2 Minutes of Laughter Exercises To Practice Alone

 

Laughter Connections
Laughter Connections

Try Laughter Yoga, a healthy mood booster shot

Laughter Yoga is based on the philosophy of “acting happiness” – tell your body what to do and your mind will follow. It is a physically-oriented exercise routine, not a mental process, allowing anyone to laugh without using jokes, humor or comedy. There are no traditional yoga postures in Laughter Yoga. It’s laughter through simple, playful exercises, deep breathing, and stretching. Laughter is a powerful way to exhale what you don’t need anymore. You can actually choose to laugh, for health, regardless of your mood or what life is bringing you. Listen to this interview from Japan with a professional yoga instructor and laughter yoga teacher, a testimony to the transformative power of laughter.

Try these exercises:

  1. First, take three deep breaths. Notice your “internal weather report” and define your mood and how your body feels in this moment. Assign this weather report a number, from 1-10, 1 being pretty stormy and 10 sunny and breezy, for example.
  2. Now, notice your breath. Is your breath shallow, in your upper chest? Or, is it in your diaphram, rib area, or in your belly? Just notice it.
  3. Lift your shoulders to your ears, hold your breath a second or two, tense your shoulders, then drop your shoulders while letting out a big HA. You may do this silently if you are somewhere that a loud HA may be disruptive to others! Repeat 2 more times.
  4. Open your mouth wide. Inhale, laugh loudly for 8-10 seconds. Or again, practice this silently, as if you are in a library. Inhale, repeat 2 more times.
  5. Get in a comfortable seated postion, or stand tall like an oak tree with your feet planted firmly on the ground, rooted. Now notice your breath and your internal weather report. What’s your number now? What do you notice?

 

 

Flowing Into Seasons

 

September is a powerful month of change. Beginnings, endings, comings and goings. Before you find yourself in Ocotober, why not write down some memories of the summer?

Here are some ideas:

What surprised me this summer was…

What I’d like to carry with me this fall is…

The book title of my summer would be…

The song of the summer, for me, was…

This summer, I laughed about…

This fall, I want to let go of…

This fall, I want to bring in…

This summer, I celebrated….

That was important to me because…

I’d like to do _____again, next summer.

I will remember most this one thing…

This summer, I learned that I want to practice more of…

This fall, I will…

 

 

 

Grazing

Sampling
Sampling

I’m finding myself in a bit of transition. In some ways, it feels like these cows grazing on delicious and familiar green grass, and in others it’s like moving to another pasture and chewing new flavored varities. For most of us, creating new programs or new work takes continually feeding oneself on core values—things that if they are not present in your life, you know they are missing. Two core values of mine are creativity and relationships. I’m reconnecting with some really important people in my life and sampling some new things, such as teaching myself how to play the guitar. I’m giving myself permission to enjoy the process, the learning, in small bites rather than saying “in two months I’ll know how to play a song with x number of chords and with this strumming pattern”. As a coach, that’s something that I work on at times…not setting goals, as crazy as that sounds! When it comes to transitions and generating creativity, I find it’s useful to simultaneously build the “doing” and “being”.

If you are in some sort of transtion, which can be subtle or quite obvious to self or others, consider these things.

1. Ask yourself when you get up in the morning, “Who do I want to connect with today?”

2. Ask yourself upon awakening, “What’s one thing that I would enjoy today?”

3. Where could I release a “should” or “must” today?

4. How could I move my body today?

4. What’s the most important piece of work that I want to accomplish today?

5. At the end of the day, how can I send myself and those I love, caring?

This is a ever-evolving list! Give yourself the opportunity to sample different questions. Keep the ones that feel like bedrocks. Create new ones. Notice.

Being Alive

Limitless
Limitless

 

 

Consider this expressive writing prompt: What makes you soar?

ME TO WE

ME TO WE

“You rarely have time for everything you want in this life, so you need to make choices. And hopefully your choices can come from a deep sense of who you are.” — Fred Rogers, from The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things To Remember.

This week I am inspired by the service of others, and the power of  love joining us together. I am inspired by participants, volunteers, staff, and families at the Victory Summit  last Saturday. I am inspired by the recent documentary on Fred Rogers. I am inspired by clients who show courage, openness, and willingness. I am inspired by play in all of these events and experiences.

In more words of Fred Rogers, “Play does seem to open up another part of the mind that is always there, but that, since childhood, may have become closed off and hard to reach. When we treat children’s play as seriously as it deserves, we are helping them feel the joy that’s to be found in the creative spirit. We’re helping ourselves stay in touch with that spirit, too. It’s the things we play with and the people who help us play that make a great difference in our lives.”

Who do you play with? How are play, love, and service connected in your life?

Laughter’s Anchor

Play

 

How important is laughter? Most of us don’t have to take long to remember a time when we lacked it. Most of us also immediately can cite who we laugh with, or who we long to laugh with again. When we were children, we belly laughed all the time, even hundreds of times per day when we were very young.

Did you know that you don’t need a sense of humor to laugh? That’s the premise of Laughter Yoga. Some say the more you laugh, the more you laugh. It is also said that one can’t laugh and think at the same time. I realize that might be scary for some, but for others, a relief! To turn off our minds for a while and increase our bodies natural endorphins. That’s what happens when we laugh.

There is some pretty amazing stuff about Laughter Yoga and it’s benefits. Here’s a tiny sample.

Why the Dalai Lama laughs

Gibberish Laughter Game

Dr. Katari in Yoga Journal

Massage Therapists Embrace Laughter Yoga

Good Descriptive Article on Laughter Yoga

Read, Relax, and Play Often

Summer Memory

 

This week  I noticed the posting “Read, Relax, and Play Often” on a local high school sign, and reflected on summers of my young days, as well as the meaning of the phrase.

I can still smell our local public library–the books, their bindings, the coolness and restfulness of the interior space. Oh, how my sister and I loved to pile our books high and carry home all those stories. I thank my mother in particular for fostering  love of the written word and how it can transport us. I also think of my friend Shirley T. Burke who encourages incarcerated women in “Livin’ It!”  to read, as a way to move toward learning new and affirming things.

OK, now comes the second word. First of all, how many times do we say to one another, “Relax”! Usually it comes at tense moments when that’s the last thing on our minds. So, what is important about this? How many of you have teenagers and even younger children who are already experiencing a plate way too full, even in summertime? Is this a mirror of your own life? Consider taking a bold move this summer and shift towards rejuvenation, regrouping, renewal, rejoicing even. The earth in our part of the world is coming into full bloom during the next couple of months. What would more intentional relaxation bring to your life landscape?

“Play Often”–now comes the real fun.  I recently read the book play: How It Shapes The Brain, Opens The Imagination, And Invigorates The Soul, as suggested by one of my Laughter Yoga teachers, Leigh Meredith. The author, Stuart Brown M.D., tells the story of  the generative, life-affirming, and fundamental power of play. Consider going to the local library and checking it out, even discussing with your family and friends.

This summer, I encourage you to consider the read, relax, and play often suggestion. Pick one way to start. Tell a buddy. Remember a time when you did play, or did read, or did relax. How might you step into that world again? How would this impact your ability to think more clearly, deepen your relationships, soften the edges of your life a bit, serve others, serve yourself, create solutions? Consider a simple, accessible step. Start with 10-15  minutes–of reading, relaxation, playing. Make it doable, tangible, meaningful to you.

And thank you, author of the words, “Read, Relax, and Play Often! May you experience the same!