Taking Things Less Seriously

Description

Most of us know what it's like to take things too seriously -- what if we could start injecting humor into our challenges, and seeing things more light-heartedly?

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Music is "The Woods" by Silent Partner.

Tags: Kenton Whitman,ReWild University,Human Rewilding,personal rewilding,mindfulness,how to,bushcraft,survival,wilderness survival skills,how to survive in the woods

Video Transcription

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greetings everybody we have a new group of forest monks out and you know by now I've been doing this enough years that there's some basic patterns that modern people go through it when they come out and start to live a more primitive lifestyle without our technology and where you have to cook your own meals over a campfire start your own fires make your own bed you know they're using Bracken for instance a mattress and it is making your own bed in the woods is different than making her bed in civilization oh and as challenges come in front of them there's it gets frustrating gets frustrating for people and that mirror is some of the frustration that we'll be feeling our regular lives like I think oh yeah I mean think about hundreds of swarming mosquitoes as you make your Bracken fern bed right and oh by the way it's hot and it's really humid and starting to rain I'd find that very frustrating and the coral it is you know a lot of us get to the end of the month and how are we gonna pay the bills and not sure about your job and the security of it and difficulties you're facing with friends or family there might be health issues so anything no matter where we go in life we can encounter these these things that look very negative and and they can bring us down in a big way but I feel like one of the biggest transformative things that people do to change how they handle the situation's out here the challenges is to invoke humor are not taking things so seriously what made her did this yeah yeah Wow so how do they get to that place what is it that allows them to transform no this I mean ideally what we want to do here is give to all of you the magic recipe for for having that light heartedness because there's a real power I think part of it is that you know we're we're taught the things need to be very very serious there's I remember reading once about bankruptcy and how and some really ultra wealthy people don't take what bankruptcy seriously they see it as a tool or then a lot of people in lower income brackets they see it as a huge thing yeah yeah this huge thing and so we have the same thing their bankruptcy but two very different ways to look at it out in the woods it's you know if you don't give that fire you're not gonna eat or stay warm yeah are you're not gonna stay why and so it has even a more immediate seriousness to it but but when people get that lightheartedness it's you know we talk about this over and over it's about freeing up energy hmm I have that happiness and that seriousness that's like I've got to get this fire so much of my energy is going into that instead of just performing the task at hand nothing I can see it in people's eyes before even before they start or as they begin do you know whether you're gonna get that fire or not

