Undoing Seriousness

I've never seen a serious child

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I've seen sad children. I've seen angry children. I have seen children engrossed in an activity. I have seen children, especially under 18 months, who appear to be serious but are just unselfconsciously curious. I have never seen a serious child below the age when the child has begun to learn to resist their fear and starts to be dominated by the concern for "looking good."

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Silliness is the first thing to go

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In our rush to become adults, or at least behave like them, the fun and freedom of being silly, "peek-a-boo!", is one of the first things we sacrifice. 

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You can act any other way, but don't be silly

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Sometimes in my Sunday class, both to have fun and to demonstrate what I mean when I say that I am a three-year-old child pretending to be a 76-year-old man (as of May 2021), I start crawling around on my hands and knees, playfully bumping up against the knees of some of the students. They will respond with some laughter, some embarrassment, and sometimes, for the boys, with a bit of horseplay, but they never join me in my silliness. 

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Why is undoing seriousness important?

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Seriousness, as I mean it here, implies a compulsion to be careful, to be wary, to be proper, lacking innocence and a missing playfulness. When seriousness puts on a good mask, it looks like "being cool." Undoing seriousness has nothing to do with and does not detract from your ability to be fully responsible for your life and your relationships, and even includes the option of pretending to be "serious." In fact, it empowers these responsibilities.

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The cost of seriousness

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At its root, seriousness is a chronic wariness about life and about others, especially how you occur for others. As such, it inhibits our energy, our freedom, our flexibility, our innocence, and our playfulness. It doesn't feel good either.

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One way I get to enjoy expressing silliness with myself

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Monday through Friday, one of my morning-routine "covenant agreements" is standing naked on my full-body vibration machine in front of my red-light therapy device. I do three minutes of the red-and-infrared light on my front and then three minutes on my backside. While doing this I play some energetic music through my Bluetooth headphones and often "sing" along with the lyrics. Here is a short video where I'm "trying" to sing along with The Monkees' "I'm a Believer."

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Some of us let silliness express itself only when using drugs

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It can happen when we get drunk or high on some other type of drug.

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Rekindling lightheartedness and silliness, without the drugs: putting on the glasses of silliness

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Using Kickstarting a mental habit throughout your day, ask yourself, "How could I bring the glasses of silliness and lightheartedness to this moment?"

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Also, as you continue to use the various undoing processes (see just below), unresisting your fear in all its various expressions, you'll also be undoing seriousness:

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• Undoing expectations

• Undoing fear

• Undoing guilt

• Undoing perfectionism

• Undoing pressure

• Undoing procrastination

• Undoing shoulds (and should nots)

• Undoing something (doing nothing)

• Undoing stress

• Unproving

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Also try out:

• Enchanting

• Screaming

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And to join with me in silliness, check out the videos here:

• Fun Stuff

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Attacking un-silliness directly

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To target seriousness more directly, use the undoing fear with these sentences:

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of looking silly or foolish!"

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of being laughed at!"

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of being taken advantage of!"

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of looking childish!"

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of being ostracized!"

• "Holy moly and jeepers weepers, I'm so scared of not being taken seriously!"

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Each one with belly breaths, loudly, slowly, silly for eleven times.