Art of Doing NO Thing

 

  

Rest and laughter are the most 

spiritual and subversive acts of all.    

Laugh, rest, slow down.

                             

 -  Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

I've spent years perfecting the Art of Doing No Thing - one of the most difficult things I've ever had to learn to be.

First, I thought doing no thing was taking a day off work and lounging around the house - watching TV, reading a book, catching up on household chores.... I realized I was still doing something.   

I incorporated napping into my schedule.  I would lay there on my bed and while my body was at rest, my mind was running thousands of miles an hour.  Feeling guilty for all the things I should be doing. Not giving myself permission to just be.

I incorporated guided meditations during naptime - listening to someone's voice take me on a journey of the inner recesses of my mind - focusing on a mantra and tuning into the musical soundwaves.  Gradually, my mind slowed down.  Emptied out a little bit.  I realized that I didn't need to sleep.  I just needed to be still.

My dog encouraged me to go outside.  We would sit on the grass doing no thing - listening to the wind blow.  Feet naked in the ground - watching the tree branches sway.  When thoughts would come up, I would watch them and bid them peace and farewell.  Taking a deep breath and focusing on my environment - the luscious grass, the cool earth, the trees providing me with shade.

Laying back on the ground, watching the clouds dance.  Turning over on my stomach, observing the ants marching up and down grass stalks. A whole ecosystem below me - holding me up and providing me comfort.  Connecting my nature to Mother Nature.  It felt so peaceful and energizing.

I realized that slowing down and resting gave me more energy and stamina when I shifted into being a human doing again.

I began to seek other ways to find this delicious peace of resting - this pleasureful sensation of feeling loose and present in my body - relaxed yet aware.

I found it in laughter.   When I have a good laugh, it's like I shaHAhake all my cells up and down.  Everything jiggle and joggles and gets moved about.   A delicious chaHAhaos of breath erupts resulting in peace and pandemonium within.   

In the beginning, to have a good laugh laugh, I watched funny movies or listened to a comedian.  While that helped, it kept my mind going with all sorts of stimuli.   Laughter Yoga - laughing for no reason - brought me the stillness of mind I was seeking.  Engaging my body to function in a way that was pleasure-full to my soul. Creating a sensation of mirth within that would overflow outside of me and make a wonderful sound.

We live in a culture where we are taught to do, do, do - rest is seen as being lazy.  We live in a world of seriousness and stress.  Laughter is not the norm.  Both of these birthrights - Rest and Laughter - taken away as we grow up to fit into our society.

Yet - we seek it.  We crave it.   The pleasure of stillness - of being, resting, laughing.  When we hear it and experience it, it lightens up our soul.   Yes, Anne Lamott, I am a subversive, a pleasure Revolutionary to my core.   Woohoo!!!

REST & LAUGHTER

 

  

Rest and laughter are the most spiritual and subversive 
acts of all.    Laugh, rest, slow down.

                              -  Anne Lamott, Plan B: Further Thoughts on Faith

I've spent years perfecting the Art of Doing No Thing - one of the most difficult things I've ever had to learn to be.

First, I thought doing no thing was taking a day off work and lounging around the house - watching TV, reading a book, catching up on household chores.... I realized I was still doing something.   

I incorporated napping into my schedule.  I would lay there on my bed and while my body was at rest, my mind was running thousands of miles an hour.  Feeling guilty for all the things I should be doing. Not giving myself permission to just be.

I incorporated guided meditations during naptime - listening to someone's voice take me on a journey of the inner recesses of my mind - focusing on a mantra and tuning into the musical soundwaves.  Gradually, my mind slowed down.  Emptied out a little bit.  I realized that I didn't need to sleep.  I just needed to be still.

My dog encouraged me to go outside.  We would sit on the grass doing no thing - listening to the wind blow.  Feet naked in the ground - watching the tree branches sway.  When thoughts would come up, I would watch them and bid them peace and farewell.  Taking a deep breath and focusing on my environment - the luscious grass, the cool earth, the trees providing me with shade.

Laying back on the ground, watching the clouds dance.  Turning over on my stomach, observing the ants marching up and down grass stalks. A whole ecosystem below me - holding me up and providing me comfort.  Connecting my nature to nature.  It felt so peaceful and energizing.

