Spiritual Growth

Passion, Play and Laughter Yoga

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Passion, Play and Laughter Yoga Blog

Feeling into what to write about and the word Passion came to me as being a quality that all we all focus on living in our everyday lives. I have heard a lot about it and what I want to share are suggestions to embody it in our feeling nature, working through the mental constructs of what we have heard, observed, been told – our conditioning throughout our lives.

Years ago, attending business meetings, some coaches and leaders used passion as a most important element to live out of, and I suggest that we may hear this message with our heads, rather than our hearts. We take on suggestions and they become words, should, to do and become, without an inner motivation which can best come from our own heart centre.

We beat ourselves up, judge and thrash about trying to make it happen, losing motivation, which ties in with the last issue’s topic where we reach a motivational dip in our lives. What we do has to have a true meaning for us and when it does, we light up. We look and feel lit up and our whole character embodies passion in what we do, whatever that may be.

Perhaps it is simple, such as the joy of knitting or crocheting, collecting and the fun in finding those objects. It can be sport, which anyone of us can be totally absorbed in. If it is exercise, a danger is that it may become an empty habit we keep on doing, without stopping and rejigging, questioning why we do it. A lot of us, myself included, adore gardening, losing ourselves in that activity, whilst a majority of us no doubt, will express an urge to go outside and connect with nature, whether it may be heading up into the hills, or down to the beach. Or simply as we do, going to a park, meeting other doggie people for a chat, being outside, especially at sunset.

As in the way of all habits, they become habitual, another new ritual, like a religion, which may serve us at the time and over time, becomes, shall we say, fulfilled? As in we keep doing it and habits can be outworn, when it is time to release them and go in another direction.

There is nothing wrong in giving up on something. It is when the mind keeps us hanging on to things, which can be anything in our lives (let’s not take personal, worldly commitments into this, we still have to honour those commitments). At times we need to take the time to be quiet, still, contemplative, breathe, meditate perhaps, and reflect upon whether it feels ‘right’ to move on, as our time can be better spent in turning to another activity.

A friend shared with me how in the Philippines, there are better results because their healing approach is treat the whole body. Cancer is the one she spoke of and overall, the human body is looked upon from a holistic bodily approach. I loved hearing that!

We have a four-body system, etheric, emotional, mental and spiritual. Our body is intelligent and I have often heard it said many times over the years, that it can heal itself of just about anything, given the chance to do so.  

Coming back to the topic of Passion, Play and Laughter Yoga. It is not naughty to have fun. Our body is a beautiful, unique one. No two bodies or people are exactly alike and neither will t hey be alike all the time, because of the consistent changes that are happening, evolution in a nutshell.

I believe in living each day with love and enthusiasm and if we lose that, what do we have? Grumpy, disillusioned people walking the earth, projecting negativity and where does that come from? Within. We feel what we are projecting our first within ourselves. The same goes when we express or feel love, we are spirit living in a human body, lent to us by Mother Earth who is a loving, benevolent being. In order to give love, it wells up, is expansive and it flows from there, right inside our very own heart. Don’t try to fix the world, work on feeling love and a lightness, infused with passion, overflowing your cup into the world. The world needs it more than ever before and every person makes a difference. You do. I do. We all do. Let’s see if we can get in touch with the passion that has been covered over and get it happening again.

Laughter Yoga definitely helps to do that. It is very freeing. I will not say that it is the be all and end all. It is a wonderful, marvellous tool which we use to assist our body to be healthier and it works on the four body system, as mentioned before. How we do it at laughter club is fantastic as we are involved in playful activities, allowing our inner children to be released and expressed. We sing, laugh, breathe deeply and include positive affirmations. This all helps our overall wellbeing.

It is life changing for people who come along. At the same time, you can do it at home, especially with AI, which I am not a fan of. But if you Google about laughter yoga, many videos and much information comes up immediately for you to be able to do by yourself, if you have sufficient self-determination.

One of the benefits though is the social side of coming together with us or others in a group. Humans need connection with other humans. That I firmly believe. You are always welcome to join us.

So passion and play are crucial to live as if you are fulfilling your purpose in life. It may be a simple purpose too, to live each day to the best of your ability and to ground more love upon the earth. Simple as that. How about that eh?

