This past Friday I wasn’t feeling too on the up and up…

…not in the dodgy sense, but I just felt dragged down, burnt out.

I’ve been working on a new extension of my official site, and the day prior had really given it my all – almost 13 hours straight just getting objectives knocked out one by one. I get into these super charged moments at times.

The next morning I overslept, which had me waking up feeling worse. As a perfectionist, I have a tendency to be a bit hard on myself.

For the rest of the day, I couldn’t really focus. I tried getting my head in gear but it just wasn’t working. Finally, frustrated, I decided to head down to the beach and go for a swim – one problem though. The water was ROLLING…surfers were out, it was close to high tide, and the smallest swells you’d usually be able to wade right through as you walked into the ocean curled and were over my head – I’m not a short person. Heck, there wasn’t really much to wade into – just waves – and not clean sets either.

They were in such quick succession, sometimes one instantly after the other, I got pushed back about twice – remember, I was going for a swim, not surf, so no board to break the swell.

Now I believe that you should never mess with mother nature when you’re pissed off – and that goes double for the ocean…but stubborn as I sometimes am, I decided to go against my own rule, and the third time the water tried to push me back, I ran right into it and dove…right into a sandy rip curl.

Broke past it, only to have another, this time far less sandy one come at me, dove again, and again, and again. Finally got to a point where the swell didn’t curl, then the pattern changed again. So I dove again – slapped a fish (unintentionally), and while I was underwater noticed just how quickly the sand was being disturbed.

The current was strong, and just when I stabilized and was wading in all the turmoil, once the current pulled back, I started to feel it take my feet with it – and this is where it happened….

I started laughing, put my hands behind my head, and literally laid back as it pulled the lower half of my body. So there I was, underwater eyes open, leveled out as if I were just casually laying back in bed. The ocean pulled me under, and then like those wet roller coaster rides I had a rip curl thrown into my face with such force and speed it was one of the loudest things I’d heard in a while.

Shortly after I got pushed back on the sand, and as I got up to leave the water, found myself laughing harder than I had all week. That force of water beating down on my head knocked me back to my senses. Mother nature literally slapped me silly.

I picked up my towel and hit the shower, drove home. All the tension was gone. All the stress. The classic thoughts of “push harder” every perfectionist feels at some point. That pounding feeling at my forehead, and the stiffness in the back of my neck…and there I was, driving home in complete silence, smiling, and laughing to myself.

Usually, hitting up the beach just clears my head, get my thoughts in line…but that day – it reminded me that there are bigger things out there going on than stressing out – humans are just one small speck of this world, even if they hold responsibility to take care of it.

The ocean still moves.

Birds still fly.

Grass still grows and fruit still ripens.

Even if people get stuck in their own frustrations, the show must go on, and it does. Without thinking twice. People create their own problems, and their own paradise. The solution is going through the menu and ordering up which one you want.

You decide whether or not to just let go. To step away from a problem and come back to it. I’m not saying shirk responsibility, but sometimes when you just take a breather, you end up being more productive and creative. People who take frequent breaks between stressful tasks and try different things than the “norm,” actually achieve their goal and come out successfully, much easier than those who don’t.

So laugh a little. When things get stressful, it always helps to laugh a little. If you can’t figure out how to laugh then and there, do something stupid or simple, something that’ll knock the frustration right out of you, and laugh a little.

Sometimes, the easiest way to laugh is embarrass yourself.

Show a little humility. Dance in public. Be a little light-heartedly sarcastic. Hit up a park and run towards the swings like you’re 5 again (I can honestly say I’ve done this more than enough times)…

…and watch the stress fade.

Laugh a little.

It’ll keep you on the right track…

…and as always…

Stay awesome 😉

– Rego

Musings Episode 34: Laugh a Little… is a post from Rego’s Life

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