I realized that slowing down and resting gave me more energy and stamina when I shifted into being a human doing again.

I began to seek other ways to find this delicious peace of resting - this pleasureful sensation of feeling loose and present in my body - relaxed yet aware.

I found it in laughter.   When I have a good laugh, it's like I shaHAhake all my cells up.  Everything jiggle and joggles and gets moved about.   A delicious chaHAhaos of breath resulting in peace and relaxation within.   

In the beginning, to have a good laugh laugh, I watched funny movies or listened to a comedian.  While that helped, it kept my mind going with all sorts of stimuli.   Laughter Yoga - laughing for no reason - brought me the stillness of mind I was seeking.  Engaging my body to function in a way that was pleasureful to my soul.  Creating a sensation of mirth within that would overflow outside of me and make a wonderful sound.

We live in a culture where we are taught to do, do, do - rest is seen as being lazy.  We live in a world of seriousness and stress.  Laughter is not the norm.  Both of these birthrights taken away as we grow up to fit our society.

Yet - we seek it.  We crave it.  The pleasure of stillness - of being, resting, laughing.  When we hear it and experience it, it lightens up our soul.   Yes, Anne Lamott, I am a subversive, a pleasure Revolutionary to my core.   Woohoo!!!

HAHA and PERSISTENCE

When Noah and I first studied Laughter Yoga with Dr. Kataria in Boston, we had no idea where this would lead.  We just knew it felt good INside.   We started offering a Laughter Yoga Circle at TY Park in Hollywood - showing up week after week every Tuesday morning and Thursday evening, rain or shine, just because we could.    When it became dark early (in the fall) we found a new location to laugh.  Our space by Hollywood Beach - outdoors, with lights, and ocean breezes. Laughing and  building our HAHA muscle  slowly  - one baby step at a time.   Keeping the doctor away with our 15 hugs a day.  ShaHAhaking our bodies from start to end and doing the HokeyPokey because that's what it's all about. It takes PERSISTENCE - repetition and practice - over and over again.  Showing up at the park to laugh in community, practicing in front of a mirror or just LAUGHING out LOUD.  This creates  new neural pathways.  We form a new habit.  The movements are  engrained in our muscle memory.  The practice becomes a discipline.   The discipline of HA HA.   Now, all these years later, persistence has paid off.   Broward County and City of Hollywood co-sponsor our events and give us yummy spaces in in nature to laugh and practice our HAHA enerchi. Persistence with our HAHA has led to these insights: It feels yummy to LAUGH for NO reason. It's like a present wrapped up in surprise. It feels great to have endorphins flowing because of a minimal HA HA effort. It feels OMazing to have the residues of LAUGHter in our body - it cha-ha-hanges our attitude and our outlook.

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.

AWAKENING to my CALLING

This summer I traveled to the Valley of Longevity in Vilcabamba, Ecuador.  I stayed at an OMazing property called MonteSuenos (Dream Mountain).   

I had never expressed an interest in Ecuador before and yet, when I saw the name, MonteSuenos, I knew I had to go.  I had a heart felt yearning to go and see and be.   It was time to explore.

What I found was an OMazing country.  Ecuador lies on the equator and has diversity in topography (coast - Pacific Ocean, Andes mountain -  valleys and basins and rainforest). There are waterfalls, and trees - all sorts of trees,friendly people, pure air, and food  - the most delicious fruits and vegetables - no pesticides, no gmos - straight out of the ground and off the trees and into the kitchen and served to me.

What I was blessed with was an OMazing property called MonteSuenos -  a sacred space of peace, sustainability, and creativity.   Overlooking the village of Vilcabamba, there are two houses, art studio, meditation tower, nooks and crannies to relax and take in the views, two modern kitchens, natural trails through lush tropical gardens, tiki huts, ceremonial sites and breathtaking nature all around.

