You can't Hold a Negative Thought in your Head while Laughing

You can’t hold a negative thought in your head and laugh at the same time. Pretty much, it’s impossible.

I experienced this recently during a laughter program. I had been fairly obsessed with thoughts of a difficult challenge, seemingly unable to stop the upsetting thoughts from running in a steady stream through my mind, over and over; trying to seek peace, or a solution, or understanding, or forgiveness, etc, etc, etc. Obviously it had been far too long since I’d led a laughter session.

My current program was a blessing. During the laughter session, laughing over and over with the laughter exercises I was leading, my mind completely cleared of all negative thoughts; all thoughts at all really, except how much fun we were all having laughing together.

I only realized this fact well after the session was over, when those ubiquitous thoughts came creeping back in. But my orientation towards them was completely different – relaxed, calm, almost peaceful, confident solutions were there, i.e. able to cope and no longer obsessed.

You can’t hold a negative thought in your head and laugh at the same time. Nor can you really be the same afterwards. Laughter brings you into balance without even trying.

Tita

My friend Tita is a very bright spirit.

Fellow laughter leader and receptionist at Harborview Hospital, Tita Begashaw brings joy and laughter to many many people.

I watched her one morning as I sat waiting in the lobby. Adorned in a bright red suit, her dark eyes sparkling, she had a radiant greeting for almost everyone passing by. Either it was a warm “Good Morning”, a kind word or a passing pleasantry. She lit up the morning with her cheerful attitude and abundant laughter.

I asked Tita how it is that she is so joyful. “It’s a choice. The more I practice joy, the easier it becomes.” Tita’s laughter is joy overflowing, joy in motion.

A native of Ethiopia, she moved to this country in 1988 and to Seattle in 1994. She began volunteering at Harborview soon thereafter. After being grief-stricken at the death of her younger brother, she knew that the path to healing lay in being of service to others. She is approaching her 10^th anniversary as a full-time employee this May.

Tita will tell you she loves her job, calling it the best gift in her life. Being a people person, she absolutely glows at the front desk in the main lobby. She delights in meeting the full array of humanity that passes through the doors of Harborview. Tita’s faith tells her the way to be joyful is to practice it. If there is a language barrier, she communicates with a smile. Staff members come to the lobby just to get a hug from her, “their energy for the day”, some returning in a few hours for another shot.

Tita’s a natural laugher and uses this gift to lead the Friday morning laughter club at Harborview. She claims the laughter club has only made her better. I say the laughter club has made her more of who she already is.

In a hospital environment of high-stress, Tita herself is a stress-buster. Just being with her is relaxing and joyful. Tita is a great gift to Harborview Hospital and to the world.

Stay Young Laughing

Have you ever noticed that those who laugh a lot, age very gracefully and generally look much younger than they are?

There’s a reason for that. When you laugh it tones your facial muscles, keeping them in shape, preventing them from sagging. When we laugh almost nonstop in the laughter club, laughter exercise after laughter exercise, our mouths often get sore from all the exercise in our face. A joyful soreness. That’s toning our faces.

A great way to stay young-looking is to laugh and laugh often.

Take an Active Approach to Laughter

Most people laugh in a passive way, when some stimulus in their environment spontaneously catches their funny bones and produces a laugh. It’s hit or miss. Sporadic. It happens when it happens. Most people rarely take an active approach to laughter. Yet that is what Laughter Yoga is all about. We choose to attend a laughter session. We choose to laugh. We self-generate our own laughter. And in the process we add more and more laughter to our lives.

Dr. Kitaria created laughter yoga understanding the tremendous physical and emotional benefits of laughter, yet knowing that most people don’t get nearly enough of it in their lives. He set out to create a method where people could simply laugh more.

How often do we wish we had more laughter in our lives? How often do we wish we had one of those friends nearby with whom we laugh loud and often? Usually people just don’t know how to add more laughter to their lives. But now there’s laughter yoga. Give it a try. Take control of your laughter life. Don’t leave laughter to chance!

Marai Nagasu is a Complete Joy!

American Figure Skater Marai Nagasu is a joy to watch! Her spirit takes flight while she skates. She exudes pure joy. I can feel it when I watch her. Her body reflects her spirit in her skating – it’s fast, free, joyous. And she spins – oh does she spin! Like no other.

Spinning is an expression of total joy. Think about it. Kids spin. I feel like spinning and twirling down the street when I 'm in tremendous joy. (Unfortunately I hold back, opting instead to act like an adult -Boo.)

But Marai Nagasu is a joy to watch. She’s only sixteen. I hope she retains her joyful spirit throughout her skating career. Her website tells you to have a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious day!

Go Marai!!!

Classical music is so serious.

This was my thought at a recent concert of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. No one in the chorus was smiling. No one had a sparkle in their eyes. Expressions were very serious. The irony was, they were singing the "Ode to Joy". Is this how Beethoven meant for his 9th to be sung?

I can only imagine the rigorous training and intense competition involved in becoming a classical singer. I have utmost respect for our city’s classical musicians. I honor the art of music and the richness that it brings to our lives. Yet I remain feeling a bit empty sometimes at the seriousness of it all.

My mind floats back to the glory days of Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops. A beloved figure in Boston for over 50 years, he was a joyful spirit. He deliberately kept his performances informal, light, even self-mocking, all in the spirit of being inclusive and having a good time with the music. The whole idea of The Boston Pops vs. The Boston Symphony was to have more fun, to be more playful. His free outdoor concerts were wildly popular and are now memorialized in an outdoor statue of his likeness. I believe it was Arthur Fiedler’s fun-loving nature coupled with his genius that made him so special.

More recently, the very successful Dutch violinist and conductor André Rieu, is the direct opposite of serious. In his Johann Strauss Orchestra the singers smile and laugh, blatantly expressing joy. I love him for this. It’s clear he requires his ensemble to be jubilant, to have their spirits soar as high as the music; the music matching the people creating it. They wear bright colors rather than the traditionally heavy-spirited black. He jumps around on stage with his 1667 Stradivarius violin (a violin protected almost as heavily as our president). It’s classical music coupled with joy – a winning combination.

Lastly I always come back to Mozart, the ultimate genius with the raucous sense of humor. His music is pure joy. It’s happy music. I use it if I’m ever sad or depressed, letting the uplifting melodies soar through my home. Even his operas, The Marriage of Figaro, Cosi Fan Tutti, The Magic Flute, are full of lightness and comedy.

To me classical music is a beautiful thing, an emotional experience. I left that 9^th symphony in tears because it touched me so deeply. Yet I want to say to those who brought it to me: “Lighten up. Let the joy you bring to us, fill you as well. Let it then come back to us multiplied, filling the concert hall to the brim.” How amazing that would be!

Labyrinth of Laughs

A laughter club participant recently shared this wonderful story about her mother:

She was walking a labyrinth (similar to a maze, but with a single path to the center) along with a group of others as part of a spiritual meditation. Embarrassingly she starting laughing too hard while she was trying to walk, laughing at how serious the others were. It just cracked her up and she could barely continue.

I too sometimes think the spiritual community needs to lighten up. Too often the perspective is lost, that laughing is indeed very spiritual; in my mind the most spiritual activity, as it connects you to your truest essence.

So I love this idea of walking a labyrinth while laughing, running the energy of laughter through the maze, carving a path of joy! Bravo to this wonderful woman, who thought she was doing it wrong.