Watching People Litter in London Inspired This Easy Happiness Hack

Getting rid of the garbage in your mind without hesitation makes a huge difference.

Photo by Sabrina Mazzeo on Unsplash

Did he just dump his entire lunch onto the street?

I recently visited London for the first time and fell in love with the city and its people. There’s a charm that grabbed me, and history, with a bit of clotted cream on the side, keeping it on my mind. If you haven’t been, you should go. Escaping America again soon to experience more British culture is most definitely in the cards.

The only part of the trip that surprised me was how many people littered. Not just gum wrappers or small store receipts, but all the garbage in their pockets and more lying about on the streets.

I watched a man stop at a red light, open his car door, and throw all of his fast-food trash—his paper bag of food and cup of soda—out onto the street, then keep driving when the light turned green—no concern about the environment. No worries.

Garbage cans were hard to come by, but I wondered why people couldn’t keep their trash with them until they found one. Or, wait until they got home?

Big cities require you to walk and take public transportation, so you might not feel like trekking around all day with your garbage, so you drop it to lighten your load.

Getting rid of actual trash any time, anywhere, is a terrible thing to do. As a lover of metaphors, this made me think of the emotional baggage—or junk—we continually carry around and never get rid of in our lives.

What if we treated our trauma and emotional issues like the trash we must dump immediately? Not onto random strangers or everyone we know, but making a point to feel and process our emotions, then talk to good friends and therapists to help us unload our crap.

I like to call it “Positive littering for the mind," a more immediate way to get back to happiness.

To do it, though, you have to take an honest look at what you’re carrying.

The author in London by the Thames river and parliament.

Recognize your garbage

Sightseeing in London was jolly good fun. We stayed in an Airbnb apartment close to parliament and could walk over to the river Thames within ten minutes to view Big Ben and the London Eye Ferris wheel.

One of my favorite experiences was watching the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. They even had a marching band playing familiar songs like Phantom of the Opera and the Spiderman theme.

Taking in all the sites and over one thousand years of history hits you with awe for the beauty and culture, respect for what they’ve built, and anger at the atrocities of colonialism.

You have to face plenty of mixed emotions and serious issues when you make a point to look at what’s in front of you.

That’s why most people push their feelings down deep and ignore them. They won’t go away if you turn your back or stuff them somewhere in your heart. Yes, negative emotions like fear, shame, and disappointment are uncomfortable, but you have to feel them if you want them to dissipate.

Name these dark and deep emotions. Call them out. Or, at least think about why you’re feeling this way and what led to them. Knowing what you’re carrying can help you release later.

When I visit my inlaws in Japan, there are very few garbage cans when we’re out and about. People there tend to hold on to their trash, keeping it in their bags, purses, or pockets while walking. Therefore, I do the same.

You’re very aware you’re carrying your garbage, which can be pretty annoying.

It’s so satisfying when you get to a garbage can at the subway station or home and can dump it all out. After carrying it for a while, you’re very aware of all you have and enjoy watching it go where it belongs.

Throw your garbage out as soon as possible

I saw people in London littering, but I didn’t see a lot of litter on the ground. Apparently, it’s a big problem there, but they must have plenty of city workers hired to clean it all up regularly. I expected to see more garbage than I did.

It would be best to take them out once you see your issues and accept them—name them as garbage.

This is where “Positive littering for the mind” comes in, and you can do it all in your head. It may feel like a stretch for some of you but stick with me here.

Visualize yourself taking that issue or problem and throwing it in the garbage. Ball it up into a big wad of wrinkled papers in your mind and feel those uncomfortable emotions. They won’t feel good but don’t hide from them.

See yourself letting it go into a huge can. You can even use hand motions to throw it into the trash with force. The relief once your garbage hits bottom will be all the sweeter. You faced your trash and threw it out.

You cleaned out your mess.

Does this solve all your emotional problems? No. And I’m no licensed therapist or psychiatrist, but I am a middle school teacher and creative guy who’s been through a lot of crap. This method works for me and helps strengthen my tolerance for facing challenging emotions.

If you don’t have time at the moment to do this, take time to meditate in the morning or before bed, and visualize taking out your mental trash.

Keep moving forward in life with honesty and help

I know severe trauma and painful parts of childhood are not easy to ball up and throw in the trash with your imagination. This method works on milder emotions or immediate feelings best. Making sure to see a therapist and work on talking through your serious issues that may be causing the smaller ones to feel more extreme is essential.

Of course, talk therapy is scary too. Getting to a place where you can face what’s holding you back or causing negative emotions is a step towards healing and getting help for more profound issues.

You don’t want to litter your emotional baggage all over everyone, but you should have a goal to get to a place where you can openly express your feelings and talk to people who can help you heal. If not, moving forward in life will be a significant challenge.

The next trip to London will be a welcome adventure and one I’m more prepared to face now that I’ve visited once before. I know how to get around and better understand how the city is laid out.

Just like facing your emotional baggage, you get more confident with experience. I highly recommend world travel, especially to the U.K., but you don’t have to go overseas to start healing your mind and heart.

You can do that right now, with a bit of self-awareness and quiet time.

Disclaimer: I am not a licensed therapist or psychiatrist. Please use my advice at your discretion and see a professional if you’re suffering from severe depression.

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3 Ways the New Dune Movie Hit Differently From the Book

Even in the future, white people reign supreme

Image created by PopCultArt on Pinterest.

Warning: Dune spoilers ahead.

Why is the chosen one always a white guy?