I met OMazing women on this trip. SisterGoddess Meredith, the artist who created and envisioned the details in each and every room and whose art hangs everywhere in the houses. SisterGoddess Meredith's art speaks of the Divine Goddess - the Sacred Feminine.  Her easy gentle manner and warm smile and artistic touch make you feel delicious.  SisterGoddess Sarah, resident guru of juices, websites, rawfood and energy healer.  SisterGoddess Caroline, yogini extraordinaire and holistic coach and my busyness parter in our upcoming retreat. SisterGoddess Virginia, Goddess rest her soul (she passed away last month) who was queen of the busyness of MonteSuenos and dancer of my heart.

While I was there, I was part of a sacred ritual - indigenous tribes walked from the center of town to two mountain peaks where the three rivers meet.  A circle was formed and we witnessed a ceremony honoring YakuMama (MotherWater) - we had a dialogue between the East and West, we danced around the fire, we took tobacco leaves at the convergence of these three rivers and blessed the leaves and released them.

I had a feeling - an Aha MOMent that there was something very important for me here.  An AWAKENING that this sacred space needed me to return and to bring those being called.

I found a safe space here in our World that honors the Sacred Feminine  - the return of the Goddess.  I am called to return and express myself through Play (laughter and drumming and dancing) and Prayer (yoga and dancing and laughter and sacred rituals) and Painting (expression of emotions and freedom of creativity).  I am called to bring SisterGoddesses who want to experience another way of breathing and being and eating.   I am awakened to the call of our EarthMother, PachaMama, who wants me to return and shaHAhare her beauty and sustenance and blessings of food and pure water and pure air.

MonteSuenos, overlooks Vilcabamba, the Valley of Longevity.   Having been there and experienced the peace and quiet and purity and sanctity, I am awakened to the truth of this valley.     While there, we had laughter circles run by SisterGoddess Lourdes.  We laughed HAHA HO HO HEE HEE and our peals rang down into the valley spreading joy.

At this time, I am blessed to be able to offer this experience to those SisterGoddesses called by the Oracle of 2013.   My partner and I have set up a PRAY, PAINT & PLAY retreat - Pleasure for your Body, Mind and Soul - nourishing all parts of you and me and we.

I am so excited to go back and shaHAhare myself and my wisdom and laughter in this sacred space that took my breath away and made me feel like I was home again.  I look forward to the women who are called to join me on this journey.

I ask, that as you read this, if you are not called, pass it forward to another woman who might resonate and be awakened to being in this space at this time and raising the vibration of peace as we Pray, Paint and Play.  Check out the beautiful web page created by SisterGoddess Sarah for this OMazing trip  - PRAY, PAINT & PLAY (click on Pray, Paint & Play)

I made a movie of some of my pictures of my experience.  I shaHAhare it with you here for your enjoyment.

ThaHAhank you for letting me shaHAhare my joy and taking a moment to read it.

HILARITY BRINGS CLARITY

For me, I find the harder I laugh, the better I feel.

I had one of these MOMents of hilarity - breath knocked out of me, holding my belly, sputtering from the mouth, laughing so hard the tears started to flow.   ExhaHAhaling my HAhas as my laughter came from deep in my belly.  

The OMazing thing is that as I laugh from the center of ME,  I feel it touching and affecting every cell in my body.  What started within expands out until my belly laugh becomes a body laugh and all of ME is shaHAhaking.

These last few weeks, I was dealing with the flu - high fever, body aches, congestion in my nose, chest and head.   Coughing and sneezing and wheezing.  I couldn't sleep.  I couldn't eat.  Laughing helped me pull the phlegm up and out of my body.  It got my muscles and lungs to open up after all the contracting from the fever and aches.   

I didn't think I could laugh and yet once I started I couldn't stop.  All that yummy oxygen coming in - all that shaHahaking and moving my body - releasing the stiffness and stuckness of the flu.  I got centered in the present MOMent and allowed myself to flow again.

As Madison Taylor of Daily Om puts it:  

It is easy to laugh when we feel good, but it is when the world appears dim that we most need laughter in our lives.

For me, hilarity brought clarity.  An A-hahaha MOMent.  An opportunity to chaHAhallenge myself to do different.  It also flooded my body with oxytocin, released my physical stress and released endorphins into my blood stream.

Hilarity is uninhibited laughter - food of the soul, nourishing us from within.   And when we feel full, we can focus and gain clear INsight into our lives.

