Today while working on my daily October practice of Laughter, I came across a video from Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, in which he talked about the ancient Indian wisdom which says ‘don’t curse the dark, light a lamp’. Most of us have a tendency to curse the dark, to complain about our lives, to see only what is missing in our life, to see only what is bad in the world. Our media compound this on a daily basis by behaving like Chicken Little and insisting the sky is going to fall in. (it never does)
We curse and rail against the dark…but for most of us, what we yearn for is light. We ache to be joyful, to fall deeply in love with our lives, to dance through life with a carefree heart and a smile on our face. But guess what? Cursing the dark is not the way to get that. Complaining about life does not help our life improve (identifying where improvements can be made is good, constantly going on about the problems is not). Finding people to blame for why the world is going to hell in a handbasket doesn’t help us to feel good, to be joyous, to be full of gratitude and appreciation for the wonder and beauty of life.
Looking for the light, the beautiful, the wonderful, the good, the joyous, the fabulous, the happiness in life DOES help us to enjoy life. How do you light a lamp in your life? Laughter, exercise, fresh air, doing things you love to do, taking care of yourself, focusing on the positive, gratitude, fun, inspiration, dancing, singing, getting in touch with our inner wisdom, working towards our most exciting ambitions and goals, hanging out with ‘light’ people, being silly, recapturing our childlike enthusiasm for life…and there are so much more.
When you next find yourself cursing the dark, remember to just light a lamp. Just a small spark of light can take away the dark…
Love
Donna.x