This thought never entered my mind when I took on the challenge of reading Frank Herbert's mega-sized “Dune” novel.

For years, I wanted to read the book and pushed it away, thinking it would be full of complicated details, songs, and descriptions similar to "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy—which I also haven't read.

Early previews of the new Dune movie directed by Denis Villeneuve looked pretty darn sweet, so I was compelled to grab a paperback brick version of the book.

The story was a slow mover initially, but it came to life when the Atreides family got to the planet of Arrakis, and we learned more about the Fremen and sacred sandworms. As the main character, Paul Atreides, bobs and weaves his way into becoming Maud Dib—a messiah, I was excited for him with the help of his mother, Lady Jessica.

You learn to respect the Fremen of Arrakis in the book and their ways and also understand how a fifteen-year-old ex-pat from another planet could end up taking charge.

Sure, the book's comparisons to the Middle East with battles over their version of oil, melange (spice), is clear. Even as a Black man, casting people of color in the live-action movie surprised me.

The new film was gorgeous but didn't feel how I hoped it would for several reasons.

1. I didn't visualize Black characters in the book, but they were in the movie

Dune the book felt more like a story of a family from planet Caladan coming in like a fish out of water and eventually melting in with the people and culture of planet Arrakis. The idea that the Atreides family is white and the Fremen are Black and brown crossed my mind but didn't linger.

You would assume people who live in the heat of the desert would be brown skin from the sun, and maybe because I'm a Black man, I just saw all the characters as brown or pale white in my head. No one felt Black to me.

Is this just a case of, now that the characters are on screen, I can see how multicultural they are? Not really. Plenty of thought and work goes into choosing a cast of characters in films.

On the one hand, I appreciate the representation of Black actors. Still, on the other, I'm angry the people of color are the ones causing trouble and getting murdered throughout the movie.

Not only Black actors. A double-crossing Asian male character is killed early on. Then a black woman, culminating with, and this one got me, Paul, fighting a Black Fremen in a duel to the death and wins.

Yeah, Paul's been training in his Caladan martial art for years but come on! Does this spoiled son of royalty really have what it takes to go toe-to-toe with a hardened Fremen who survived growing up wild in the desert?

When I read this scene in the book, it made sense. Seeing it on screen stretched my imagination and patience a bit too thin. The feeling I got inside that the casting agents were doing all they could to hire people of color in roles where they knew they could get killed truly irked me.

It is similar to the joke about how Black characters in action and horror movies die first—and they do, time and time again. The new Dune movie was unapologetically dismissive of its cast of color.

2. The chosen one narrative felt like a fact in the movie and not a maybe

In the book, it feels more like a messiah figure is planted in the minds of the Fremen by agents of the Bene Gesserit. I loved the idea that this sort of belief is manufactured and questions our history with divine leaders.

The Fremen believe Paul is the chosen one because they were led to it by storytellers over many years planting ideas in the minds of the Fremen people. If you hadn't read the books, this idea would fly right past you when it's hinted at in the movie.

No ifs, ands, or buts, about it, most viewers watching will assume Paul is the chosen one. If they haven't read the book, they'll miss one of the most intriguing parts of the story.

Is there a true messiah, or is he a creation in a larger plan by outside forces?

Let's hope they bring this back in part two of the movie and challenge his chosen one status. You rarely see this idea in scifi and have to accept the white guy as the divine right ruler of them all—like in The Matrix and Star Wars franchises.

Breaking that tradition in the new Dune movies would not only be more exciting to watch but leave viewers pondering how much is true about what we're led to believe in our culture and society.

In essence, a much more exciting take on the science fiction genre.

3. Pale skin characters were the most cruel villains

How evil house Harkonnen plots to destroy the Atreides, and their hold on the Arrakis spice trade is pretty nasty, but when reading the book, I didn't see them all as white, pale-skinned punk rockers.

The overweight floating Baron was described as someone who could be a white dude in the book, but the Harkonnens were all a pasty mess in the movie.

Was the plan to make it look like the paler you are, the more evil you become? I can't entirely agree with that idea, but I sure got that impression in the movie version.

Their home planet was all dark and rainy. No wonder the Harkonnen are so pissed all the time.

You can understand how visual contrast comes into play here. When you see the warm browns and beige colors of the land and desert people of Arrakis up against the pale evils of the Harkonnen, it makes an impression.

In the book, you get to read their clever plans and how smart Harkonnens are at manipulation. You understand theirs much more to them than pale skin and an insatiable lust for power.

To conclude

Even with all the issues I had with the movie version, I still enjoyed it. The cinematography was gorgeous, and the story felt faithful to the book. The tempo was a little slow at times, almost meditative. Let's hope they'll pick up the pace in part two, so events move faster and hit harder.

You always have to be careful when visual representation is added to anything written. I've experienced this as an artist and illustrator. Working with clients, you get a different reaction when the idea on paper becomes a drawing or painting.

The positive part of the process is making edits and changes to the look and design of visual elements once you see them. You learn very few details are mistakes. Someone has to see it and make a decision to keep it that way.

In a movie as meticulously designed and planned out as the new Dune is, I'm disappointed no one caught the apparent issues of hierarchy set up by race and color. You get the sense that even far in the future, in a star system light-years away, white people are more regal and of higher status than people of color.

Perhaps in Dune part two, they will choose to do a better job of representation, but I doubt it. White males enjoy being seen as the undisputed champions and have the privilege to continue sharing that narrative in film. It’s not stopping anytime soon.

Denis Villeneuve is a talented director, but he's no messiah.

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