Lighten Up

Lighten up. I mean it. How can we live a lighter life? Of course the heavy topics will intersect us and we’ll do what we can when they do. I’m not speaking about diminishing those. The rest of our time though, we can be – and are allowed to be – exploring how to lighten up.

What can we release in our day to day lives to experience less weight? It can feel like the unflexing of your fists when you notice your fingernails sinking into your palms. It can feel like unclenching your jaw when listening to someone else’s tough story. It can feel like slowing down your pace by 10% in the shower at the end of the day. The list goes on and can be unique for each of us in different moments. The message remains the same nonetheless: what does it look like to lighten up in this moment?

“Hey man, lighten up” can easily be misconstrued if the delivery has a certain tone to it. You know the one I’m talking about. In conversation, this might feel a bit kitschy or warrant an eye roll.

There are plenty of phrases that have been hijacked by unwanted definitions, this one included. Let’s look at it another way. Instead of spending time on how it’s said, we can start by asking ourselves what light feels like in practice. We can get clearer about its possibility even in our daily challenges. How can traffic when you’re already running late feel lighter? How can an unresolved argument with your loved one feel lighter? How do we remove the weight, even if just by a hair?

The reality is there will be heavy moments. There will be unwanted weight in our chests. How can we practice lightening up no matter the load we carry? The next time you feel a heaviness to your day, ask yourself what you can release, let go of, put down to lighten the load just a bit. And then, who knows what may become available that otherwise would have been just out of reach because you were carrying just a little too much weight on your shoulders?