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.

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.