The Best Way to Face Difficult Times 

How do you see life in a more lighthearted way? Share your methods with us in the comments below. Be sure to subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and turn on notifications to ensure you don't miss our next film.

Best advice I ever got on living lightheartedly: "Once a problem stops being a problem, that's when it becomes a funny story."

So, in a nutshell: if nothing really matters in the end, might as well concentrate on the good along the journey.

"Just because we are all doomed doesn't mean we can't have a good time" -Optimistic nihilism community

I’m honestly using this line the next time someone tells me to cheer up for superficial reasons: “Bless such efforts, and those for whom they work”

This also reminds me of a scene on The Simpsons where Homer has to giv a kidney to his father. He keeps going towards the hospital with determination, and then running away screaming, and then he settles on running into the hospital while screaming. Good compromise.

5:02 "Are you sure this is safe" you know that guy was a legend 😂

"you take yourself too seriously" I was told as a kid. Now, at 60, I realise my problem has been that I took THEM too seriously...

"It’s just the monstrous illusions of our ego, which give us the impression that we count, and then torture us that we don't count enough..."

*Memento Mori* - when you know that everyone is going towards the same fate, suddenly, our mundane problems become minuscule.

To be lighthearted is to go with the flow of life. Ego wants to control. Instead learn to let go!

“Miserable is predictable,” I love that

Took being homeless to learn this. Happier than I've been in years :)

As someone who is profoundly nihilistic, I still smile when a child looks at me.

You can never know how many lives you’ve saved with your videos! Thank you.

I use to think living lightheartedly meant having a level of naivety but now I realise you are correct, it’s not because you don’t see the distress around but you just choose to live amongst all the chaos in a better way. Being unhappy is very exhausting so why not choose happiness where possible. I know that it is not always possible to have such attitude especially when things are hard but we mustn’t be so hard on ourselves with the frivolous things always. Thank you, as usual.🙏. The wisdom & wit of this channel never ceases to amaze me.🤣

"I am nothing. Life is everything. I am life." "Wisdom is knowing I am nothing, Love is knowing I am everything, and between the two my life moves" 💚

"How to Live in a More Lighthearted Way" *Joker:* Think of your life as a Comedy instead of a Tragedy

This animation deserves its own separate tribute. It is mordant yet lovely, complementing Alain de Botton's wise, funny words so perfectly. It's a small masterpiece, and that, of course, is the best kind. Brava and bravo you brilliant creators of art and love!

That is the key and the truning point...When you're alone and you decide to start to love yourself and keep going because you and no one else. This is the path to maturity.

I now see "the fool on the hill" in a different way. The world will think you are a fool for laughing at life's tragedy, but they are in fact the fools crying over the inevitable. Day after day Alone on a hill The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still But nobody wants to know him They can see that he's just a fool And he never gives an answer But the fool on the hill Sees the sun going down And the eyes in his head See the world spinning 'round Well on the way Head in a cloud The man of a thousand voices Talking perfectly loud But nobody ever hears him Or the sound he appears to make And he never seems to notice But the fool on the hill Sees the sun going down And the eyes in his head See the world spinning 'round And nobody seems to like him They can tell what he wants to do And he never shows his feelings But the fool on the hill Sees the sun going down And the eyes in his head See the world spinning 'round Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh 'Round and 'round and 'round and 'round and round And he never listens to them He knows that they're the fools They don't like him The fool on the hill

If I could find and maintain the inner strength to follow this advise I could release myself from this prison that is breaking my spirit. I have to try.

The only tactical response to the horror of life is to defiantly laugh at it.

You want to truly be happy all the time. Focus on yourself, always try to improve, leave toxic people alone, and appreciate what you have. That’s pretty much it. Happiness is a choice

I try to live like my dog. He’s always happy!

"True light-heartedness begins with an appreciation of one's utter cosmic unimportance and nullity." This is profound!

The interesting fact about us is that as much as we realize we are insignificant in the world, we also realize we are all there is to the world.

"Let's surprise ourselves with some irresponsible laughter, the kind that takes a lifetime of sorrow to perfect."

