Have you laughed yet today?

"A good, real, unrestrained, hearty laugh is a sort of glorified internal massage, performed rapidly and automatically. It manipulates and revitalizes corners and unexplored crannies of the system that are unresponsive to most other exercise methods." ~Author unknown

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter." ~e.e. cummings

I remember getting into trouble as a kid for laughing at the dinner table. My sister and I would get into uncontrollable fits of laughter where we were on the verge of having food fly out of our mouths or milk come out of our noses. Usually, there wasn't one thing in particular that inspired the laugh. The joy must have been so bountiful that we just couldn't contain ourselves. So...we got in trouble. That made us laugh even harder! As much as we tried to squeeze our lips shut, the sounds would squeek out and lead into another belly-aching outburst that might have ended in a race to the bathroom to pee.

I've been caught laughing in church at my cousin's baptism and at a family reunion gathering where one of my relatives was delivering a sermon. In this instance, my aunt and I were laughing so hard we had no choice but to disguise our laughter by pretending to cry - we thought tears would be more socially acceptable as it might appear that we were emotionally moved by the sermon. (As you can probably guess, this was not in fact the case). I'm reflecting on this because of all the times in my life where I've felt so joyous to laugh, I've felt pressure to contain this fantastic expression and conform to some social rules about adult laughter. Those that know me may say otherwise particularly if they've watched a movie with me. I've been known to laugh at things that the audience doesn't find nearly as funny or laugh a little after the punch line. Regardless of whether or not a laugh is timed right, why are we sometimes compelled to quell such a powerful expression?

I think this laughter suppression is why we see the rise of laughter yoga, laughter meditation, laughter therapy, humour therapy and laughter clubs. Don't you find it odd that we have to structure laughter back into our day? It's kind of parallel to the fact that we've engineered movement out of our daily routine and now we have to re-integrate exercise back into our day in order to keep ourselves healthy.

I'm reminded of all this because of my yoga class today. We closed with a laughter yoga session - the instructor suggested that we 'fake' laugh as fake laughter generates the same beneficial physiological response as genuine laughter. Blood flow increases, good hormones flood the body, and our immune response is enhanced. From my yoga mat, there was no need to fake it - after the instructor let out the most hilarious gut-busting laugh, I joined right in with pure genuine laughter. We really should not let a day pass without one of those abdominal aching laughs! I read somewhere (can't remember where now) that 100 laughs is equivalent to 10-15 minutes of aerobic exercise. Can't you just picture it ..."4 more now... ha..ha..ha..ha...okay only 96 more to go......

Let's Pick up the Phone!

Okay, I'm on a bit of a rant today. I think it started with the horribly stinky feet smell in the gym at lunch. The smell near the cardio equipment was so intolerable; I nearly gagged out loud and ended my workout early. With running being off limits as per the doc, I quelled my gag reflex and continued on the X-trainer in the quest for a little sweat.

However, the negative olfactory incident was the apparent impetus for more objectionable experiences for the remainder of the afternoon. I will refrain from providing an inventory of all my pet peeves but I will just mention one that reached a breaking point for me today: overuse of email carbon copy!! I call over users of “carbon” copying: cc happy. I don’t know if the motivation is to remove responsibility or to keep people informed but I do believe that too many of us hit “reply all” without really thinking about whether we need to send that email to 20 people. However, some believe that if you are not cc happy, you are not being transparent! Come on…we already get more than enough email to respond to in a timely manner.

On another note, if you can avoid sending 10 emails back and forth (and to 20 people 10 times), pick up the phone. One conversation can clarify a lot especially when there may be underlying tension in the email exchange. Why so reluctant to pick up the phone or walk to the next cubicle? Please, let’s bring humanity back into our offices before I go nut bar……..

Okay, I’m off to check my email…..no more rants tomorrow……..

Divinity is in Everyone

Yoga means 'union'. The goal of yoga is to create 'oneness' - within ourselves, with each other and with our natural surroundings. Yoga does not believe in divisions yet our western mind likes to categorize and segregate and classify things and people. When you pass a homeless person calling out for spare change, what do you think? When you pass heroine addict passed out in the street, are there judgments that run through your mind? If I have money in my pocket and am free of addictions, am I so different from these people. Yoga says that we are one with each other - we are a part of everyone and everything. I think I am beginning to understand this concept more and more.

Through my practicum experience this semester, I have had the fortune of meeting some amazing women. These women have had very different upbringings than me and many of them lead very different lives with numerous struggles that I could not even imagine myself going through. They are more courageous and brave and inspiring than I could ever hope to be. Yet on many levels, we are one and the same with the same needs for love, connectedness, self esteem and the opportunity to contribute. It is only the mind that points out all the differences - the heart quickly discovers that we are so similar.