Teamwork

I have a dream

A song to sing

A feeling to follow

Words to shaHAhare

I let my Heart do the talking

and my body listens and acts

Moving and expressing

from the INside OUT

I've always felt PEACE

a tangible sensation HERE now

always looking for the good

and breathing LOVE into the situation

Now I know the value of teamwork

A group of people connected

Doing the work and spreading the word

Inciting a MOVEment

I believe in Laughter 

How it can chaHAhange our minds

And create peace in our bodies

I believe in Yoga

How it gives us flexibility

Enhances our breathing and helps us grow

I believe in the HAHA chi 

choosing haHAhappy and

 shaHAharing which is caring

I believe in you - me - WE

Our connection 

Our communication 

Our tribe

One Laugh

World Peace

One Love

INTEGRATION of WE

Raw and Juicy Tribe 2013

This weekend was OMazing.  Three Goddesses came together to hold sacred space for a mind, body, soul experience.  We covered topics that I am passionate about - Laughter, Raw Food and Learning.  We held a Raw and Juicy Weekend Retreat.

10 peeps signed up to explore a Raw and Juicy lifestyle.  We came together to learn about food combining and alkaline diets.  We experimented with spiralizers and juicers and dehydrators.  We drank chocolate mylk and green juices and ate crackers made of juice pulp.  We feasted on raw pasta, pad thai noodles and gourmet salads.  We concocted rawlicious cacao-coconut haystacks and lemon shortbread cookies and mintchoco patties.  We laughed and shook the stress out and found new ways to relax and ease into the learning experience.  We opened our bodies and minds with yoga and meditation.

I shaHAhared easy peasy recipes with 5 ingredients or less and introduced them to the benefits of laughter circles for stress release.  We talked about how to fuel our bodies naturally and create peaceful enerchi.

We laughed out loud and shook our bodies loose.  We listened and learned and lunched.  The process was so gentle and juicy.

On the last day of our retreat, we went on a field trip.   We traveled to Hollywood Beach to check out Josh' Organic Market.  We answered questions about fruits and vegetables and how to use them raw.  And then we got a special treat.  

Josh took us around the market and gave us samples of his herbs (cilantro, dill, arugula, dandelion, red sorrel) and his greens (butterleaf lettuce, spinach) and his citrus (grapefruit, minneola) and then the exotic fruit (mango and pineapple).  So rawlicious - woohoo.

What I am learning about ME, MYSELF and I - WE -  is that we like to shaHAhare what we know about growing all sorts of muscles that make our body healthy and haHAhappy.   We love creating space for others to learn about their body wisdom.  We love to show others how their temples work optimally when we integrate all parts of ourselves into this thing called life.

FAITH

Yesterday I watched a small bird, flying VERY fast, disappear into the canopy of an oak tree. So dense were its leaves, that it was impossible to see what happened next, though I can tell you it remained inside.

I wondered about how the little bird found its opening through the leaves at such a speed, and then manage to gently alight its fragile body on the branch it chose to land, all within a FRACTION of a second. Not to mention the impossible to imagine flying maneuvers required, the banking, the curling, the vertical and horizontal stabilizations, the deceleration and landing.

Memory? Calculation? Not in that tiny brain. Instinct? Maybe, but how does instinct know which way the branches of a tree have grown, when no two are the same?

That little bird JUST KNEW. It knew... in spite of NOT being able to SEE HOW things would work out... that if (and only if) it stayed the course, THE DETAILS would be taken care of... that an opening would appear and a twig be found. In fact, had she slowed down ENOUGH to carefully and logically inspect the tree first, the prudent thing to do, she would have fallen to the ground.

Kind of like us reaching our goals. Neither memory, nor calculating, nor instincts are the deciding factors, but faith.  

I found this story on the internet and loved it so much - the truth of the bird just knowing - without seeing and without details and trusting the branch would be there.

Growing my laughter muscle has helped me be in this space of faith - knowing that I can laugh when I know not, when I cannot see and when I am not sure.  Laughing opens my heart and reminds me to have faith that all is well and hahahappens in its own time.

