Laugh Your Troubles Away Self Help Advice

Written by Pat Sullivan

Here's some advice on how to successfully balance all the seriousness in your life with laughter. In the process, you'll feel much more energized.

Spirituality may be about deep issues like the meaning of life and death, but it doesn't have to be heavy. After all, on the eighth day, God laughed.


Laughter lifts the spirit by deflating pomposity and grandiosity. It lowers the blood pressure, energizes the body, even boosts the immune system. Deep laughter relaxes the belly, proverbial seat of our Buddha wisdom. When we laugh, we become naturally more intuitive, more compassionate, more attuned to the wonder of the world around and within us.


Wise Advice
On the eighth day, God laughed.
Laughing is good for your health.
The average 6-year-old laughs 300 times a day.
If you're laugh-deprived, imagine your life as material for a good comedian.
When all else fails, just go "Ho! Ho! Ho!" deeply.
Behavioral scientist Dr. William F. Fry, author of Sweet Madness and other books on humor, sees shared laughter as a "spiritual experience that uplifts and bonds us." He notes that the average 6-year-old laughs about 300 times a day, but our natural sense of good humor quickly gets dampened. By adulthood, we laugh only 15-100 times per day.


Are you among the laugh-deprived? If you're willing to look at the serious, heavy stuff of your life from a different perspective, you can always find something to laugh about. What gems could Charlie Chaplain and his silent-movie pals find in your life? How would your favorite comedians today turn your troubles into a hilarious skit or monologue?


Feeling unimaginative? Here's an even easier way to unleash laughter. Simply say, "Ho!" from as deep in the belly as possible. Pause a bit, then say, "Ho! Ho!" After another pause, say, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" Keep pausing and adding another "Ho!" until you lose count and there's no way you can do anything but laugh. If someone comes by and wants an explanation, it should take no more than a minute before you're laughing spiritedly together.

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