based on their attitude kind of mental attitude yeah and whether it's how seriously they're taking it and the weird thing is that we have to somehow learn to take things seriously without taking them seriously oh yeah I don't care and I just don't even try to get a fire I'm not going to I have to go after it 100% at the same time if I invested right right so you better be invested without being invested gosh that's tough like how do you do that this is a real paradox you know in our our Western culture doesn't deal in paradox very well we we like to be polarized so either you're trying or you're not trying which is it right see the black or it's white gray does not exist there's no there isn't this trying without trying so in I think in Taoism we have this concept of new way which I hope I'm pronouncing correctly which is is this doing without doing this action without acting so essentially doing an action without doing it for the end result but like we're still however we say it's gonna come up sounding funny but we're basically trying to do something without being attached to the results that happen I think the closest correlate we have in iron culture is that idea of it's the journey and not the end yeah right so if we use fire making use an example there's some specific things I need to do here it's bad conditions I'm trying to get a fire started it takes a fair amount of skill and focus those those things the journey up to the fire have to be done from just right there in the journey mm-hmm then I'm doing those things and I perform them while my mind is out there on the goal locked on to it you know and it's this is different again than what we're talking a lot which i think is be focused on that goal we have to be completely driven towards that that goal out there I feel like that sometimes leads to tunnel vision like with the fire then you're seeing I must get the fire I must get the fire and maybe this isn't actually literally true but because of that tunnel vision our attitude is shifted and we may miss opportunities that are all around us the tinder that we actually need because we're rushing or we're a Gris or were scared and we aren't breathing and we aren't taking a little bit of space you know we're rushing or we're so focused that the true joys of life are passing us by you know to use it in a larger example yeah that's perfect I mean people literally miss that hoof fungus over there that's gonna really help them out because it's it's a literal tunnel vision you know our focus goes down as we become focused on that goal so much so that often we don't see very different attitude then okay Here I am I need to get a fire we're gonna peruse my environment take in everything find the tools that are available to me and begin the task so adding a light heartedness to it or a bit of humor can be a signal I think right into our whole attitude at the time to that lighten up then gets us pay more attention in a different way or what yeah no I think that's exactly right but humor or lightheartedness can it can be the bridge that our minds you know our Western minds need to to make that paradoxical jump from only being goal-oriented and so often that lightheartedness needs to be applied towards the goal so okay I want to get that fire alright and and I think I've got three potatoes here and it was gonna be really good potatoes if they're roasted over that fire tonight and then you start to get a little goofy and think yeah you know what maybe be okay raw I could thin slice them just enjoy the white crunch of each raw potato right you're not taking yourself seriously you're joking with it a little bit and and having fun with it and realizing at the same time that that goal is is one thing but there are other options sure our whole being is not you know dependent on that goal usually it's like that Wow let's take it a little bit further and say what if you really do need the fire because you're worried about hypothermia what if so you have been diagnosed with you know something that you feel like oh gosh this is kind of the end where does the light heartedness in the humor help in that is that something we can still even achieve I think if we get radical enough about it you know so first of all usually the goal that we think is 100% necessary is not usually 100% necessary so I can be shivering and think I am going to die tonight if I don't get this fire the truth is that you know I might not get the fire and decide okay no way for me to keep our mr. walk you know and you walk in a random direction I'm not advocating kept back because that is not the thing to do fast but in this instance for this imaginary cinsay you walk and 2:00 in the morning what's happened to us once we happen to stumble on civilization right and Wow okay so we made the wrong choice and yet it was the right choice in that instance but there's usually other ways even if we're going to die okay if this doesn't happen you know in that in that larger context I think for me it sunk in what's his name the guy that lives without money not mark Boyle the one that most people talk about but I cannot think of it maybe we can put it yeah I'll put it up there um he wants was talking about how he doesn't you know chooses not to go to the hospital and people are saying well you don't money just right and he said it's it's okay did I mmm-hmm like we humans we all do die at some point and you you might get cancer and yes modern technology might save you know or or whatever or your body might overcome it on its own or no matter what you do you may die and so that's another video the acceptance of death that maybe we can do it so for it but so not to him that so so seriously and I guess if I think about it if there is something we're okay this is major how are you gonna live those last moments mmm or whatever the situation is so yes it is life and death and if this doesn't happen I am gonna die am I gonna die just being like we go as a plane right or am I gonna be like right I mean we have that choice up to the very very end and sometimes that choice that we've made to live boldly and to live with love and with humor even at the end that is a message to other people and that gives hope to other people so by your very dyeing act of choosing to live to the fullest and live in light and life and laughter and love at the very end that is a gift to all the rest of us so wow we kinda got off track here I mean not totally but that's just so amazing to me so I think you're referencing that story do you remember that was an outside magazine or something this guy talking about it was in a plane I don't some Grand Canyon there somewhere it was him and one other guy in the pilot and something happened with the plane and they were going down towards this cliff the author lived right there's the only one that meant what his last memory before they hit was that was the pilot going like yeah like this is the ultimate ride Wow right that is something to definitely inspires you so so there are some little things that we can do we can stick up a little permission flag when we're in a situation and the humor making yourself if you have to force yourself to find a joke about the situation you're in is a little permission flag that says hey brain I'm not taking this seriously okay we're gonna find a way so I feel like that's one step is to just stick a little permission flag make some humor it lightens everybody up I mean whether it's gallows humor and you're all in a horrible situation or it's just you can choose a little bit of a positive slant I think that's one way to go about it the others realize that that actually does make a difference for you and choosing it repetitively is going to burn groove injure mental pathways that over time you will start to take things more lighthearted as a perfectionist that is in recovery I have taken things super seriously I can still remember that in third grade I spelled the word independence incorrectly on my spelling test and it was an extra-credit word and the reason I was so upset was because the word independence was actually on my pencil the day I took the test and I cried okay seriously serious I was serious

I have a tendency to be serious I think many of us do when we can lighten up and be like okay so there's we you know paint all over the table big deal maybe let's just make it a table that's covered with thee there are very few things in life that have to be taken so seriously that we get clenched about them right clenching it starts to happen we start to try to control we have fear we get anger it's like a little bit of lightheartedness helps that see if you can find something funny right make fun of yourself in a funny way people love that and it feels good you're like hey and the breathing that happens that you talk about that energy the space opens up in your body physically there is more room to breathe the tension goes away the stress goes away laughter is huge for us

and then that energetically frees us up whether it's that fire that you just need to get or it's the fact that you really have a whole bunch of things to do you wanted to get the house clean but you really want to spend time with your grandkids right lightening up share your ideas for how to lighten up situations how to not take life so seriously down in the comments yeah since we started doing these videos together I feel like the comments were always a rich abundant place for for wisdom and learning but more than ever so many of you are sharing your ideas what's worked for you and that again we check out the comments because there is probably more wisdom and material down there and I've done you're gonna find up here in the videos add yours to it thank you so much friends so we haven't talked about it for a while but we things have been going great on patreon we're working more and more towards a place where we can do these videos full time essentially and help us get there if you enjoy and you find value in these videos consider becoming a patron it's at the end of that video we'll leave a link here

thank you

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