Want to feel Go(o)d?
Laugh!
Ever really laugh? I mean a deep down cramp in your stomach, tears falling out of your eyes, laugh; that kind of laugh that leaves you feeling elated, high, and peaceful?
I find that many people simply cannot allow themselves to really let go and laugh a nice hard genuine laugh. Far too many of us are uptight and scared of what others would think if we let our hair down and laughed.
Well if you have seen a recent photo of my shaved head, you will see that I have no hair to let down (smile), so I have no problem with letting go and laughing where ever I am. So yes I laugh at Wal-Mart, Target, Applebee’s, and even at church! Yes, church…! I find that a place of worship where laughter is encouraged and welcomed to be a place where spiritual growth occurs much more readily than a place where nice little religious automatons are cloned. This is one reason I like and admire Joel Osteen. He begins his sermons with a joke, a bit of humor. This is also why I used to question my art history professor about so many of the religious paintings and sculptures we studied as they made Jesus and many others appear to be solemn, stern, and cold. And it is partially what attracted me to Buddhism when I compared the laughing Buddha with the art we had been studying. Surely Jesus laughed! I digress. . . (smile)
When we laugh we are literally lightening up. Burdens, stress, anxiety, worries, and fears are released during those moments of laughter and even if they return soon after, for those few precious moments we were lighter, brighter, and a little less of a fighter. We stop fighting the pseudo-self, the ego façade and all that we have created to shield the authentic us from the world and we let it all go to be free in the moment! This is why laughter allows us to feel God. Those self imposed and self perpetuated lies of separation fall away and in the joy of the moment God and self are one again.
Now, let me clarify something about what I just said. I said in that moment the self and God are one again; in truth there is always only Oneness! It is impossible to be separate from God. Can you separate yourself from your mind? Your mind cannot exist separately from you because you and your mind are one; likewise, God is all there is and so everything we are is God. Our awareness of this Oneness can be faulty however, and that is where laughter can serve as a bridge back to this awareness.
When we feel good as we do when laughing, there is a momentary glimmer of possibility, hope, and a knowing that duality does not exist. The more we go into this place, which is the same place we go when we pray, meditate, and do various other spiritual practices, our consciousness expands and we lighten up or become more and more en-lightened. Have you ever heard of laughter yoga? It is an entire spiritual practice itself! (http://laughteryoga.org)
The more we allow ourselves to be joyful or full of joy, the more we are living, moving, and having our being from the consciousness of God. We are not seeking to connect to a God outside of ourselves, but rather awakening to the awareness of the God Presence that is manifested in human form as us.
So the next time you have the opportunity to really laugh, go for it! Allow yourself to become fully immersed in the energetic experience of the laugh!
“There is little success where there is little laughter.”
Andrew Carnegie“Holding on to anger, resentment and hurt only gives you tense muscles, a headache and a sore jaw from clenching your teeth. Forgiveness gives you back the laughter and the lightness in your life.”
Joan Lunden“A day without laughter is a day wasted.”
Charlie Chaplin
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