Taking life with humor

Sometimes humor is the only way to deal with life's ups and downs. When we forget that, life often reminds us of that fact. I wrote this column in my motivational newsletter and I want to share it here.

Heyokah

The trickster or Joker shows up in many cultures. He has many names. In Native American spirituality, he is represented by the Coyote, and also by Heyokah. He represents humor and irony. His message is: "Don't take life too seriously!"

Heyokah shows up in your life, when you begin to take yourself, your situation and your life too seriously. You may be overly concerned with your dignity, your status or the respect that people are or are not giving you. You may be a perfectionist, or are showing a perfectionist attitude at the moment. You may be gritting your teeth and fighting your way to the top of the corporate ladder. You may be convinced or your own importance. Then, suddenly, something happens that makes you look and feel like a total fool. You arrive at an important board meeting with a pair of your wife's panties static clinging to the back of your coat. You make your grand entrance into a room full of admiring men, and your heel gets caught on the carpet and you fall on your butt. Your perfectly. You want to sink into the ground and you think you can never face these people again. And Heyokah is standing on the sidelines, laughing...

Heyokah's message is very clear: "Get off your high horse, human!" Let's face it, life is unpredictable. No matter how carefully we plan, sometimes things just happen. And often, they happen for a reason. They force us to take a fresh look at our attitudes and to question our self-importance. Heyokah teaches us to learn from our mistakes through humor. Why did this happen? Was I getting too pompous? Do I appear arrogant in my desire to preserve my own dignity? Did my perfectionism prevent me from appreciating the small wonders of everyday life? Was my desire to impress other people creating stress in my life?

Embarrassment is a wonderful attention-getter. Nothing wakes us up faster than our own red face. Nothing seems as earth-shaking as other peoples' laughter, when we are the joke.

At the moment, it is easy to make a short-circuit decision. Sometime people do that, because they don't think past that one embarrassing moment. Some peoples' lives have drastically been changed because of such a short circuit decision. Some lives have ended.

Heyokah doesn't want to cause you permanent damage. He just wants to laugh and to get you laughing. He wants to you find a fresh, and somewhat humbled approach to life and its many pitfalls. Take some time out. Re-live the moment that caused you so much embarrassment in private and try to find the humor in it. Then look for the message behind the event. Heyokah shows up when we are our of sync with our nature. He teaches us to be more balanced. He comes when we are too linear in our development and challenges us to become more varied in our interests. And he is here to put the brakes on our ego, when it tries to convince us that we are superhuman.

As painful as Heyokah's message may be at the time, it is one of the most healing incidents in our lives. As we recover and lick our wounds, we have time to reflect on the reason behind the trickster's appearance.

If Heyokah is in your life, you'll know it. Take time to listen and learn to laugh at yourself. It could become your most endearing quality!

Tyger


Tag Taking life with humor life humor Tyger