What a powerful Art to practice - FAITH.  Woohoo!!!

Flexibility

The captain of a ship received a message one night, "Change your direction 15 degrees North to avoid collision”.

A little indignant, the captain replied, “I am the captain of a large ship and recommend you divert 15 degrees South”.

The captain received the reply, “We are a lighthouse”.

No matter who you are, life requires flexibility.

Laughing for no reason really helped me learn the Art of Flexibility.   Practicing and strengthening my HAHA muscle embodied it within me.  

I was not always this way.  I used to be a paralegal in a law firm with 18 attorneys.  I used to be a "Type A" personality (overachiever, hard-driven, and every thing had to be perfectly done my way or oy va voy).  Talk about a lot of stress in my head and body.

All that extra stress showed up in my body in so many different ways - tight muscles, tension headaches, IBS, fibromyalgia, heart palpitations, overeating).   


Laughing for no reason gave me the opportunity to chaHAhange my situation and the way I look at things. The ShaHAhakti Shake gave me an outlet to shaHAhake my thoughts loose and release tension out of my body and stomp it into the ground.  Being in the park under the trees and breathing the fresh air - ah what a relief it is!!!

Of course, learning the Art of anything takes time.  Reading about it is a YES, I understand.  Experiencing it, that is a YES, I get it in my bones.Ha ha to A-ha.


To be flexible - to accept and BREATHE and ease myself in.   To laugh at myself and chaHAhange my thoughts or release any expectations of how things need to be.  To trust and surrender to what the Universe brings and be open to flowing with what is.

In the HAhaHAppy lifestyle I am building, to remain alkaline and fluid, I find ways to keep my stress at a minimum.  Laughter is one of my play resources.  Flexibility is another great tool to play with.  It keeps me loosey goosey.  So I can make my life easy peasy.  Woohoo!!!

Prayer and Signs

I arrived in Ecuador on a dark and dreary rainy night.  It was cold and damp and I took a taxi to my hotel.  When I woke up the next morning in my hotel room in downtown Quito, it was slightly chillier than I care for.   I was up early to head back to the airport for my next flight to Loja.

For me, this trip was about surrender and trusting my INtuition.  Knowing I am in Ecuador for a purpose that was still yet to be revealed to me.  So I prayed to the Universe.  Give me a sign.  
Show me irrefutable proof that I am supposed to be here today.   

Hahaha.  Careful what you ask for.  

At Quito national airport (domestic flights), I checked in, went through security,  waited in the departure lounge when I hear my my name called on the intercom.  

"Please report to the ticket counter for baggage inspection with police."   Which means I have to go through the security screening and across the airport back to the ticket counter.  Except as I tried to go against the current through a side door for exits, I got pushed back by a security guard.  El Presidente!! El Presidente!!! 

And there he was, the President of Ecuador, Rafael Correo - surrounded by security, shaking hands of people waiting on the side, and then he came right by me - stopped, looked in my eyes and kissed my right cheek.   Did this just haHAhappen?  

As he and his crew move on by, I get pushed through.  I go to the ticket counter, meet police, and go through my luggage until they are satisfied.  I wait through the security line and put my bags through the scanner and enter the departure lounge.  This time I get swept up by a wave of people behind me and get pushed right into  El Presidente and his security guard who keeps me from falling.  

El Presidente gives me his hand and I am once again in front of him.  He asks me where I am from.  He asks me what I think of his country.  I tell him I love his country.  He tells me he loves his country too.  He asks me to return.  He takes a picture with me.

I get it Great Pussy in the Sky - thank you for the clear and OMazing signs.  I am here to figure it out by surrendering and allowing it to haHAhappen.  So be it.

And this was just the beginning of my OMazing day - woohoo!!!

LAUGHING for PEACE

I started Laughter Yoga circles here in South Florida because I saw it as a way to bring peace - to myself and in my life. 