1. There is a wonderful interview with Esther Perel on the " On Being with Krista Tippet" podcast. She is one of the best couple therapists in the world, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors. She grew up among other families who escaped from the concentration camps and she saw that you could divide them into two groups: - Those who didn't die - Those who came back to life She says that there was a huge difference between these people. Those from the first group lived in morbid places, with their curtains lowered, always with a constant sense of dread and fear. ( Of course she doesn't judge them. Nobody can. ) But those who "came back to life" opted for joy, for play, they thought that if they survived they had to make the best our of this life. They would even make jokes about their days on the camps. Perel says that humour was a way of gaining control over what had been done to them. There was even a comedy show on CBS in the 60's called " Hogan's Heroes". All the actors were Jewish and they were playing Nazi officers! Making fun of them of course. But imagine...They made more than 150 episodes of that. 2. Trevor Noah is a wonderful example too! He had a very hard childhood during Apartheid in South Africa. He went through a lot of poverty and other personal tragedies too: His mother was shot in the head by his abusive step father. It is a miracle that she didn't die! Trevor says that what he had learnt as a survival strategy is this: "Turning tragedy into comedy". You can hear a perfect example of this if you search on youtube his video: " My mom got shot in the head". 3. There is so much we can learn from children too. And also from the child that we once were. There are many ways to go back and remember and to re-connect with that child still. I love reading short stories and certain stories about childhood really help you a lot for this purpose. Tolstoy's story " Little girls were wiser than men" is a wonderful example! You can find it online too. 4. What I loved the most about this lesson was the expression " registering every kind of heaviness and transcending it". So it is all about being very brave and attentive, very sensitive and wise. It reminded me of this wonderful quote by the Russian philosopher Michael Bakthin: "Laughter has the remarkable power of making an object come up close, of drawing it into a zone of crude contact where one can finger it familiarly on all sides, turn it upside down, inside out, peer at it from above and below, break open its external shell, look into its center, doubt it, take it apart, dismember it, lay it bare and expose it, examine it freely and experiment with it. Laughter demolishes fear and piety before an object, before a world, making of it an object of familiar contact and thus clearing the ground for an absolutely free investigation of it. Laughter is a vital factor in laying down that prerequisite for fearlessness without which it would be impossible to approach the world realistically. " Thank you for this wonderful lesson! I loved the animation too!

Some things in life are bad They can really make you mad Other things just make you swear and curse When you're chewing on life's gristle Don't grumble, give a whistle And this'll help things turn out for the best And always look on the bright side of life Always look on the light side of life If life seems jolly rotten There's something you've forgotten And that's to laugh and smile and dance and sing When you're feeling in the dumps Don't be silly chumps Just purse your lips and whistle, that's the thing And always look on the bright side of life Come on! Always look on the right side of life

I'm very guilty when it comes to this. I live life extremely seriously and feel as though I'm doing something wrong when I have fun like I don't deserve it. It's a very vicious cycle.

Negativity breeds and grows in idle rumination. We all fall on the same trap, repeatedly, despite efforts. We should not stop our attempts to escape that fate, else we'll be imprisoned by it, forever.

"are you sure this is safe" lmao

5:27 That one hit hard enough.

My mantra: just keep going, be the observer, there is plenty to look at.

Nothing has ever described my attitude to life better! Some people think I’m weird, naïve and immature, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. I became this way because I saw no other way to be happy, and now I love life. I couldn’t be happier :)

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. When I started my channel I didn't get much support from those around me. I knew my vision though and went ahead anyway. Don't allow yourself to be discouraged by the negative attitudes of others.

I’m so emotionally invested in this channel! ❤️🌟

"When you've hit rock bottom there's nowhere to go but up."

"are you sure this is safe"..... line of the day !!!!

This video made me cry. It is so true, all of this. Yesterday I watched the movie "Amelie" again, and was reminded of what makes life unusual, happy, and bright. Like a Maxfield Parrish painting. Look at the magical side of life, it can be found practically anywhere.

This is probably one of my favourite videos of all time. I keep rewatching it. Really hit home for me.

