JOY TO THE FISHES & THE DEEP BLUE SEA

"Joy is what happens to us when we allow ourselves

 to recognize how good things really are."

Marianne Williamson

I have a gift  - a talent - something I took for granted for so long because I thought it came easy peasy to every body.

I know how to access my JOY.  I know what it feels like in my bones - I know how it feels to open my heart.   I know how to shahahare it and spread it so others feel it too.  

It's something I practice daily.  I jump for joy.  I dance.  I sing.   I laugh in the sea.  I lay back in the water and let her hold me gently.  I open my mouth and make a sound - hahaha.   I hear it with my ears submerged under the water.  Feeling vibrations in the waves as I flow.

I didn't realize that peeps have become disconnected with their joy.  Misery does love company and peeps love to complain and focus on the one gray cloud in the sky rather than the vastness of  blue and the occasional white cloud ballet.

Most people think that JOY is something outside of us - to be found or acquired.  Actually, it's an energy we knew how to access as children and over the years, we forgot.

JOY is a fire from within. An energy of HAhaHAppy that gets ignited by touch, smell, sound and memory. It's a feeling - a birthright - that we get from the simplest of things.

JOY is about finding the pleasure right NOW. Accepting ALL that is in our lives with grace. Surrendering to the circumstances with gratitude.   For me, this means focusing with an attitude of gratitude on everything that is within and surrounds me. Enthusiasm for my time RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW on this heaven on Earth. Joy at the simple pleasure of being alive and breathing.  Joy at the freedom I have to rise and stretch.  Joy at putting my fingers in paint and plastering a piece of paper with color.  Joy at the opportunity to sing with the birds in the early hours of dawn.  Joy to move and shake and dance - woohoo.

I've spent the last ten years of my life remembering how to shift my focus from outside of me to within. Learning to redirect my energy and attention to a vibration of gratefulness for all the abundance I am blessed with.  Doing this with kindness and compassion for me as I delve deeper into the OMazing miracle of life.

This last week, on Day 12 of Oprah & Deepak's 21 Day Meditation - the theme was Living Laughter.  Deepak shared that: "pure, innocent laughter is the most obvious sign of the joy we feel in our hearts. It is also a powerful and instant way of spreading that joy all around you."  

This gift is so easy and yet so difficult to achieve.   It is so much easier to complain and stay in the negativity. It takes work to shift this mindset and raise our altitude.  It takes just a MOMent to open the heart and share our true nature.   There is no other way to the LOVE that we are.

This spiritual discipline of HAhaHAppy - LAUGHTER - keeps me in the flow of bliss.  I connected to this truth years ago.  I saw people's eyes light up with laughter and I wanted this magic in my life.  I wanted the lightheartedness of spirit that I felt and the energy of ecstasy that I witnessed.   As I let go of things that no longer served me and became a Master at the Art of Doing Nothing, I built my laughter muscle.  I remember recapturing the feeling of childhood and expressing my joy through laughter. It felt so good to relax muscles and organs and just be free to express my heart's haHAhappiness.  Today, the joy i feel in my heart shows up as laughter on my lips - a deep appreciation for all that I have and am in this moment.

"Joy to the World, all the boys and GIRLs.

Joy to the fishes in the deep blue sea,

Joy to you and me."

- thahahank you Three Dog Night (see video below)

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.

Process of PEACE

The Dalai Lama once asked me (and a few hundred other peeps) a question:   How can we have peace in the world when we do not have peace within ourselves? within our families?

Peace within myself   -  back then, with my full time work as a paralegal and extra eighty pounds on my body and my plan to be rich and retired - I had no idea what the Dalai Lama was saying.   

I had a vague concept of Peace but no healthy hahabits to get me there. I heard about Laughter Yoga and that resonated with me.  A way to get out of my head and into my body.  An opportunity to grow a muscle that would help shift my attitude.  A space of silence and meditation where joy can grow.  Sign me up!!!

Over the last seven years - as my muscles get toned and strengthened, I can  find the HAHA in everything. I feel the levity in my situations and a smile easily finds my lips.

The eighty pounds have left along with meat, milk, cheese and grain - side effects of finding HAHAhappy and not having to stuff my face with food.

The process of Peace involves looking within and around.  Finding the feelings and laughing and crying about them and through them.  Accessing the Excess and releasing and purging what no longer serves me.   And shaHAhaking it out - releasing what no longer belongs and keeping everything within fluid and flexible.

Slowly, I see progress with the process.   I feel the Peace in my heart expand and express itself in the Universe in a chaHAharming way.

ShaHAhakti shaHAhake and get that Feminine Cosmic Energy dancing and laughing - doing a little AbunDANCE and bringing blessings your way.

Here's a musical message about ShaHAhaking and finding haHAhappy from the ultimate Dancing Goddess, Doris Day.