Hobbies are good, to have an interest or outlet that really lifts you up, inspires you, something creative in particular I feel, not that I am judging watching TV or sporting matches, as they have their place. Choose something which helps you get in touch with your soul expressing through your body, where time stops, seems to stand still, are totally and utterly absorbed in the project, having a still mind and emotions. I find gardening works for me and a new hobby which I am revealing to the world here.

Sometimes we don’t know why we are doing something, at least I don’t. We may simply feel led, that for whatever reason, it feels right to do something, until it doesn’t feel right to do so. We can really miss that. Let me share that 19 years ago, right from the start of offering a free community laughter club and for four or five years, hardly anyone was coming, none at all a lot of the time. This seems to be a good example of following one’s heart. Somehow, I hung on, believing it had the potential of bringing people together, as I always felt it important to maintain positivity and hope in our lives as time passes. I had observed as a youngster that was not the case in adults and somehow, I made the decision, not to let it happen to me. Life can beat us around the ears and it takes conscious application to remain in a positive frame of mind at times. Especially when we are in our darkest hour. You know what I mean?

I have been dabbling in art all my life and would have given it up, and did not feel that I had a particular talent, except that I am dogged about things, hang on maybe too long as well. It is not about being good at it, the main thing is to keep on going. Once I had a bad argument and reacted to John, my hubby and greatest supporter. We were driving towards the city and he said that his previous wife was a real artist and I felt deeply hurt by his remark. I made him stop, jumped out of the car and thumbed a lift back home. This shows my low self esteem at the time and it is not a healthy habit to compare ourselves with another human being.

To be successful, I encourage you to work on your worthiness and monitor your reasons for whatever it is you are doing. You do it for yourself, because you are greatly loved and matter. Does it really make a difference after all, our judgment of what we do and whether we feel something is good or not, because if you are expressing yourself, feeling better for it, it has a purpose.

In my art I have done a lot over the years and each for a long time. I got interested in Zentangle drawing years ago and discovered that the loose, doodling drawings I had been doing for yonks, were very much in that style. Well at present I am passionate about combining my calligraphy, painting, drawing, positive words and affirmations into rock paintings. It feels important to write positive words or sayings and share them with people, as a reminder to keep your chins up – stay positive at all costs. It is alright to drop in doing so, as in steps forwards and backwards. Keep getting up, marching on, going forward and never, ever give up!!!

With my rock paintings, I feel absorbed, completely and utterly. I often listen to something while doing so and for me, it takes me into another space and time, as I feel very still and absorbed. This is what I am suggesting you may like to do, pick up an old creative hobby or a new one and get it happening. I had been doing a daily jigsaw on my tablet for a long time, which was very stilling for the mind and emotions, but not giving me the creativity connection which was missing.

Here is a photo of my rock paintings, as they are presently being expressed, because everything seems to be a new opportunity to learn and grow within myself. Isn’t life simply wondrous? Well it can be so at least.

What will you do?

I would love to hear and encourage you to give yourself a break and become totally absorbed in something which you can feel by the results of doing so, is highly beneficial for your whole body, the physical, emotional, mental and spiritual bodies.

God bless. Sending you love and passion in abundance. Wishing you well.

 

Laughter and Other Events

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club meets at 11am on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month behind the library. We are also greatly appreciative of Ajne, Team Leader at the Ferntree Gully Library who loves and believes in what we do, hosting laughter and meditation sessions on the 4th Tuesday of the month at 2pm. I also facilitate regular spiritual growth classes and workshops, which you may want to hear about at some stage in your life.

First timers, please contact me, Lynette in case of a meeting change, and if you would like to read my email newsletter, receive the email reminder when the laughter club is on next, or even you may like to join the Facebook group (Google it or ask me).

Cheerio for now and be kind to yourself. 

Lots of Love, Laughter and Blessings. Lynette Mitchell. 

 

Laughter Yoga and 3 other ways to help you get over Fear.

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Laughter Yoga and 3 other ways to help you get over Fear.

Fear is Debilitating!

Laughter Yoga and other ways to help you get over fear, may be useful to consider and ponder, as fear is far too prevalent in today’s age and we are surrounded by it all the time.