  

I found this simple method of laughing out loud for no reason had a huge impact on me.  Before, I used to be so serious, and get broken up and delirious (Electric Light Orchestra, So Serious) Now, an easy peaceful feeling (Eagles, Peaceful Easy Feeling) permeates my soul, making it child's play to laugh at myself. 

I have been building this muscle for five years now. And it works.

These simple HAHA techniques - deep breathing and Laughing out Loud and cultivating an attitude of gratitude and dancing the Hokey Pokey and affirming our OMazingness makes it easy to be the Peace that I want to see in the world.

It all starts with ME and WE.  

Thanks for helping me sing my song.

HAHA of FORGIVENESS

I am in Montreal - my sixth day in this beautiful and cold city.  It has been 25 years since I've been here in the winter.  In fact, I would not choose to be here except for the fact that my dad's in the hospital.  He had a cancerous tumor and part of his colon removed.   I arrived two days after the surgery.  I came to help and support my Mom - the Caretaker.  I am here to make sure she takes the time to eat and go home and shower and sleep.  Most of all, I am here to help her laugh.   Eating raw foods with Mom all week (Crudessence is a 7 minute walk from the hospital) has kept her full of energy and easy to laugh with.  She's convinced the healthy food gives her the giggles. While the surgery must have been a traumatic experience for my Dad, the after surgery has been quite a nightmare.   All the tubes stuck inside of him (his nose, his back, the veins of his arms) and the cocktail of drugs administered created a perfect storm. Sedated and feeling pain and confusion as to what is haHAhappening, my Dad was caught off guard and felt out of control in his own body.   With his stomach distended and the organs not yet functioning properly, his insides are toxic.   This causes him to be frustrated and angry.   The nights are the worst.  He can't sleep and he can't get comfortable. My mom and I have been taking shifts so we can be with him 24/7 - so he won't pull the foreign tubes out of him.  Last night, I pulled the 5:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. shift.   As the sun set, my father was getting restless and cantankerous.   We had a busy day getting chest scans and x-rays and walking - each process wearing him out excessively. He was running a fever and received Tylenol through his tube directly into his stomach.  This made him sweat like crazy.  He started throwing things off his bed and yelling to go home.  He attempted to get out of his bed and started pulling his tubes out.  I had to move his hands away and remind him what they were.  He threw his cell phone at me.  And then demanded that I give it back to him.  When I ignored him, he started cursing me out.  In his feverish delirium, I was the One that had created this unbearable situation he was now in. At a certain moment, I wanted to cry.  I was exhausted, stretched way beyond my comfort zone in a strange space that was draining my energy.   I was getting all emotional and taking things way too personally as my father got agitated and sweaty in his angry state. As I took a deep breath and ignored his tirade, I remembered a laughter yoga exercise called Forgiveness Laughter.   I pulled on my left earlobe and rubbed it tenderly - I forgive myself.  I pulled on my right earlobe and rubbed it between my fingers - I forgive others.  I massaged both my earlobes and felt my tension and anger dissipate.  I felt my peaceful nature settle back in and my compassion build as I remembered that the man in the hospital bed was my father - scared and disoriented and trying so desperately to find some control in his situation. I took a wet cloth and stroked his forehead and wiped his sweat.  I rubbed his earlobes and saw him visibly calm down.  His state of mind changed, his breathing shifted and he began to relax.   The nurse came in and gave him a muscle relaxant.  Within a few moments, he was breathing heavy and letting his muscles go into the sleep he so desperately needed. I sat there in the chair in lotus position.  I took a few deep breaths.  I pulled on my earlobes and I laughed in silence.   (see video below of Dr. Kataria and Silent Laughter).   Chuckling in quiet  giving myself an internal massage - until the giggles turned into tears running down my face.  I  allowed myself to feel it all - the emotional rollercoaster my life has been this week - knowing that this too shall pass . I am learning to LAUGH through each MOMent - looking for the gift in every situation - no matter how it comes - gr8full for the opportunity to 4give and be ME.

Crudessence