Who says we can't have fun?

So, to end the week, here I was sitting at my laptop doing some urgent catch-up e-mails to people I’d not got round to responding to earlier, and inside I was thinking that it really was time to stop and start having my weekend break. Somehow I was resisting stopping. This work stuff gets a bit compulsive, I was thinking.

Then as if on cue an e-mail turned up from a colleague in the US whom we had been training with in Canada a while ago. At first I thought it might be spam. Until I recognised who it was from. Eventually, I let go… and clicked on the link.

So before I go any further, perhaps you might like to check within yourself too. How are you feeling right now? Tense, annoyed, fed up, tired, had enough, or whatever. Have you had a good week or has it been demanding in any way? How do you feel about your weekend coming up? Are you looking forward to something or will you collapse in a heap in front of the TV clasping a glass of wine?

So enough of that, I suggest instead you draw the curtains and of course turn up your volume and then watch this right through.

Video clip

How are you feeling now? Full of laughter? Smiling? Feeling good?

Laughter is infectious. One person laughing sets off the rest of us. Research has shown that a person laughing triggers a response in the brain such that another laughs too. They “can’t help it”. So it is natural. The people on the train couldn’t help themselves. We have the expression, “helpless laughter”. Did you see all those pole-faced people? A familiar sight on the metro, subway or tube. People looked at the person who was laughing as if he was a bit crazy and then they started to laugh too. Once another laughed out loud somehow permission was given. Everybody followed suit until the carriage was rocking! In fact it can come like an explosion, an eruption from within. Then people go quiet, and then some snigger, and then there’s more rolls of pure, happy, unrestrained, unadulterated joy.

Isn't it wonderful that somewhere inside we have this gift, this quality? Total happiness. It is there after all.

Did you see the person who then joined the train? He looked dead straight. Everybody else was sniggering like naughty children, a bit conspiratorial. Then more laughter. And then he got off.

That was so like one of our Laughter Yoga sessions. What people discover in this is that laughter happens for no good reason. It is just there. You don’t actually need to laugh “at” something. It just wells up from within.

I don’t know if you have watched the Dalai Lama talking on TV. He just laughs and laughs. It is a characteristic of Eastern meditators. Once we go beneath the layers of the ego, and let go of our stuff, our natural state is pure laughter, fun, lightness, joy, contentment, peace, enthusiasm. It just is.

Allowing ourselves to laugh like this is a letting go, an allowing of the Self within to do its thing.

So, if you get the opportunity this weekend to have a good laugh, really get into it and let yourself laugh just for the sake of it. Let the thinking self go and just enjoy!

To read more, see our Laughter Yoga website and while you are there sign up for our Top 10 Happiness Tips.

And pass this on to spread some joy around, like that man on the Metro!