The gallows humor thing really explained a lot to me. I put in my two weeks recently and honestly it occurred to me why I hit my limit so hard The old crew at my job used to glare hell in the face and sit there mocking and ridiculing it. Every. Stressful. Situation. We'd just stand there pointing and laughing like "YOU THINK I CARE? I'VE BEEN DEAD FOR YEARS!!!!!! GAME ON BOYS! LET THEM COME!" The new crew that I work with isn't like that. They whine. They cry. They say the job is cruel, the world is cruel, and everything sucks, we're treated wrong, we're being hurt The energy change is too much to handle One day me and my buddy were at work. We were chatting with the supervisor until it slowly reached shift start time, then ten minutes late... We all were gradually looking at the clock and at each other, realizing two people still hadn't shown up. And that it was going to be hell. Utter hell. Me and my buddy both just looked at each other for a few beats solemnly, before he cracked a smirk and was like "I think we can get out *early*." And I smiled slowly and was like "Oh. I'll race you." And without anything else being said we both fucking ran for it like mad men and started hooving through the tasks When someone finally showed up I was disappointed cuz I really believed we'd be out early If that happened now it would have just sucked cuz anyone with me would have been fuming and crying and screeching the world is out to get them It isn't about how wrong the world is to you It's about how fun it is racing each other while the rabid wolves are on your heels about to tear you in half and how fucking amazing you feel when you both just barely escape, throw yourself across the bridge, burn it down, and collapse on the other side laughing hysterically like "WE DID IT! WE DID IT DUDE! WE SURVIVED ANOTHER DAY! HELL YEAH!" We all are running for our lives Some of us are running away screaming from the monster Others are racing and whooping and hollering like "DUDE I ALMOST JUST TRIPPED HAHAHAHAHAHAH THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN WILD LET'S GO GO GO" Why stare death in the face sobbing when you can flip it off giggling like "Motherfucker I've been sending you love letters for years and YOU DIDNT ANSWER MEEEEE so no I won't be going with you to dinner" It sounds insane and that's the point. It's outrageous and hilarious

Sometimes I need to be reminded that acceptance is key, and that I should just chill

... :-)... Absolutely beautifully said!... the sky is always falling, and my head is always in the sand.... Deepak Chopra said the way to be mentally and physically healthy is to be carefree.

Mr. Alain. You are accused of interfering with other people's privacy. You can truly read my mind, my trouble. I was tortured for overthinking and your video pop-up. I can't describe how much grateful I feel towards you. Thank The school of life for offering 'mental shoulder' for me to cry on, to stand up and try to live with a new positive attitude . Bless you.

I usually watch these videos to learn but this one seemed to say everything I do and believe! It’s a refreshing reassurance that I’m on a good path!

My moment of irresponsible laughter, came at a most peculiar moment, in an equally peculiar setting. I was almost done with my mandatory military service, and was stationed in Yemen, at an actual war zone, for seven weeks, in a land where everyone looked like they were from the 80s for some reason. Anyway, we get ambushed during a routine guarding shift, and all of a sudden, I become utterly submerged in a state of silly awareness. An awareness of how silly it all is, how hopelessly mundane, and how peasants continue to fight other peasants for the sake of the upper crust of society, as no one does their bidding better than the riff raff. The moment that struck me, and lead me to irresponsible laughter in the midst of it all, was when both parties involved in this most ancient of dilemmas or situations to be more realistic, started screaming “God is Great” in Arabic to one another, and I just exploded hahaha. It added another piece of mundane silliness to the initial phase of silly awareness. Ironically, no one understood that clear epiphany of silliness, as everyone was dreadfully serious about that sentence, which made it more funny. The human race will end, as everything reaps what it sows. Hence, chill, and take things easy. Oh, and fuck beautiful interesting people as much as you can, it’s fun. Listen to good music, read great books, travel, watch wonderful films, and eat sublime food. STOP succumbing to the temptations of idleness, and do stuff. “ Nobody exists on purpose, nobody belongs anywhere, everybody's gonna die. Come watch TV.” Morty to his older sister, whatever her name is.

I've been thinking like this for about a month or so now after a particularly bad series of romantic blunders and honestly? Really glad that this is apparently a valid avenue to life I'm taking and not just the result of profound mental and emotional scarring. Thanks, School of Life for letting me know I'm not insane :)

This is simply great we suffer because of ourselves and what we perceive and how we take it everyone experience angst, miseries , pain but we voyage our inner conflicts and Move on to be more kinder on ourselves as said by John milton " mind in itself can make hell of heaven or heaven of hell, the Power of human brain and realisation.

I needed this especially after reading through the inequalities and injustices of the current country I love and live in.

I like the slippery bits of truisms that come out of this channel. Now at 60 years of age i am 6 months divorced. Tears come so easily, regrets for things unchanged over the marriage are painful. But as of lately there is still out bursts of sorrow with unprovoked laugher spilling through, often one on top of the other. The situation is no different but internally i know that bathing in the pain doesn't have a good result. There is still work to be done and tears to shed but knowing that life carries on careless of the situation makes me get dressed in the morning.

