Laughter

Moving to a new country was filled with lots of excitement and anticipation. I kept thinking what type of mischief will I get up to in Australia. While I was living in San Francisco, counting down the days that I could leave a job that I loved, I had a group of people outside of my team that literally turned my stomach and made me growl like a vicious watchdog. During those days the one thing that kept me in a positive state of mind were my true friends that were always nearby making me scream with laughter on the Muni transportation, in restaurants, in the office, in the best chocolate store, and most of all while walking from one meeting to another. Often I would laugh so hard that I would have to stop walking and fall to the ground from laughter cramps.

Once I made my big move I could barely contain my excitement, it felt like I was on a lovely vacation. After a few weeks my mind, body, and soul spoke loud and clear to me saying, hey mister, it's time to pack your bags and head home, you have to go back to work. I thought, whose voice is that in my ear, I am not going back to work. I started to feel like a part of me had been lost. No matter how hard I tried over and over again the first few weeks to relax, I kept feeling like something was missing. I checked to make sure I still had two arms, 10 fingers and toes, two legs, two eyes, two feet, two ears, a nose, and a mouth. Everything checked out and I couldn't figure out why I felt so alone and hollow inside.

It finally dawned on me that my mind, body and soul had been programmed by me for half a century to keep me focused and setting priorities to reach my goal. No matter how I kept saying hey guys, this is my goal, they just kept working, that felt like they were against me. A very special person who is the founder of The Right Within Experience in San Francisco helped me to understand what was happening and the path I needed to take to reprogram my body, mind and soul, or create new positive habits to help my body to adapt and learn to relax. When working 12 to 14 hours per day and coming home to work more, one's brain and body adapts to this habit, be it good or bad. It's not easy to all of a sudden say stop. It takes time. With her help, I am turning the corner and learning to enjoy my new life and world.

Those magic words were laughter, music, movement, sunshine, and learning to be more tender to myself through meditation and breathing. Many people think the latter is a joke, but trust me, it really works once you get into simple meditation. Try breathing in the best and exhaling the rest the next time you are in a stressful situation or in traffic when you are running late for an appointment. I was quite surprised.

Medically, laughter is proven to be a powerful tool for your physical, emotional and social health. It can renew and heal our body and mind, strengthen the immune system, boost mood, diminish pain, and protect us from the damaging effects of stress. When my friends make me laugh, they are laughing just as hard and the more I laugh, the funnier the stories.

Laughter generally increases our overall sense of well-being. It has clinically been proven that people who have a positive outlook on life tend to fight diseases better than people who tend to be more negative. So here are some reasons to smile, laugh, and live longer.

• Reduces stress hormone levels: A good sense of humor is free and a quick formula for good health. A hearty laugh relaxes the whole body and relieves physical tension and stress. Laughing can cause our body to produce natural painkillers and may also relieve pain caused by muscle disorders by interfering with the pain-spasm cycle.

• Lowers blood pressure: One of the health benefits of laughter is that it protects your heart by improving the flow of blood through the body’s arteries, thus reducing blood pressure as well as other cardiovascular problems.

• Boost the immune system: Laughter activates our body’s natural defense mechanism and specialized immune system cells (T-cells) which instantly helps you combat sickness. Studies have shown that the efficiency of T-Cells which are a type of white blood cells known as lymphocytes, actually increases in persons who laugh regularly.

• Enhances mood: Studies have shown that a good laugh has an analgesic quality that reduces pain, and can make you feel better. Humor helps us to keep a positive, optimistic outlook through difficult situations, disappointments, and loss during difficult times.

• Improves Memory

• Natural exercise for burning calories: Laughter is also a natural way to exercise various muscles in your body. It also re-energizes your mind and body. Ever wondered why our stomach hurts slightly after long bouts of laughter? This is because when laughing, we engage our body’s diaphragm and abdominal muscle systems causing them to expand and contract just like when you intentionally exercise your abs. I will be laughing more for sure.

• Promotes creativity: Our creativity and problem-solving abilities can be enhanced by just laughing. It fosters productivity and improves overall brain health. Learning to laugh at ourselves will help develop an ability to improvise through any tough decision.

Laughter is key. I realised that what I missed most were my real friends who kept me laughing until tears ran down my legs. Even now, when I think of them and some of the funny things they have said to me I start to laugh out loud. There is nothing so wonderful for the soul. The cover photo used for this post still cracks me up. I am with two friends that I simply adore and for the sake of me I can't remember what was so funny but I am certain that the very clever and hilarious woman on my right said something to kick off the laughter. That's when I remembered to keep my photos around whenever I feel like I am dragging spiritually. It also helps to be in communication through social media, email. FaceTime or even Zoom calls. I have increased my contact with those 8 or 10 true friends that I value more than anything in the world. My partner is also one of the funniest people in my life and the reason why we have been together for 25 years this year. His facial expressions and his sense of humour is so dry that I am always running to the bathroom while doubled over with laughter. His family, now my family too, always keep me laughing daily and especially at our weekly family dinners.

Taking walks in the lovely sunshine, listening to more music throughout the day and dancing like I am a part of the Alvin Ailey dance troupe helps me to even laugh at myself in the mirror. Every morning starts with a 5 minute breathing and meditation exercise that helps me to focus. I repeat a similar exercise before going to bed after writing in my journal that list items that I am grateful for each day. It's not easy to fall back into feelings of being lost, but each day my mind, body and soul are getting faster at creating new & positive habits.

Big thanks to all of my friends and family that make me laugh, please know that you are all so special to me.