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November/December 2003 Living Now
Let’s Get Serious About Laughter!

by Pragito Dove

Life does not have to be a constant struggle. Happiness is our essential nature. Rather than waiting for events outside of ourselves to determine our happiness, we can find deep inside, the happiness which is our essential nature. Perhaps we think we have to be relaxed and calm and all sorts of conditions need to be there for us to be happy. This is not the case. Happiness can be there for no reason. The more we make a practice of smiling, laughing, enjoying ourselves for no reason the more we will discover that what we seek we already have.

The Benefits

Laughter is good for us in every way: physically, emotionally, spiritually. Among its many benefits:

• Laughter stimulates physical healing. If you can laugh when you are ill you will get your health back sooner. If you cannot laugh, sooner or later you will become ill. Laughter brings energy from your inner source to your surface.

• Laughter enhances our creativity. As our energetic systems open up we are flooded with more creative energy. As old conditionings are released the unconscious opens and insights come. The relaxation of body and mind provides a gateway for the inner wisdom to come forward into expression.

• Laughter is rejuvenating and regenerating and keeps us young. When we laugh and smile we loosen up and generally feel better. The face collects stress and when we laugh we can release a tremendous amount of tension from the face. This gives us a more youthful appearance.

• Laughter opens the heart. It creates an opening to the love, compassion, courage, trust and intuitive wisdom that vibrates within you. Humor draws people together.

• Laughter gives us a glimpse of freedom from the mind. For those moments when you are totally laughing, you are free of the mind. You are brought from worry to humor, from tension to relaxation, from fear to trust, from timidity to courage. In other words from the mind to the heart. You cannot think and laugh at the same time. In those seconds when you are out of the mind you are in meditation. In those seconds the mind is not and you are.

The Laughter Meditation

In the morning when you wake up, stretch your body -- every muscle, cell and fiber in your body, just like a cat. After a few moments start laughing. Just start. At the beginning you may have to force it a little saying 'Ha, Ha, Ha,' or 'Ho, Ho, Ho' to get the energy of the laughter moving. Soon a spontaneous laughter will arise at the sound of your attempts at laughing. Try it for five minutes. Just laugh for no reason at all. Laugh for the sake of laughing. You might want to use my laughter CD to help you get started.

Try it again for five minutes when you go to bed, just before you go to sleep.

At the beginning it will take some effort, but after a little while it will start to happen naturally. Your body will get used to it, will start to expect it.

Try it in the shower, while driving your car, stuck in traffic. Ha,Ha,Ha. Even to say those words out loud will start a transformation in your energy, in your mood.

Laughter is one of the easiest ways to free yourself from the constant thought process of the mind and find inner peace. It will make you more alive, more healthy, more creative, and more silent. Simply relax into the enjoyment of it. You will discover in yourself a tremendous natural talent for rejoicing in life. You may even laugh your way to enlightenment. Yes, it’s that good. Remember to laugh - a lot - every day.

Pragito Dove is a hypnotherapist and the author of "Lunchtime Enlightenment" a book and meditation CD series with music. Visit her website: www.pragito.com/