I was just walking back from the shop, musing on the unexpected and unfair implosion of my marriage, which happened a few months ago, when I was struck by the thought that everyone and everything, including the planet I stand on and the star that makes it habitable, will eventually die, regardless of what happens, what we do or don't do, or what we want, need, or think about the whole affair. On a long enough time line, nothing really matters, so why take it seriously? I was cheered by this thought. Then I got back to work and this popped up in my recommendations. Synchronicity? I'm taking this as the universe's way of agreeing with me.

The more i grow old the more cynical and michavillian i become , but i still have a soft spot in my heart for animals and little kids .

"I believe in everything; nothing is sacred. I believe in nothing; everything is sacred. Ha Ha Ho Ho Hee Hee."

"I know that you can't love me when there's no one left to blame." -Axl Rose Estranged. It hit me hard....true words that only the messed up understand.

“There might still be a way to live lightheartedly amidst catastrophe.” Yes, indeed there might be. I’m grateful for a FB friend pointing me towards the School of Life and consequently my finding this wryly humorous look at making it through life. In the midst of the darkest hours we have faced as a species on earth, the coronavirus pandemic, it’s particularly apt.

"Joy as an act of resistance" Idles

Beautiful, I wish this was taught to us all when we were 5 onwards.

This popped up on my FB feed and I knew I had to share it with my uni students. Midterms are on, the rush toward the end of term is bearing down, and it's still winter in Ottawa (think dreary and then amplify that). The entire class enjoyed it immensely, and we all felt a bit lighter. Just what we all needed. So, thank you.

It's 5 00 am and this put my life into words. Like lyrics to a song. Thank you from my heart dear Alain.

You have a beautiful heart Mr Alain. Your work for human ‘Life’ will go to places by the Grace of GOD. Make a full on movie please. Netflix or anything. Everyone needs to hear what you have to say.

I was thinking of being more cynical, but then I thought "what's the point?"

I laugh more than anyone else I know. At school, I have to restrain myself from giggling for fear someone may think I’m annoying or that I’m mocking them when really they’ve just made me happy. From the ages of about 12-17, I had one of the hardest adolesce I think I could have had. I had to force myself away from an abusive father, lose my remaining family, lose friends to suicide, and survive my own suicide attempt. I was very isolated through that time, and I barely found enough humor laughed at all for about six years. In 2019 though, I started waking up and realising that I no longer felt crushed under the weight of my mind, and I strongly believe that I laugh so much now, because I’ve already thought of all the reasons not to, and now I’m free to think of all the reasons why I should.

the school of life offers so much quality content bringing relief and peace to viewers, with every video. I must point out that this particular video is one of best you have ever published and I am so content I have seen it in my young age and now I can live the message - to surprise myself with a laughter in rough times and to accept that lightheartedness does not mean being naive or uneducated, more the contrary. thank you to all creators of the school of life

Your words at the end gave me delightful goosebumps

You say scariest things in most soothing voice!

Very good I must say after suffering depression for years that you're posts do give me a lift thanks

That should win a minimum of five RU-vid awards. I think I've seen the all-time greatest clip. That was exactly what I needed to hear and the images are hilarious when they're not haunting. Superb.

This comes exactly when I need it! Thank you, School of Life :)

I believe Rynan Reynolds said it best : Van Wilder " never take life to seriously, you'll never make it out alive"

1. There is a wonderful interview with Esther Perel, one of the best couple therapists in the world, whose parents were both Holocaust survivors. She grew up among other families who were all survivors from the concentration camps and she says thaht you could divide them into two groups: - Those who didn't die - Those who came back to life She says that there was a huge difference between these people. Those from the first group lived in morbid places, with their curtains lowered, always with a constant sense of dread and they could never trust the world outside... ( Of course she doesn't judge them. Nobody can. ) But those who "came back to life" opted for joy, for play, they thought that if they survived they had to make the best our of this life. They would even make jokes about the horrors they had been through. Perel says that humor is a way of gaining control over the horrors that they had been through. There was even a comedy show on CBS in the 60's called " Hogan's Heros". All the actors were Jews and they were playing Nazi officers, making of them! Imagine...They made more than 150 episodes of that... 2. Trevor Noah is a wonderful example too! He had a very hard childhood during Apartheid in South Africa. He went through poverty and other personal tragedies too: His mother was shot in the head by his abusive step father. It is a miracle that she didn't die! Trevor says that what he had learnt as a survival strategy is: "Turning tragedy into comedy". You can hear a perfect example of this if you search on youtube for this video by him: " My mom got shot in the head". 3. There is so much we can learn from children too. And also from the child that we once were. There are many ways to go back and remember and to re-connect with that child still. I love reading short stories and certain stories about childhood really help you a lot for this purpose. Tolstoy's story " Little girls were wiser than men" is a wonderful example! You can find it online. 4. What I loved the most about this lesson was the expression " registering every kind of heaviness and transcending it". It reminded me of this wonderful quote by the Russian philosopher Michael Bakthin: "Laughter has the remarkable power of making an object come up close, of drawing it into a zone of crude contact where one can finger it familiarly on all sides, turn it upside down, inside out, peer at it from above and below, break open its external shell, look into its center, doubt it, take it apart, dismember it, lay it bare and expose it, examine it freely and experiment with it. Laughter demolishes fear and piety before an object, before a world, making of it an object of familiar contact and thus clearing the ground for an absolutely free investigation of it. Laughter is a vital factor in laying down that prerequisite for fearlessness without which it would be impossible to approach the world realistically. "