There is so much fear in the world, it is impossible not to be affected by it and yet, you can live a life feeling joy and closer to nature. Let me tell you a little of how you can do so. Any advice shared here is intended to be thought provoking, enabling you to consider, feel into, ponder upon, implement and/or reach out to professionals if needs be. It may be the beginning of an area or time in your life which is timely for you to look after yourself, because we are unable to help others if we are not strong, which means we first have to attend to our own basic and healthful needs.

Danger is real, not imaginary. Look at the news on television. Many people refuse to watch it and I wouldn’t either, excepting John, my husband feels it helps him to stay in touch with what is going on in the world. It would be fantastic if good news stories were prevalent, instead of the shock and horror ones that are aired every night on the free to air channels. Apparently bad news sells and is more popular than positive uplifting stories.

I do enjoy watching some shows on TV, the animal and nature ones which are uplifting, entertaining and informative. But you probably agree, TV like social media, can take a hold on us and not let go. They are such time wasters and bad habits are formed, we get lazy, become couch potatoes, sit too long and it’s very unhealthy to spend an inordinate amount of time watching too much television and spending too much precious time checking our social media apps on our phone, computer or tablet.

The world is somehow geared towards us being and living fearfully. Which can be disastrous, where it is like the metaphor of a frog in a pot, whereby the water slowly comes to the boil, it is boiled to death, because of not noticing the temperature slowly rising.

That must be the reason why people hang out for their holidays and do activities to make them forget the world as it is, and provide relief from stressfully lived lives. Our challenges feel so difficult, when history tells us that there have always been seemingly insurmountable difficulties, appropriate for the age we live in. Difficulties, challenges and the like evolve and change according to the times and places.

Have you heard of or considered that our thoughts are not even original, as we are connected energetically with other people and things, which you may not even be aware of? People can come up with the same ideas and be travelling along the same path as others, following their inner guidance, and thoughts are little energy forms that zoom out from us.

Enneagrams are something that I have heard about, have a general idea of, enough to be helpful for me at present. Some people reading this may be experts in this area. What I feel to express here is that basically, human beings are animals, more evolved and with more on board of course.

We are creatures of habit, and I often write about patterning and conditioning which we take on throughout our lives and about releasing it, creating new positive, supportive patterns and habits, ditching ones that no longer serve us in our life where we are now.

Fear Related to Enneagrams

My understanding of enneagrams is how we behave automatically, in a protective way, which is more limited. When a traumatic set of circumstances has happened and something ‘bad’ happens in our life, the set of circumstances are recorded in our subconscious mind. If that set of circumstances happens again, we unconsciously expect the same result and react out of irrational fear. Even though intellectually we know there is no need to be fearful, think of the example of people who have massive fear around spiders, snakes, rats, or whatever. They may believe the person helping them to overcome the fear and it takes great courage to work through the subconscious, irrational fear they are facing and are able to transform it into a correct understanding of the situation, removing the ingrained fear.

Would you agree with this so far? What we need to do is create a future where we are living in more awareness, grounded in our body, connected to earth, nature and consciously able to hum away at living a productive life, irrespective of our life situation. If needs be, seek out a professional if the fear is debilitating, stopping you from living a fruitful life.

Realistically, fear and danger are real, we can benefit by having a respectful awareness of these two gremlins in our life, instead of avoiding or supressing these feelings. Fear can be a great motivator to learn to deal with and overcome it. A certain amount of stress and fear is normal, when we are being stretched, possibility having self doubt from our feelings of being unworthy. It is normal to have fears and challenges to work through and overcome; fear can make us give up, give in and not make any effort at all. Hold strong and don’t give up, never ever! There is always hope. It is not lost, maybe we’ve simply mislaid it along the way.

A healthy habit is to face our fears, which may be irrational and tied in with feelings of low self-worth, not wanting to fail etc. we can develop a good habit of facing fears, let us call them a common term, challenges and using that as a positive experience to develop self mastery in our lives. Yee hah!

Facing Fears

1st step – improve your self-talk and use affirmations.

It is important to face our fears, using positive self talk, such as ‘it’s unlikely to happen’, ‘I can do this’, ‘I am safe’. Basically, learn to switch things around, when you are able to understand and see that your outlook is irrational and apply yourself to lovingly, caringly, get out of your comfort zone (obviously without doing dangerous, unwise activities, using common sense) and try new things.

From my recent experience, I managed to overcome and clear an old fear, which was instilled in me following a bad car accident many years ago.

