How Seriously Do You Take Yourself?

One of the most...confusing things about spirituality is the belief that it, by definition, must be very very serious. We're talking seeeeeeeeeeeeeriously serious. Trauma ward-serious. Funeral serious. Monday morning oh God please don't make me have to get up and go to work serious.

But...who really says that it has to be serious? Think about it. Who is forcing you to take yourself (and the things that you do with your self) so utterly seriously? Chances are, nobody is forcing you to see life that way. It's probably coming from within.

Now, here's my idea of why people take things so seriously -- especially anything that has to do with spirituality. It's because there's this belief that unless you take something seriously, you aren't taking responsibility for it. It's as if one of the characteristics of responsibility is seriousness; and if you aren't being serious, you MUST be irresponsible, careless, and just plain sloppy in whatever it is that you're doing.

But...like so many things in life: this is a really baseless belief! You can be extremely effective and surprisingly productive when you aren't serious; or, when you "give yourself some inner space." In fact, I'd say that folks who take things so seriously -- and always look at life through serious eyes -- are really quite unproductive when you look at what they actually DO with their time. And what's more, they're not just unproductive, but they're also very unhappy -- and they make other people unhappy, too!

Yes, the task facing you may be one that requires concentration. Perhaps in the relative scheme of things, it's a high priority task. And perhaps the context of the situation or event dictates that you remain quiet or that you clearly direct others -- perhaps you're a surgeon in the emergency room, or a school teacher, or a parent teaching a child how to cross the road...there are millions of situations where "looking and acting" serious are appropriate. But inside there is actually no need to clog up your inner space with serious noise. In fact, what you truly want to do is create INNER SPACE so that you can clearly see what needs to be done -- and see what doesn't need to be done.

So yes, act as the situation requires; respond to it naturally and appropriately and, indeed, effectively.

But seriously? Come now.

Have you ever seen a serious flower?