Students today face a multitude of pressures that contribute to their unhappiness. High academic expectations, intensified by standardized testing and college admissions stress, can lead to overwhelming anxiety. Additionally, the pervasive influence of social media fosters feelings of inadequacy and comparison, often exacerbating loneliness and isolation. Bullying and peer relationship issues further compound their emotional struggles. Moreover, external factors such as family dynamics and economic instability have significantly impacted their mental health. Collectively, these factors create a challenging environment that can diminish students’ overall happiness and well-being.
Planet Improv makes it a point (and it makes much more sense in drama elective, creativity and imagination-building classes than most class subjects) to attempt to alleviate the sadness that we speculate some of our students are feeling through a lighthearted, although always professional, approach to our subject matter.
(Below) is a post from www.solutionsforresilience.com that discusses the habits of light-hearted people.
The Top 7 Habits of Light-Hearted People
“I am more and more convinced that to take life over seriously is a frivolous thing.” Eric Hoffer Indeed, being light-hearted and having a sense of humor are basic resilience strengthening strategies.
Perhaps, as Kay Redfield Jamison indicates in Exuberance: A Passion for Life, genetics does influence such human characteristics as exuberance and playfulness. But there are some habits that can encourage acting light-hearted. Try some of the following!
Seven Habits of Light-Hearted People
Here are some simple and easy to execute ideas on how to be lighthearted.
One. Smile to become instantly more likeable, attractive and approachable. To help brighten your face, think of your blessings. Smiling actually changes your emotional state. People like and trust smilers more. It’s been said that telephone listeners can see our smile. Mother Teresa encouraged smiling to help improve the world. Research studies have shown that smiling cools our brains while frowning heats it. It’s like having our very own internal air conditioner. Bring on the summer heat wave!
“We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.” ~Mother Teresa
Two. Laugh whenever possible. Discover what triggers your own distinctive giggle, snicker or crackle. Laughter and smiling are social indicators that we are enjoying the company of others. Laughter helps increase alertness, blood circulation, creativity, enthusiasm, productivity and decreases muscle tension.
A day without laughter is a day wasted.” ~Charlie Chaplin
Three. Feel: Accept your own and others’ feelings by gently listening for a rainbow of sad, hurt, scared, mad and glad expressions. Feelings tell you everything about you and little or nothing about managing the world. Use your smart brain to plan while using your feelings as a personal barometer. Notice what you are doing and who you are with when you feel repeatedly hurt or angry. Do the same for when you feel happy. More often, go to where happy lives.
Don’t ever be ashamed of loving the strange things that make your weird little heart happy.” ~Elizabeth Gilbert
Four. Let Go of trying to exert power over others. Your stress levels will drop. Your relationships will improve when you learn to surrender and trust other people to live life their way. Avoid the Control Hole. Catch yourself when you say, “You should!” “You must!” or “You have to!”
Surrender is a journey from outer turmoil to inner peace.” ~Sri Chinmoy
Five. Acknowledge your Humanness or you will waste energy trying to be perfect. You will also waste energy trying to be right and will end up feeling uptight. Accept yourself and others as perfectly imperfect. Then you will better to do what Richard Carlson suggests–
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff of Life.”
Six. In-joy Yourself as you only get one free supply of your life. Take your challenges seriously and yourself lightly. Know what you love to have, do and be. List what activities and things please your sense of vision, hearing, touch, smell and taste. Think about what is physically, mentally, emotionally, creatively, socially and spiritually energizing for you? Now, go in-joy yourself!
Sing like no one’s listening, love like you’ve never been hurt, dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.” ~Mark Twain
Seven. Create Surprises with pleasant acts of kindness, care, and cheer. Every day there are nasty and uncontrollable changes in our lives. But you have the personal power to add kind and joyful experiences to your space.
Some cause happiness wherever they go: others, whenever they go.” ~Oscar Wilde
Be the person who brings cheer; be a daily Super Surprise Agent. Ideas for adding joy to the world are as simple as these:
- Leave a note or phone messages saying, “I appreciate you for . . .”
- Celebrate small and big efforts of the people around you.
- Now and then wear something fun or silly, like a pair of Groucho Marx glasses, noses and moustache.
- Give sincere compliments whenever possible.
- Hum or sing uplifting lines from songs.
- Wave or smile at others.
Summary:
The more you practice these light-hearted habits the more people around you will be uplifted. The more people around you feel upbeat, the more light-hearted you will feel. And the circle of life goes round and round!
# # #
At the risk of being considered immodest, I have always had the skill of inducing smiles and laughter from others.
That being said my natural perfectionistic personality and tendency to overthink EVERYTHING make it a challenge for me to be light-hearted, at least when I am alone.
Almost magically, however, when I am in the presence of others (and it is appropriate) I am great at lightening a mood with my words, actions and physicality.
Over my decades of educating, I have done my best to try to be as light-hearted as possible while delivering my lessons.
My fondest memories of my own teachers were the ones that (again, when it was appropriate) were fun, funny and light-hearted while educating.
I understand that discipline is important in the classroom.
However, I believe that my students get that from the majority of other educators and adults in their lives.
If the worst thing I ever do in a classroom is to try to make my students smile, laugh and/or alleviate their temporary or long-term sadness while in my presence, I can certainly rest my head on my pillow at night in peace.