There is a distinct tendency in the health foods industry, an idea that we must be serious, grown-up and mature. In fact this attitude seems to be present in many elements of adult life.

Bright colours, light-heartedness and silly fun are deemed childish or immature, and our health and wellbeing… well, this is most definitely a serious matter!

However, I believe this very attitude is part of the problem, behind so much of the poor health in the modern Western world. We are serious-ing ourselves to death!

The evidence is all around us. Our living spaces and our businesses directly reflect who and how we are. Note the rise in murky muted colour schemes; woeful greys, listless dirty greens, lifeless dull earth tones, and that greatest abomination of all – Beige! They are the colours of sickness and depression. And let’s not forget the stark minimalist interiors and branding, devoid of brilliant and vibrant colours – all muted, flat and neutral. Blah!

Neutral – who wants to be neutral!?

The world needs us to stand vibrantly in our power and dare to be bold – and especially to stop taking everything, and ourselves, so seriously.

To be clear, this perspective is not an attitude of irresponsibility, of being careless – in fact quite the opposite. I don’t want you to shrink away into a dull shadow of yourself, not brave enough to be who you are, and share that with the world… No.

I want you to dare to be truly authentic and stand fully in the boldness of yourself, taking full responsibility for the consequences of your beliefs, and the values and actions that stem from them. Don’t weigh yourself down with the self-judgements you believe are necessary to be a “productive responsible adult”, as we’ve been told – letting go of such childish things as harmless silly fun, bright colours, and a good sense of humour.

We can be mature, responsible, environmentally sensitive and productive, all while being bold, colourful, funny and light-hearted – in fact it could be said that a person or business who embodies too much seriousity will be so crushed under the weight of these heavy attitudes, that they will forget the joy of living!

Vibrant light-hearted joyfulness, sounds to me like a great way to live…
How about you?

In (colourful) Light
Jocah