Laughter

Laughter

104th Edition

Happy Spiritual Monday!

It’s been claimed that laughter is the best medicine. In this way, comedians would be, arguably, some of the most important people in society today for maintaining health. 

Away

This weekend we got away for a camp trip just for the night and 2 days. We had a great spot, beautiful weather, monster waves and great food. Was a gorgeous weekend and experience with a beautiful collection of humans. 

Amongst all this epicness one thing stands out and that was the Saturday night star gaze session. It was clear and dark sky, windy but warm and quiet all around apart from the breeze and the seas. 

We shared great conversing, great silence and best of all we all broke out into fits of hysterical laughter. Multiple times. We laughed until some of us had to find a more restful position for fear of falling. 

And this was the moment that made some of us just feel an “Aha” in our soul. This was life and its purpose, to be and experience joy with the world around us. 

I love camping, love being in the wild and just away from the artificiality of a city or town. One of the main reasons is the lack of light pollution and energy pollution. When I am setup on the earth, surrounded by natural rhythms and darkness at night, it reminds me of how disconnected we can be in the “civilised life” settings that most modern humans crave. 

One of our friends recounted as we lay under the stars how he would prefer to go to a hotel or AirBnb over camping as the effort is too much for him. His points were that you have to setup when you arrive, breakdown when you leave, then unpack when you get home, vs simply showing up, laying down, waking up, leaving, and finally arriving home with no big unloading to action.

I can see his perspective in this, and it is definitely more convenient to show up to a pre set up accomodation and not have to do the work. However, as I often allude to in these writings, I am acutely aware of how convenient my life has been and how convenience can often be the enemy of growth and profound experience in life. 

Work Hard

What is work? To some, what connotes their answer would seem to be play. For others, work is a concept rather than a tangible definition. 

Whatever the answer may be, I will associate the verb work here to mean action carried out in order to ensure survival. In this way work could be fixing up jobs around the house or car. It could be sitting in the office and banging out emails and spreadsheets. For a long time for me, it meant teaching lots of classes and retreats.

Whatever it may be, I have always believed in a simple mantra around work. If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well & right. Some may call this work hard. It’s certainly easier to say… The point here is to engage fully in whatever work we may be engaged in, total immersion.

In the same way that discipline yields freedom, working hard can allow for more expression in playtime. As a sidetone, at 41 years young I am still working with my old nemesis of discipline, as our relationship has been rocky for most of the journey…

The relevance here is that many of us fantasise about travel, holiday, vacations but don’t necessarily put in the effort to be able to enjoy the time we may get off in beautiful locations.

If we have accomplished everything necessary when we are in work mode, then we are more apt to appreciate and enjoy the time we have set aside for play, without being tainted by the lingering gremlin of works unfinished while on holiday.

Play Hard

Play is said to be the highest form of learning, thus, we would assume it to be important to play more often than we “work” in order to have enhanced growth in our lives. Play takes different forms for everyone, and per the previous example, what connotes play for some would be work for others.

That said, Play in this context will be referred to as time to be free from constraints of deadlines, fixed projects or the similar. Many refer to this as holiday, or vacation. It is time when we are out of the confines of our normal living situations and we can be free to essentially be children - playful.

This playfulness is something that many struggle to achieve, as we have become too identified with the label of adult, mature, responsible to realise that they all afford some important play time.

When we take advantage of the times we are set to work and work hard, we are free to fully experience our play times and play hard. To me, this simply means being in the moment as deeply as possible - a full presence experience. Typically fun is involved, as life is meant to be fun, but exploration is a definite, novelty and joy are there, and life is lived.

This past weekend, we didn’t really “do” much - we were being. It was awesome.

But as the title of this letter might suggest, we laughed.

At one point, there were 4 of us, all adults (by age at least) laughing so hard that we were gasping for air and crying. It was beautiful.

It made me realise how I often get stuck in the idea of “work” having to be uber serious and challenging, especially when I get into the seat of facilitation or offering my services/ practices. I know for me this can lead into a spiral of not-so-fun-ness. But deep down, I like to have fun, and I believe we all do.

So this week, have a laugh! Remember to take life lightly, because none of us get out of here alive, why not enjoy the ride!

I am fully aware that life requires some responsibility, discipline, routine and seriousness. All I suggest is that you make sure to take a moment to laugh, to enjoy the moment, the now, the silly things in life.

Most of my life, I have been told I joke too often. Never did this really affect me until something happened a few years back and I started buying this sentence off people I respected. This led to me chastising my humour, my joking side and trying to eliminate it for the sake of creating a more serious and responsible self. 

I have come to realise that this is akin to killing the ego… It’s not possible! I have come to accept myself and the smiles I am able to create on the faces and hearts of those around me. It is innate within me, and I now feel proud to have a sense of humour that is insatiable and chooses to share joy with others.

I get the privilege of laughing a lot with my son, and with my partner I giggle often, it’s one of the best things we share, I’d say. 

If you’re lost for a laugh or need a smile, reach out and I will happily provide a silly joke. Note, that inappropriate does not exist in my mid, and I am an equal opportunity discriminator… Everyone deserves to be made fun!

And so it is, with love.