The fear was underneath my radar, I wasn’t questioning it, feeling nervous in a car on the road seemed normal and acceptable. This was both with my husband driving and when I was driving. Learning more about enneagrams, I started to positive talk myself ‘an accident is unlikely to happen’ being the main one and choosing to let go of being fearful of driving or being driven. I would also affirm to myself ‘I am safe’. It happened recently when my husband was in hospital for two nights after an operation and then unable to drive for 4 weeks. It seemed like a good time to get over my fearful self and switch things around, which was very quick in fact. I was surprised. I am now back to being a confident driver and not wimpish. They say be careful of what you wish for, and it was time to change the unconscious belief of being afraid of having an accident. It’s great! I am loving driving now again.

2nd step – be quick to act on inspirations

Especially if you know in your heart, have a feeling about, doing a new activity, whereby the feeling comes to you for a split second and then your rational mind steps in, persuading, thinking your way out of it in another direction. I imagine some of you lovely readers will get this. You have a feeling and if the inspiration is not acted upon straight away, the feeling becomes dulled and you have talked your way out of doing that thing which initially seemed like such a good idea. The negative ego is chit chatting with you and it’s purpose is to run the body, which it does amazingly well and keep you safe.

3rd step – come to laughter club

Give this a go, you will be stepping out of your comfort zone into an unfamiliar territory. This is a ‘good thing’. New people come from time to time and I encourage them to come at least two or three times, before deciding it is not for them. I am not alone in suggesting that you will not know if it will be a very positive and beneficial activity in your life, without coming more than once. Fair enough, people may know immediately it is not for them. Many people find it very uncomfortable, which is their body type/personality, set in their ways and very likely, inhibitions or deep-set fear such as unconscious trauma, may be at play here. Given time, people become confident, relaxed and embrace the light-hearted fun way that laughter clubs are renowned for.

For instance, we don’t always know what is good for us. I once was leading laughter at a nursing home and it was obvious that the people who were low care, joined in and appeared to be uplifted. It felt like a mistake that the activities organiser asked the residents if it was an activity they enjoyed, instead of seeing the bigger picture that in time, the magic works when people come together, laugh and sing. They did not give it a fair trial, which would have far benefited the residents in the long run. I am suggesting if you have resistance to coming along, look at the bigger picture. There are so many gains to be had from it.

Laughter yoga is an aerobic exercise with innumerable benefits. It isn’t for everyone and you will not have a clear understanding of it being ‘right’ for you, without attending a few times. And it’s free too! We go along to the Ferntree Gully and Boronia Libraries and the laughter club meets twice a month behind the Ferntree Gully Library.

4th Step – We are all in this together

Human Beings are creatures of habit and beneath our seemingly distant exteriors, hide ones who are genuinely kind and helpful towards each other. We have a need to belong, as we are mostly like animals who feel comfortable gathering together in packs, or tribes. A sense of belonging, which helps us feel happy and at peace, coming together and sharing with other like-minded people. It gives us more purpose in our life.

Essentially, and summing up, laughter yoga is a great physical exercise which makes us feel better. Our communication and listening skills improve. We become light-hearted. It is a rich experience. Everyone benefits. Yet again, I encourage and invite you to come to a laughter session in the park, or inside the Ferntree Gully or Boronia Libraries. It is never too late, and people have taken fifteen years or longer to do just that!

Please think about it. Come along and satisfy your human by interacting with other human beings.

Alternatively, if you do not have a social life, think about, feel into and enquire about, what would be a suitable group for you to be a part of. There are many in the community and the Knox Council is brilliant at supporting its residents. We love being in Knox. From what I see, all councils have the wellbeing of their residents at heart as well. Look after yourself. Get moving, grooving, do something you love and remember firstly, to love yourself. Warts and all!

When we meet

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club meets at 11am on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month.

We are at the Ferntree Gully Library 2pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month.

Let me know if you wish to receive an email newsletter and a reminder email for the laughter club or wish to join the Facebook group.

Cheerio for now and be kind to yourself. A strong mantra that I use and hold in my awareness on a daily basis is ‘Patience, Tolerance, Kindness’. Try it for yourself and let me know how it works for you, or whether you need more assistance and guidance in using it, such as combining with one’s own breath.

Lots of Love and Laughter. Lynette Mitchell.

