Zest for Life

When I get up in the morning at the crack of dawn - the first thing I think about is - I am breathing - I am alive - Today is a beautiful day.

I am up at 4:44 am.  I lay in bed and give thanks for my breath and the fact that I am alive and able to move.   I pat my arms and legs and belly and head.  Woohoo!!!

My doggessGoddess GingerMama awaits me on her couch - belly up and tail wagging - time for hugs and loving touch.    I put on my sneakers and out the door we go.   

We start our journey through the neighborhood and serenade the moon as the stars twinkle their love to us.  We chat with the squirrels and listen to the birds communicating through calls and songs.

I love this early morning time - when there is stillness in my community and it just me and Nature (and the other dogs and their owners who are up and about).   I love walking and smelling the trees and exchanging energy with the Earth.

Slowly the sky shifts - the clouds dance - and a canvas of pinks and purples and oranges and blue emerges.   The air is fragrant with plumerias and gardenias and magnolias.  A hint of night blooming jasmine remains.    

I make a wish - I put a desire out into the Universe and then I haHAha and release it.  

We walk for an hour - walking, running, jumping -  getting my heart pumping and my blood circulating.

This is how I start my day.   I feel so blessed and lucky.  

And the best part is that I may get the opportunity to do it all again tomorrow.  Woohoo!!!

DoggessGoddess GingerMama

3 Ways to Rejuvenate Quickly

The more I grow up, 

the younger I be   

The more I play  

the better is my day  

The more I tap into my inner child, 

the more OMazing it is to be me.  

Here are 3 ways I use to rejuvenate quickly and get that HAHA EnerCHI flowing:

1.     MIND: Having a child-like mind is viewing the world with wonder and excitement.  Reset your mind to breathe into the present.   Practice getting out of your head with gibberish.  Allow yourself to be silly.   Paint… with your fingers.   Draw….doodle…..rearrange objects on your desk.  Allow yourself to do something different. 

2.     BODY: Jump up and down and shake it all about.  Do a shaHAhakti shake.  Get that energy moving.  A little Hokey Pokey and putting our whole selves in or any other aBUNdance will do.   Take the bike out for a spin, go for a walk, throw the ball with a dog.  Blow some bubbles.  Take a nap on the grass and stare up at the sky and watch the cloud ballet.

3.     SOUL: Seek out people who laugh.  We absorb good vibrations and positivity.  The energy transcends – the healing energy making us feel immediately better.  Set your intention to laugh as much as possible.   Regularly laughing increases our energy field.  

Elation is a ChoHOhoice

It's a choHOhoice we make to be haHAhappy.   

To see the bright side of things, 

the cup that is half full, 

the good in all people.

 

I've been told that I'm a dreamer,

 not a realist, 

not for real   

Too happy - 

too positive - 

too enthusiastic.    

I was born that way.   

We were all born that way.   

With a certain joie de vivre.  

As children, we knew that to be the truth of our beings.

As I grew up, I witnessed other ways - 

worry and drama, 

depression, 

worst case scenarios, 

DONT's and NO's.   

 

 

What I've learned during my brief 44 years on this planet is 

that these methods do not work.  

They just create more of the same.

 

Making a choice of being haHAhappy chaHAhanges everything.  

Practicing my gratitude muscle daily brings me more abundance

Opening my heart wide brings me beauty and blessings

Allowing my mind to be quiet creates a space for my intuition to be heard

Laughing out loud keeps me flexible

Elation is the Art of Being HaHAhappy 

Feeling the haHAhappy from head to toe

And deep in your bones

Emanating from your heart

Showing up as a glow

Settling on my lips as a smile

Singing you a haHAhappy song

FERVOR OF HAHA

To me, FERVOR, is when you love something so much that all you do is think about it, experience it in different manners and find ways to implement it everywhere.  

 

That is how I feel about Laughter Yoga - it permeates my thoughts and feelings and sits deep in my bones

.  I am always trying to laugh at my life  and find the humor in every situation.

You see, what I discovered over the years is that the act of HAhaHA - laughing - has some deep physical and psychological effects.  It also helps me stay grounded and maintain my emotional balance.

I find that everything has an element of HAHA in it somewhere.  The Universe has a great sense of humor and creates opportunities for us to laugh all the time.  Although I may not see it immediately in the MOMent, I learn to breathe into it and sit with my feelings.   I tap my fingertips with a HAHA HOHO HEE HEE movement and calm my mind and warm up my body.  As my sense of wellbeing returns, I can usually see the present of the situation, the irony of the Moment, and the gift of this experience.

I am passionate about my laughter and the techniques I have to help me stay in the HAHA zone.  I find life more stimulating and rewarding from this perspective.  I am enthusiastic and ecstatic about my time here on this planet.  I am a HAhaHAppy camper.

Here is my immune booster technique.  This light touching of the fingers and the rhythmic HAHA HOHO HEEHEE chaHAhant is effective in lowering my blood pressure, regulating my emotional state and warming up my core.  It also creates a yummy tingle in my fingertips and helps me feel my chi moving.

Enjoy!!!

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.

The Art of Asking

I'm asking for help - knowing I cannot do this PEACE process alone - reaching out to my community and asking for things beyond my wisdom and know-how.

This HAHA practice makes me so happy - getting together and laughing and making our muscles strong and changing our vibration and sharing our enerchi.  I want to expand my practice.  I'd like to reach more people.

I am asking for assistance in creating a movement - a laughter movement - looking for expertise in creating a non-profit organization that will teach stress relief techniques through laughter, conflict resolution through laughter, haHAhappiness moments through laughter.   Building a school of thought and movement that brings levity to life situations.

I am asking for assistance in getting more people certified as laughter leaders in our community so we can have more laughter circles in more places more often  -creating a wave of HAHA enerchi.  I am asking for financial support so I can offer scholarships to peeps who want to share laughter as their JOB - Joy of Being - and at this moment cannot.

I am asking for assistance in exchanging my energy for your expertise to reach out to busynesses who can benefit from stress relief techniques that are easy peasy and hands on eyes wide open.

I am asking for help in forming and filling a Board of Directors who can help me lead this Movement of Laughter and Love.

I am asking for the next steps that do not come easy to me - the left brain steps that evade me as I delve deeper into my right brain techniques.

I am diving deep into the arms of my community - being vulnerable and asking for help - so we can grow this HAHA movement and help ourselves and others and send aloHAhaHA energy everywhere.

Check out this TED video of Amanda Palmer - the Art of Asking

The HA in CHArisma

I spend time looking for things that make me laugh out loud.   A giggle or chuckle is good.  However, I prefer the breath knocked out of me as I hold my belly and sputter from the mouth and exhaHAhale my HA HAs.  WhaHAhat an invigorating feeling.

I scour YouTube for feel good moments and pleasure practices that activate the right side of my brain and allow me to tap into my belly laughter.  

Why think when you can feel?  

And that is what the essence of Laughter is truly all about.   An inward feeling of joy that bursts out of your mouth and creates sound waves - ripples that touch others.  Allowing sound vibration to emanate from within.  ShaHAharing enerchi, breath, PRANA, just by exHAhaHAling what is inside of us.   

That is what ChaHAharisma is all about - the bliss of shaHAharing what makes me juicy - an energy emanating - a vibration - a joie de vivre - an excitement for what life has to offer in every MOMent.  And shaHAharing is caring.  I am a big LOVEcat and so I transfer my enthusiasm with every breath I take.