After three weeks of the flu - I was able to see where in my life I needed some chaHAhange.  Laughing so haHAhard and shaHAhaking it all gives you a new perspective.   It's kind of like leaning over the side of your bed and looking at your room upside down.  You see your room in a whole new way.

If you are ready for some clarity in your life, some HAHA to A-Ha, I can help you.  Send me an email and let us find the WOOHOO in your life.

What is Laughter

This poem was written by Hafiz, a 14th-century Persian mystic and poet.  His works left a mark on Western writers such as Thoreau, Goethe, and Ralph Waldo Emerson (who called him a poet's poet).

What is laughter? What is laughter?

It is God waking up! O it is God waking up!  

It is the sun poking its sweet head out

From behind a cloud

You have been carrying too long,

Veiling your eyes and heart.

It is Light breaking ground for a great Structure

That is your Real body - called Truth.

It is happiness applauding itself and then taking flight

To embrace everyone and everything in this world.

Laughter is the polestar

Held in the sky by our Beloved,

Who eternally says,

"Yes, dear ones, come this way,

Come this way towards Me and Love!

Come with your tender mouths moving

And your beautiful tongues conducting songs

And with your movements - your magic movements

Of hands and feet and glands and cells - Dancing!

Know that to God's Eye,

All movement is a Wondrous Language,

And Music - such exquisite, wild Music!"

O what is laughter, Hafiz?

What is this precious love and laughter

Budding in our hearts?

It is the glorious sound

Of a soul waking up!

~ Hafiz ~

(I Heard God Laughing - Renderings of Hafiz by Daniel Ladinsky)

HAHA Sustenance

Noah and I first started our laughter circles here in Hollywood Beach in 2007. We would show up every week, twice a week, to hold sacred space to laugh.

We created a space for peeps to come and Laugh out Loud just because we can.  

It seemed that this was a strange thing to do - remind peeps to laugh out loud, for no reason.  And yet, we persisted, because it felt so good.

Over time and with practice, the HAHA has provided us with sustenance -  strength and stamina - so we can better enjoy our health and our lives.

These are our top 5 finding for HAHA sustenance:

1. It feels great to have endorphins flowing because of a minimal HAHA effort.
2. It feels OMazing to have the residues of LAUGHter in our body - it cha-ha-hanges our attitude and our outlook.
3. It feels great to find a community - other peeps like us who understand the powerful healing effects of laughter and the health benefits we can reap.
4. It takes repetition and practice - over and over again.  Showing up at the park to laugh in community.  Practicing in front of a mirror and LAUGHING out LOUD. 
5. It takes laughing at oneself and kissing oneself and loving the process.


It is not for the faint of heart.  
It is for those peeps who are ready to play big.  
For peeps who are ready to shine their light bright.  
One laugh at a time to World Peace.  
Right here, right now.

HAHA in the AIR

I just returned from Ecuador - more specifically Vilcabamba, Valley of Longevity, and even more precisely, MonteSuenos, Mountain of Dreams.  

My heart called me to this sacred space from the MOMent I heard its name. WSM Noah asked me "Why Ecuador?"  I knew not why, I just knew I had to go and explore, experiment and express.

SisterGoddess Lourdes' daughter and her partner brought a group of women and a few brave and bold men together for a Sacred Nature Journey of the Sierras of Ecuador.  

I spent one glorious fabulous week in a sacred space of creativity - a space created by one woman and her hubby - her vision of what our world can be - through the eyes of the Divine Feminine.  This space nurtured my soul, my body and my heart.

I met new peeps and reconnected with some I already knew.  I felt like I was living out of a novel - EAT, PAINT, PRAY - hahaha.

Our days were OMazing - woke up to a SisterGoddess police officer who kicked my ass doing cardio at 5:15 a.m. with the dogs and burros and roosters singing their melodies.   Sunrise yoga stretching our bodies as the sun lifted over the mountaintops.   Yummy fruit breakfasts and walk down the mountain for some green juice.  A walk back up the mountain for my morning workout and then sacred painting circles.  Followed by Laughter Circles and lunch.  Woohoo.

I had the pleasure and joy of being with three of my laughter yogini peeps, SisterGoddess Lourdes, SisterGoddess Nilsa and WSM Victor.   WSM Victor and I would laugh all the time - just looking at each other - for no reason at all except it felt great.

