Rx for Laughter at Home and Office!

Ho ho ho! Ha ha ha! Rx for accessing our inner joy on a daily basis! Developing “happy” `skills for these extraordinary as well as extra-ordinary times!

The following is sound ho-holistic advice for enhancing our inner joy! These laughter exercises, if followed daily, are guaranteed to alter brain chemistry in a most positive way and will also be found to encourage a sense of hopefulness, optimism, and creativity! Remember, laughter, love, and happiness are contagious and you're apt to infect large populations ofcranky folks with a sense of mirth!

Wake up, look in the bathroom mirror, and smile the “Duchenne Smile,” which is a large grin that opens the mouth and exposes the teeth, creating crows feet in the corners of both eyes. Hold for 30 seconds; Now, point your index finger at your image, looking into your eyes, and laugh like crazy! We all know that Laughter is the Best Medicine, so take your ”laughter pills” and laugh laugh laugh! Repeat as necessary throughout the day! You can do some “LSD” that is, Laughing, Singing, and Dancing, around your place! Jump into the shower – each time you place your head underneath the flow, laugh! (Just fake it if you need to, it works the same!)

Stretches and breathing: Lift your arms up in the air as you inhale through your nose, hold for a few seconds, then exhale fully through your mouth, bringing your hands down to the floor (remember to go gently and bend forward from the hips). Repeat at least 3x; Now practice the “Goldy Hawn negativity-releasing exercise”during which you inhale your arms up over your head, then cross your arms vigorously in front of yourself while laughing yourself downwards; Practice laughing at photos of your relatives as you hop around your place! Breakfast smoothie: mix equal portions of “happy chemicals”: seratonin and endorphorins in your imaginary shaker and drink, then laugh!

Driving to work: Stuck in traffic? Turn on intermittent wipers and laugh each time they move;

Take the upper road: Remember to stay in the laughter zone, don't be tempted to go down “Bogey Street” Ha ha ha!

 

At work: Convince employer to hire Laughter Yoga instructors to offer classes on a weekly basis, or better yet, take the laughter leader training yourself so you can practice it with others! Practice the recommended deep breathing techniques in the bathroom; try “silent laughter” any time, and don't forget “cell phone laughter”- just laugh into your cell phone, point at it as if someone you are calling is causing you to laugh! (No one is any the wiser- and probably lots more stressed!

When you arrive at home that evening: prepare a “seratonin cocktail”, shake it up and drink as much as you want! You might even enjoy a “healthy laughter cigar” - breathe in deeply, and exhale your tension out through your open mouth even more deeply! And, for dessert, enact pigging out on your favorite things (jujubees and a hot fudge sundae? Why not?)– and laugh (and you won't gain any weight)

Watch Comedy Central at night, or rent funny movies: (“As good as it Gets”, “The Out-of-Towners”, Little Miss Sunshine”, “As Good As It Gets”, “Moonstruck”, “Planes, Trains, & Automobiles”, “Airplane”, “Manhattan Murder Mystery”, “Defending Your Life”, “Oh God”, “Groundhog Day”, “Uncle Buck”, Monty Python movies, “Blazing Saddles”, Seinfeld episodes, ”The Gods Must Be Crazy”, “Amelie”, “City Slickers I”, “Dirty Rotten Scoundrels”, etc

Call the national Laughter Conference Line: 712-432-3900 access code: 607-1292# - this is for 20 minutes duration by trained Laughter Leaders, available nearly every hour on the hour.

Other suggestions: Negative thinking?(called A.N.T.s - “automatic negative thinking”) - spray with “Laughter Raid”, and laugh; Stand up to the thoughts you don't want and say: “Yakity yak, don't come back!” while pointing at them; Sing “You are my Sunshine” to “ha ha ha” instead; Release your anxious thoughts forcefully in gibberish (non-sense language), and laugh; Pat yourself on the back for good measure and laugh; Tickle yourself, and laugh! Jump for joy and laugh! Practice the “Ho Tai Laughter” ( Ho Tai was the Chinese “Laughing Saint” with a very abundant belly of inner joy who lived 2,000 years ago. He traveled around spreading good will, laughter and joy – rub your own belly for good luck and laugh! “Pick yourself up by the bootstraps” and laugh! S.A.D. (seasonal affective disorder) – place your hand in front of your face and feel “sad,” then, raise your hand upwards and smile, then laugh! These simple and silly techniques really seem to help all of us who are willing to take the laughter risk and in turn help to promote love, laughter, joy, compassion, forgiveness, acceptance and appreciation to ourselves and to others!

 

Thanks for helping to make the world a more habitable place! Ho ho ho Ha ha ha!

For (Stress- Release) Therapeutic LaughterYoga Clinics for your office, school or group in the Denver Metro area: Contact Meredith or David Vaughn

mere@denverlaughs.com

or call:720-946-9712 . For more information on the international laughter movement:

www.laughteryoga.org

We also host the

Denver Laughter Club, a free club

which meets every Monday (except holidaze) 1t 12:00 noon on

1400 Lafayette (Laffy-ette)

street at the First Unitarian Church or check out other clubs in the metro area on this website.

“The human race has one effective weapon, and that is laughter!” Mark Twain