Very appropriate given our circumstances right now.

Why is it these videos show up exactly when I need them?! ✨❤️✨

If I find myself getting weighed down with life's petty problems, I just take a walk through a graveyard...that always makes me feel better somehow 😂

5:22 This thing is one of the realest things I have ever heard. I can never thankyou enough School of life💜🌹

I love this video! I tend to take things not too seriously but some people tell me I should be a little more "realistic" or "pessimistic". I know very well life is living hell but why live in sadness when you can just have fun while you can

Regardless where and what we come from, we move towards the same destiny. For it's notion of "six feet under", that makes our worries minuscule. Nobody survives and that's beautiful.

I like Giles Corey''s idea of yelling for "more rocks" when the accusers crushed him with stone trying to get him to confess.

I love this voice, if I feel sad or not good I listen to this voice and instantly feel better! ❤

Thank you so very much for this. I believe this is the existential version of what Tolkien described in narratological terms as "Eucatastrophe". Not foolish hope but a fool's hope. That's the one that will come true.

In the modern era where you can make decisions and have way more control of your life than ever before, I refuse to be a cynic. But instead faith and good life choices keep my life low stress and understand my place in this world and a comfort knowing that we are one small part of a grand design.

This is like that IT thing where all you gotta do is have courage and the monster will piss itself off

I slept in my bathtub last night due to not enough rooms, brought my night light and watched old tv show, one of the best mistakes I’ve made for now. Thank god for life and you reading this it’s gonna get better and we must keep going. This too shall pass old sport ❤️💐✨

I think the final answer is to live alone away from people .Just as you are alone and away from people when you are dead.Rest in Peace Live in Peace.

Heraclitus: "there is tranquility in change." I.e. things are always changing so don't get bogged down on stuff that doesn't matter

You may well have saved my life today! I went to the woods wanting to end it all. This popped up in my feed and I literally laughed out loud TWICE at the same bit (the foot after the sofa! No spoilers!!!). Thank you, thank you, thank you! Off to whistle!

“Anything we deeply want either will not happened or it will be unsatisfied when it does”……this ..i really felt this..

Why is death considered the worst of all? Death is lifes final gift, rest, end of obligations, freedom, peace. There is an amazing song by blue oyster cult "dont fear the reaper" and as cheery as the tune of set song may be its intimately about death, hence it shows us that there is nothing to fear in death.

"Arthur grinned and decided that he will go mad. He stood up, spread his arms and said, 'I will go mad!'" - an inaccurate but to the essence excerpt from The Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy It gets even better! "Arthur was so happy that for the first time in years, the day was going according to plan. He had decided that he would go mad and here he was, chasing a Chesterfield sofa." Arthur was right. We are all mad!

I find the comments more inspiring and understandable than the video. So, thank you to the commenters.

Lovely video! Much needed at these times when everything seems grim and too difficult.

Haven't seen the video yet... but I already know that it is exactly what I need in this moment.

Thank you for this video! It sums up my stoic views on life.

i make myself laugh at everything, for fear of having to weep at it

wish my therapist was this upfront and blunt i learned more here about myself than in 10 sessions

This made me shed a tear. How tragically beautiful.

When I was a child I decided that I wouldn't grow up like the adults around me who looked so grim. I wanted to remember to laugh.

I highly recommend adding a seizure warning for 0:11 Great video nonetheless!

I get frowned at a lot for making jokes of truly horrible things, but I spit in the eye of the Universe. Take that!