Take yourself lightly: the wise-fool practice

Let yourself laugh at how seriously you take your own growth.

Warum es wirkt

Cook-Greuter (2018) proposes a link between the capacity to see through the ego’s games and the archetype of the fool, and suggests that laughing wholeheartedly and with compassion at the human condition is a sign of ego maturity. Seriousness, in her account, is one of the ways the ego keeps its project important; laughter loosens that grip without needing to defeat anything.

So gehst du vor

1. Pick a grievance you have about your own growth or about the world not being as it should.
2. Complain about it out loud, exaggerating, for as long as it takes until the complaint itself starts to sound absurd.
3. Let the laugh come if it comes; do not force it.
4. Afterward, write one sentence about yourself in the voice of a kind, irreverent friend.

Evidenz

The fool archetype and laughter as an indicator of maturity are Cook-Greuter’s proposal in her 2018 essay, which is based on a conference keynote and workshop. The exaggerated-complaint exercise is the "sacred laughter" practice she reports being introduced in that workshop. This is a practitioner account, not research. (anecdotal)

Humor can also be used to deflect. Laughing at yourself is different from mocking yourself or brushing off something that genuinely hurts.

Quellen

• Cook-Greuter, S. R. (2018). The Construct-Aware Stage of Ego Development and its Relationship to the Fool Archetype. Integral Review, 14(1), 300–310.

Häufiger Fehler

Laughing at other people’s seriousness instead of your own. The fool in Cook-Greuter’s account is always also laughing at their own confusion.