Our house, at the top of the mountain, had a fabulous place to laugh.  Right around the firepit, overlooking the valley of Vilcabamba and the mystical magical Mandango Mountain, SisterGoddess Lourdes led a Laughter Circle almost every day.  Just before lunch, we would walk up to the firepit, overlooking the valley of Vilcabamba and shaHAhakti shaHAhake and laugh like lawnmowers and HO HO HAHAHA - playing and hugging and laughing and moving our bodies.   We laughed so hard residents of both houses could hear us.   The kitchen staff would crack up as they were preparing our delicious meals, mixing into our food the wonderful enerchi of love and laughter.

We infused the air with HAHA chi and let it roll down the mountain into the valley and rise back up again with the delicious smelling air up the sides of all the mountains.

We yelled out affirmations in Spanish and gibberished on our mountaintop - spreading our juicy yummy enerchi for all to feel.  It was OMazing - we were OMazing - life is OMazing.

A great big thaHAhank you for SisterGoddess Lourdes and bringing Laughter Yoga to Ecuador, from the beaches to the mountains and next year into the rainforests.

Woohoo

Laughter & Longevity

Research shows that laughter affects longevity and that a sense of humor can enhance the quality of life in later years.

For me, laughter has been the secret tool in the longevity of my marriage. WSM Noah and I celebrate 14 years of marriage on May 30th. We've been laughing ever since we met. In fact, that is what keep us together strong and haHAhappy - the ability to laugh at everything and thrive from whatever circumstances are presented.

Over the years, we have laughed through broken bones and excess weight and family drama and changing jobs and moving and learning to love ourselves and each other. In fact, we shaHAhare what we know so others can grow younger with us too.

Scientific proof comes from the medical school at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology. Dr. Sven Svenbak tracked 54,000 Norwegians for seven years and discovered that those individuals who found life the funniest lived longer than their less mirthful countrymen.

Israeli researchers who have been trying to decode the "longevity gene" announced new findings this week that personality traits such as being outgoing, optimistic and easygoing, enjoying laughter and staying engaged in activities may be a crucial part of the mix. The findings, published online in the journal Aging, come from Einstein's Longevity Genes Project,

"When I started working with centenarians, I thought we'd find that they survived so long in part because they were mean and ornery," said Nir Barzilai, M.D., the Ingeborg and Ira Leon Rennert Chair of Aging Research, director of Einstein's Institute for Aging Research and co-corresponding author of the study. But, "we found qualities that clearly reflect a positive attitude towards life," he adds. "Most were outgoing, optimistic and easygoing. They considered laughter an important part of life and had a large social network. They expressed emotions openly rather than bottling them up."

As I look forward to another 14 years with this wonderful man, I pray for the longevity of my laughter muscles. May we laugh together, may we have aBUNdance and may we find friends who enjoy laughing as much as we do.

Sister Goddess Shash

Sister Goddess Shash led our circle today.
She had us LAUGHing. Ha ha ha
She is OMazing ~@~

We gibberished anger we laughed forgiveness.
Ha ha ha.

We became washing machines - shake, shake, shaking;
we scrubbed our clothes on the washboards while gibberishing
with our tribe members.

We moved out of our heads and into our bodies.
Ha ha ha.

Breathing and LAUGHing, Enjoying

the canopy of trees shielding us and the cool breeze blowing through.

Woo Hoo~@~

We even had a Doggess-Goddess named Princess
who barked at her favorite LAUGHTER techniques
and entered our Healing Circle, grounding our enerCHIs.

Some OMazing emotional releases as we shook it all about.

Very creative teamwork between Sister Goddess Shash &
Sister Goddess Lourdes, woo hoo - wahe guru
two OMazing Giggling Goddesses newly certified Laughter Yoga Leaders.

They passed the ball back and forth

Keeping the rhythm and the rhyme
to our HO HOs HA HA HAs
Creating a nice flow - a communication vibration

A great big WOOHOO to Sister Goddess Shash who graduated this weekend -
felt the fear of leading her first circle and did it anyways

TENACITY - a SuperPower Laughter gift (thanks WSM Dark Levity Ed).

Woohoo ~@~