Letters to Myself: Entry Sixty-Four
Prompt: Is there a part of my life right now that needs less gravity and more lightness?
“It’s your outlook on life that counts. If you take yourself lightly and don’t take yourself too seriously, pretty soon you can find the humor in our everyday lives. And sometimes it can be a lifesaver.”
A reflection based on the idea of finding humor and light in dark moments; realizing you having the power to change that mindset, you can find the light in your dark situations at any point, one might just have to laugh a little.
In a world currently, in 2026, on the latter half of the year, there has been much darkness that many people are experiencing. That is something we must look at closely and see the hardship; but remember the negative does have an equal effect on the positive side. We as humans love to look at fear, sex, and hard things with more acute attention, and truly, it makes total sense. What sells? Destruction, fear, the unknown, violence, the most outrageous things you can think of; and it does not take long for a person to find it and or even see it. And there is a reason why goodness, and light, positive thinking; those things are not always seen with more beauty and or awe. But right now, this is the time to look at it, we have to do so as humans because if we stop and only look at the negatives, that is where we ultimately lead to our demises.
Epictetus, a slave and stoic philosopher, talks about the beauty in finding freedom in the minds of ourselves. He experienced slavery and some of the harshest elements in this world’s nature. He could and ultimately saw the beauty of our minds and how the external reality we live in will always have heinous attributes, but we have the total control over our minds; the inner citadel as Marcus Aurelius would say. And this concept can go for all human beings; the power of stoic philosophy guides us to have this freedom; the compass of good and virtue and finding the light in dark situations; staying content when things are going well and not becoming greedy.
Betty White saw this in her quote; when we take things more lightly in this world, and the world we are all walking in exclusively, we can find humor, we can find goodness, we can find things that human beings have been doing since the dawn of man; helping those who need it; helping the poor; distributing the wealth you could give; giving someone a chuckle when they are having a hard time; being compassionate toward those experiencing mental illness, experiencing harsh trauma that we all live with. These are lighter moments that I am continuously thinking about in my day-to-day interactions. That maybe someone might be experiencing something I have no idea what that might be like; but the being a lighter person for that other human, showing them that compass we all have inside of us, that is what makes it beautiful to keep living. Empathy and sympathy goes a long way for everyone who is experiencing this life, which is why we must find it in our day-to-day operations.
I listen to many influencers who might be part of the “self-help” genre, but genuinely, who does not want to self-improve? That is the reason we keep pushing onward. We are always refining and improving our lives each day when one wants to try; but when you are not willing to try, that is when the darkness creeps in. Part of my life where I could use more lightness is most likely the stillness nature; being able to slow down again and remember that this world is always on a high pace and not allowing for room to settle or at least breathe. But we all have the power to do so, and one of the examples I can think of is the information diet we all consume on our smart phones.
I don’t believe our lives were meant to be shared through a smart phone; the older I get, the more I understand the perspective of putting down the phone and finding light in the nature we are all walking in. It is good to stay informed, but remember we don’t have control over those external factors, much like the quote I talked about earlier from Epictetus. When we see images, articles, language that might be coming from our top leaders, of course there will be fear; of course there will be hopelessness to see and find in those things; after all that is the reason we are watching it. When things are going right, we have no reason to keep paying attention, but when things are going haywire (which seems to be the case right now), of course it is going to nab our attention because we care about people. We care about others, and when we see people going through hardship, that is where our opinions and judgments come into play. That brings us down instead of finding the light in the moment of darkness, which is what Betty White meant.
We are allowed to feel all of these emotions, but we must remember not to allow it to control us. Our emotions are powerful, but when we take things more lightly, more graciously, that is when the beauty of life can creep in again. That we have the power to see attributes of the world that are divine. To see the beauty in your life, to laugh at the jokes you hear; to smile for someone who might be struggling. As strange as it is, a smile is more courageous and necessary than looking the other direction. We are allowed to have that decision, but the decision to laugh things off, to help those who are needing it, to volunteer and give up parts of you for the sake of humanity; these are the reasons we keep going and finding the light in the dark times. Fear and the chaos that are happening are only temporary. Remember everything has an opposite. If you think and only think that the world is dark, that is a wrong notion. See this quote from Betty and remember that lightness prevails; hope continues and gives us strength; fear is temporary, don’t allow it to take hold of your life.
Main thought: The world is a dark place always, but darkness always has an opposite; remind yourself that life has beauty too because then, and only then, you can find hope to continue onward and break free from these chains we are all living in.
This post is part of my "Letters to Myself" series — a weekly free-write blog where I explore personal growth, curiosity, and healing through simple prompts. Sometimes reflective, sometimes fun, but always real. Thank you for being here.
References:
Photo by Kyle Gare
For further reading on Epictetus and the Stoic concept of the inner citadel, see the Discourses and Enchiridion.
For further reading on Marcus Aurelius and the Stoic concept of the inner citadel, see the Meditations.
Quote from Betty White
