Let Loose & Let Go

One thing I've learned over the years is that I can never fake a laugh or tell a lie with a straight face. Unless when I'm behind a keyboard when you don't see me at all but I'm pretty sure that you can tell if I'm lying because my facial expressions can't really hide it well enough. I would also never want to learn to lie well because I always believe that the truth is so much better and if you're looking at it to solve a problem, yes, the truth is always the best foot forward.

What I'm talking about is the genuine side of me that I can never fake. Well, not because I'm boasting that I never lie, but because I just can't lie with a straight face and with this perk, my laughter comes accordingly as well. When I laugh, I REALLY LAUGH!

Photo by Matheus Ferrero on Unsplash

I can recall one day when I was having dinner with my colleagues at KFC. After stressing the long hours for almost a month due to a big project, it was always good to laugh our heads off at the end of the day. It just keeps me sane.

We were just talking about everything and anything goes and being in the creative industry, we do have some weird crazy imagination to our stories. I was just telling a colleague of mine that it was just pure joy to see her laughing so much. You can tell that she really enjoyed herself and that her expressions showed. Heck! Even our body shows when we're darn laughing. Our shoulders shake, some may even clap their hands, if there's a table in front of you, you bang it, you shake forward and backward and for Asians... The happier we are, the less we see. :P

Hahaha.

We were just letting loose and I think this is a VERY important part of our lives. Sometimes we get so tangled up with the world's problem that we forget to be sane to ourselves. We worry so much about our boss' career, our family and other things but we don't spend just 5 minutes for ourselves.

I have tried working for 7 days a week because my company was on a big project and I was part of the animation team. Unconsciously, I was getting all shagged up, tired and emotional from all the stress. Why? Because I was only thinking about how to meet the deadline with the best quality possible.

One day, I was texting a colleague and she mentioned that I looked really 'shag' and even though we didn't dwell on that topic, it made me realized that I wasn't taking care of myself, how I looked and that affected my confidence and appearance. My genuine side was lost and given up to someone who pays me my monthly salary. I lost some of my sanity that even my interns didn't dare to ask me for help and this wasn't the person I wanted to portray. I'm not that guy.

Photo by Chris Knight on Unsplash

I woke up earlier on that Saturday week, made an appointment with the barbershop and decided to get a nice haircut. I didn't want to look all shaggy anymore and I wasn't doing this just because people were telling me about it, I wanted to do this for me.

Sometimes life throws its problems at you and you just don't know what to do. Your face shows, your appearance shows, and your speech tell. But what you can do always starts from within you. Be the best version of yourself and the problems will seem much smaller.

The way you laugh during talks, the way u smile and greet that person in your office building, the way you prance around the office offering candies to your colleagues who are rushing deadlines and just living life large all starts from that little genuine smile and laughter.

Oh, I just miss laughing again. : )