I actually recorded a Podcast on this topic yesterday, so if you prefer to watch my talking head, you can watch it on YouTube here, or if you just prefer the audio, head over to my website here.
I have worked with lots of clients over the last 18+ months who have been struggling. I have also had friends and family struggling with different things, at different times, over this same period. So I am always trying to ‘figure out’ how I can best serve people – in a VERY PRACTICAL way – so they can navigate their way through life’s challenges.
And the challenges most people have faced in the past 18 months have been nothing like they have faced before. This means they need to show up as something even more, or maybe even something new, in order to adapt and overcome obstacles or challenges a ‘new’ environment.
This is why I came up with the idea of us needing to be a SUPERHUMAN by drawing on combination of our inner Leader, Warrior, and Sage.
In this article I will speak specifically to your inner SAGE (wise person).
The Virtues of Your Inner SAGE
This is a list I came up with when I dropped deeper into the study of the archetype of the Sage (the first 5 are also common virtues of your inner Leader and Warrior).
- Courage
- Intuition
- Stability (physical and psychological)
- Resilience
- Evolution (constantly learning and growing)
- High level of conscious awareness
- Wise (especially in regards to ‘critical thinking’)
- Open and flexible mind
- Curiosity
- A high degree of creativity
- Humility
- Sense of humour
- Lightness of being
- Patience (plays the long-term game)
- Connected to and comfortable with the unknown, the mystery, the unseen, the ‘thing’ that created the universe.
I believe that all of those virtues are in you and me, to differing degrees, due our use and application of them over time.
The one I specially want to touch on today, in relationship to our inner Sage navigating challenging, tumultuous and disruptive times, is the Sage’s SENSE OF HUMOUR.
My belief is that ‘when the going gets tough, some people pop, some people give up, some people step up, and some people actually laugh at the absurdity of the situation, and make fun of their discomfort.
I recall being in the Army, many moons ago, training at the Royal Military College Duntroon, and being on a ‘survival’ exercise that totally sucked. It included bugger all food (near none), hours of hiking up and down mountains while carrying a number of 20 litre water containers between us, and a healthy dose of sleep deprivation thrown in for good measure. As far as FUN went, it was the total opposite!!
Here is the thing though…
One of things that helped you get through it was laughing with your colleagues at the degree of awfulness; the degree of compete and utter exhaustion; the absurdity of carrying these water containers (which were filled with salt water – so not even that useful); the depravity of the very old and worn out live chicken that we were given for one meal; and then the absolutely woeful meal we cooked up with the poor old chicken and the few pieces of vegetables we were given as an ‘accompaniment’.
We were such atrocious cooks, and cooked up such a bad meal, with our scant offerings, that the only thing you could do (which helped a lot) was LAUGH. I mean who was the absolute clown who decided it would be a really great idea to use the salt water we had been carrying (not watered down), instead of the fresh water we had access to?!?! A really salty, poorly cooked, old and stringy piece of chicken, with a few vegetables (boiled to blandness), as the first meal in 36 hours or so, could only be laughed at. That or cry.
Laughter releases endorphins (peptides that interact with opioid receptors in the brain to help relieve pain and trigger feelings of pleasure).
And when we change our biochemisty, we change our state, and then we are more able to move out of our survival emotional states – like fear, worry, anxiety, despair, grief, or guilt – and blood and energy starts to move back into our upper brain.
This is why I have watched some satirical humour over the last 18-months in the form of JP Sears. I like listening to Russell Brand, as he brings humourous mockery when looking at the absurd. I also love talking to my mate’s and colleagues that have slightly warped senses of humour.
I picture a SAGE laughing a lot. And it not taking too much to set him or her off into the giggles. They chuckle a lot. They smile and chuckle when they see their ‘acolytes’ running around like crazy people – because of some ‘problem’. They laugh when others are stressing out.
So…how is your sense of humour of late?
Are you specifically time listening to, watching or connecting with people, things or places that make you chuckle?
Have you watched Monty Python’s ‘Always Look on the bright side of life‘ clip lately?
Now the caveat I have to make here is why I am saying the ‘natural superhuman‘ is a combination of a Leader, Warrior and Sage. I am not saying that having a sense of humour will solve all your problems, or overcome all of your challenges. I am saying it is part of the solution. It is an awesome tool in your bag of tricks. However, it is the combination of the virtues of a leader, warrior and sage, that will take you from survival to THRIVING.
And thus endeth (most of) the lesson. 😉
A duck walks into a bar and asks the bartender, “Do you have any grapes”? The bartender says, “No, we only sell beer here.” The duck leaves. The next day the duck walks back into the bar and asks the bartender, “Do you have any grapes”? The bartender says, “No, I told you we only sell beer, and if you ask me again I’m going to nail your beak to the bar.” So the duck leaves. The next day the duck walks back into the bar once again and asks the bartender “Do you have any nails”? The bartender says “no.” The duck asks, “Do you have any grapes”?
Sorry.
Have an awesome day!
Take care and keep smiling.
Carl