How To Be Less Serious?

[Scholar]

In Leo's new insight he is talking about how seriousness is a sign of a defensive ego. But how do you practically go about becoming less serious and more playful? 

Aside from meditation, what else can one do in life to stop taking it so serious? 

[egoeimai]

I think that by not taking thoughts and beliefs so serious. Seeing their nature. Understanding that you came here to create something,and stress is not a way to live life. I think that yes being serious or trying to be,is a way to protect your ego from being hurt,thats why when you realize theres noone that can harm u because u are loved,and its noones intention,and that you are something more important that this ego u are trying to protect,and this thing which is tryinh to peotect the ego,is the ego. So its like, you know you experience life through ego,its the separation which comes its the nature of human mind,the development of the mind proves that ego exists because u separate you from others and all this separation has to do with your need to be different ,better,from other individual and through that you sense your existense. So the ego is kind of inevitable fact. And your need to feel your existence is thinking and doing things based on ego.

[jack k]

 

[Salaam]

Humor is the counter-balance to being serious in my experience. But, it's not that effective as a one-off kind of thing. You need to cultivate it as a practice of looking at the humorous side of things. Find the funny side of normal things in life, so that comes easy, then find the funny side in things that might be painful or aggravating to you, and then find the funny side in things that you find to be very important (that intense feeling of importance and attachment to it is a clue or signal for the application of balance).

Each of these actions has a chemical build-up within our bodies that changes over time and effects our habitual responses. If a person has a build-up of self-importance and certainty for instance, dedicating a month of practice to seeing the humor in yourself will change that build-up and balance out that over-serious disposition.

This is field and stress tested as practically applicable and successful by the way. I watch my emotional levels to manage my rapport with things and often times practice humor and goofiness to balance out the deep, serious, and often painful things I work on in life.

[WaterfallMachine]

I think one of the good ways of doing it is maintaining a life not full of "shoulds" but something you "want or desire." What you have are better of not as rigid rules wifh an iron first but gentle guidelines. You can do this by practicing being aware of thoughts and replacing them with much more gentle and playful ways of doing with a spacious awareness. 

I'd like to add to Salaam's advice on humor here. I find in my experience, it was hard to find a sense of humor until I watched comedians. And trying to see their and the audience's point of view on laughter.  Learning their way of making humor, jokes and having fun and finding what really gets you going the most. A kind of "humor" role model. Another way is seeing the situation from a fresh point of view such as imagining how a child would see it or an alien from outer space. I found it helpful to write a story in my life from a stressful point of view and then changing it to be more lighthearted. Ask, "How would a much more playful person see this situation?" and write that.

Edited May 18, 2017 by WaterfallMachine