Tag: laughter

1 THING YOU MUST DO TODAY AND EVERY DAY!📅

There are many things that make life great. One of them is laughter. Make sure to schedule that. I have an email that comes to my inbox with silly jokes every day. There are also apps for that. You can get a day by day calendar with jokes.

There are many other ways to get in your laughter. Include people in your life that make you laugh. Luckily, I live with just such a person. You should have a collection of funny movies. A group of comedy cds or dvds might not be a bad idea.

There are so many ways to inject laughter into your life. The benefits are endless. When you laugh your immune system strengthens. Your stress decreases. It helps shift your perspective on life. What is your favorite source of laughter?

IS GOD A COMEDIAN?

It might be slightly ironic that one of my favorite people to quote is a French writer, but it is. Voltaire had a lot of interesting points of view. I like this quote specifically. How many of us have commented, at one time or another, about God’s sense of humor. In my life, there have been many examples.

More interesting in this quote, is the inference that we all take life far too seriously. Most of what we concern ourselves with, will not matter months, weeks or even days from now. Off the top of your head, can you name the Super Bowl champion from 4 years ago? How about the World Cup champion from 3 years ago? My guess is that unless you are from the location that won, or you are a super fan of the sport, your answer would be ‘no’. Yet, how many grown adults scream at each other every game? Don‘t even get me started on people who worry if they do not have the right brand of shoes or clothing on. Some of the happiest people in the world can hardly afford shoes.

Even the more ‘serious’ of the worries are only as important as the amount of our energy that we designate to them. Read that last line again slowly. Remember in high school when you had your first heart break? Seemed like the world would end. Now, how many times do you even stop and think about it? Lose a job you thought you would have until you retired? Certainly sucks, but that has been the starting point for a lot of amazing life stories. I believe God is a comedian. I believe the purpose of life is to find love and laughter as much as you can. I believe the ultimate gift is to not only find the humor in life, but most importantly, sharing it with others. For the last few days of the year, let us do ourselves a terrific favor. Let us lighten up, not take things too seriously and not be afraid to laugh.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING YOU GET FOR FREE?

There are so many things in life that we fail to appreciate because they are free. Yet, often these are the things that would affect our life the greatest if they were missing. Can you imagine your life with no laughter? What if you never saw anyone smile ever again?

Please take a second and share what free thing in your life means a lot to you.

THE BEST GIFT IS FREE

Love, appreciation, respect and many other words all fit into this thought. What else could replace making someone’s heart sing? That is something money can’t buy. Give someone you care about the best gift ever, help them see the beauty in themselves.

HOW A HICCUP HELPED MY WRITING

As an author, this statement in the picture is true far more often than I care for it to be. This evening is a fine example. Sitting at Starbucks trying to begin the final stretch in what seems to be the never-ending book, I was drawing a blank. Deciding on trying my hand at self-editing, which will hopefully allow the publisher to return the manuscript back to me with less red than black, I found myself struggling to stay awake.

There must be a special place in heaven for editors. I enjoying coming up with content that is not only useful, but hopefully somewhat entertaining. Spelling all of the words I am using correctly, not so much. Doing this for almost an hour, my brain had reached its breaking point.

Why can’t I seem to break through this wall between my great ideas and my keyboard? It seemed the more I tried, the higher the wall became. Then it happened. An unlikely event that would get me back on track. A hiccup. One of the two ladies sitting across from me developed the hiccups. Something that can certainly draw attention to yourself in a public setting. I glanced up, partly to make sure the lady was ok and mostly because it happened to be one of the most unique hiccups I have ever heard. The young lady excused herself fearing she may have disturbed me. Little did she know I was disturbed already. I assured her it did not phase me.

A few moments later her and the lady sitting next to her were sharing a snack. To say their opinions on the quality of the snack differed would be an extreme understatement. The second lady smiled and compared the flavor to dried cranberries. The first lady, the one with the hiccups grabbed her water in a vain attempt to wash whatever flavor still remained of the bite she had consumed. This drew the amusement of the second lady and laughter quickly ensued. Then they both apologized fearing they had broke my concentration.

