namaste!
Kevin