Glad to be distracted from the task of editing, and always happy to share what I am working on, I explained what I was doing. They inquired as to what kind of books I write. A brief, but pleasant discussion on the topic of self-improvement occurred and we all went back to the tasks in which we were previously engaged.

That little break, and short conversation seemed to open a small crack in the wall. Newly inspired I approached the refinement of my literary work with a far less stressful demeanor. When you look for and appreciate everything in life, it all becomes a blessing. Even something as simple as a hiccup can create a feeling of gratitude.

Next time you find yourself creatively frustrated, take a step back. Laugh a little. Perhaps even reminding yourself why you are doing what you are currently working on will refresh you and give you a new sense of purpose.

LIFE LESSONS FROM AN EPIC PICTURE

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This is a pretty cool picture right? What do you see? What race are the people in the picture? What are they up to? What does all of this matter anyway?

Let me share a few facts with you about the above photo and how we can put them to good use. The picture was taken by Margie, my amazing lady. It is of my friend Travis and myself. So it is a picture of two friends. Travis is African-American, I am Native American. In this picture you cannot tell that. The point this makes is that when it comes to friendship race should not matter. When I look at my friends this is a very accurate version of what I see, no attention to color.

What are we up to? This was taken backstage before what was to be my very first seminar. If you see the look of contemplation it is because we were both about to speak and were a little nervous and going through what we were about to do in our heads. What this makes me think of is that when we are along in the darkness of our own minds focusing on what we have to do, quite often we have the company and support of our friends. I recall the moments before and after this picture was taken you could hear a pin drop. Totally silent. Still, in that moment a bond was being formed and strengthened for what was to happen next.

What did happen next could not have been predicted by any of the three people there. The lady in charge of the venue had a complete meltdown and threw all of our stuff on the street. This happened even as people were beginning to show up for the seminar. It was a very stressful time. Not only did I have to focus on delivering the contents of my seminar for the very first time, but suddenly I had to find a new venue and convince and inform all of the people attending to do the same.

What happened less was nothing short of a miracle! One of the gentleman attending, Mark, owned an office building that although was a good distance away was available that very moment. He allowed us to use it, thus cementing a feeling of gratitude I still carry to this day. Both Travis and Margie pitched in to not only keep me calm, but to move everything to the new location. The folks who I was able to contact and who did attend were able to see an example of the very principles I teach in action. Something they would not have been able to see without the challenges we faced. It also was a perfect storm for my very first seminar and has allowed me to know if I made it through that the rest would be far easier.

Did I really get all of that from this one picture? Oh yes, and much more. There were funny moments of people falling of chairs and a million other memories. The point being is this one picture can motivate me so much. Is there a picture that might do the same for you? Print it out, hang in somewhere you will see everyday.

THAT IS NOT FUNNY!! OH WAIT,YES IT IS

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This is something to think about. It is always important to find and have something in your life that can make you laugh. It is even better if you have people in your life that can assist you with this. Life is truly a never-ending source of comedy once you are determined to find it. How hard can that be? Let me share a recent example in my own life with you. Because we are a bartender/dj couple on most nights, my lady and I have to grocery shop at some odd hours. Last night, or should I say at four o’clock this morning we found ourselves picking dish soap and things for dinner for the week. In the middle of all the food some previous shopper had left a toy pig that grunted when you squeezed it. My lovely lady found this quite amusing and proceeded to carry it with us as we shopped finding different noises she could create. It had us laughing as we went through the aisles and even startled a few other shoppers. the point is that is was just a random thing we had found in the grocery store and used it to create a evening of laughter. Now besides the benefits listed above, we also created a great memory to share between us. As mentioned in yesterdays post, it is very important to stock pile fun, loving and silly moments with those you care about in your life, both friends and spouses. So do yourself a favor and pick up that movie that makes you laugh, grab a joke book from the library or whatever else brings a smile to your face. The benefits will amaze you. Not to mention it feels amazing.