Phone:          0425 799 258
Email:            lynette@laughterforliving.com.au
Website:       www.laughterforliving.com.au

Can Laughter Yoga Improve Your Relationships?

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Yes, it can! Hello again and can you believe we are a quarter of the way into 2025? There is not time to waste in our lives, being lazy, selfish or self-centred. It is likely that we can all improve our relationships and learn to communicate better. Can we keep learning, forever and until we cease to live? We most certainly can! What is more, whenever we begin, or return to having the attitude of doing our best and making our life count, it will be perfect timing. My ‘Never ever, ever give up’ motto originated from the content of Winston Churchill’s speech in 1941, which was the year before I was born. I believe it applies to everything we are drawn to in our lives.

Life can be so complicated and yet from my experience, human beings generally complicate their own lives. We can have a useful attitude to co-create our life with God, the Universe, Energy (insert here what you believe in), instead of being a victim to life, rather it being a co-creation with the Universe. We view through our own filters, put there by experiences and life’s conditioning ways. Our needs, desires, ambitions, yearnings, patterns and beliefs create an overall experience.

Most of us go to work for a time and perhaps reach a stage of seeing our unnecessary busy-ness, when we may have felt like life was happening to us, rather than our contribution in it all. We may make a decision about turning our life around, developing a more peaceful, harmonious life, connected with nature, holding greater meaning and purpose.

This can be like entering a new stage, that of decluttering on every level, heading towards living our life as simply as we possibly can, depending on our circumstances and involvement. I often write about decluttering and that too, will take its own never-ending journey, bringing to our lives, enrichment and long-lost meaning.

Laughter yoga has a place in all of this, the journey, self-discovery, empowerment, connections with ourselves and others. The prime reason for this is within the power of laughter and as well, connecting deep within our own sense of self and others. Laughter yoga particularly assists us in overall feelings of wellness in all of our bodies, emotional, mental, physical and spiritual. Our social connections are enhanced when we laugh together with people, especially in a group setting, as we do during laughter sessions.

If you are a regular reader of my blogs, you will have heard me say how things may happen slowly, organically, minimally, as evolution is designed to be that way. We can also hold a keen focus, like tunnel vision, for change to take place quicker. Our body is complex and operates on many levels, subtle as well as what was mentioned in the previous paragraph. Subtle in so far as our feelings are a sum of everything, including our soul and higher spiritual bodies (some people will relate to that).

Therefore, our relationships do in fact improve if we are involved in laughter yoga group activities and even to a lesser degree, laughing together with people in our daily lives.

There are ways to laugh alone also and feel free to email, phone or message me, if you want to find out about doing that. For example, various YouTube channels where laughter leaders have innumerable videos available. One by the laughter yoga guru, Dr Madan Kataria, in particular has a simple one, focusing on the breath and very little movement. It need not be complicated at all, and you can easily incorporate it into your life, if you but choose. And I will add, feel better for implementing regular laughter into your life.

How laughter yoga improves our relationships is therefore first and foremost, to belong to a laughter club, otherwise to practice it alone and develop your physical body awareness.

From my awareness and understanding, how it helps is the impact it has on our feeling of overall wellness, because the body benefits from laughing in a plethora of ways. Our relationships with others in our lives may possibly improve from some of the following.

We benefit from having improved communication and part of this is in this social group situation, we generally share by chatting together over a cuppa afterwards at Rapture café, in Ferntree Gully. This offers opportunities to find out things we have in common, lending a natural and loving support to others. Many people who come along live either actively involved or sedentary, lonely lives. Talking is important to feel we belong and have shared realities with others. Humans have a need to belong, to find our ‘tribe’ as it is often called. It is such a small world. One gentleman member grew up in the town I was born into and knew my two brothers. We have many affinities and people always find this to be the case.

Seeing the gifts in other people is a pastime I like to be involved in, as everyone has something special about them. No doubt many people love to do that as well, meeting with and finding mutual strengths and interests. But if we are too busy transmitting, needing to talk, blah blah blah, we will not be in a receptive, listening space and we will miss this people person richness. It is something I have been working on, being receptive and less needing to transmit. Although I’m very outgoing by nature, it feels important to balance that with being quiet, which develops an attitude which is more in harmony and balance with life, people, interests and relationships.

Conversations take on a life of their own as we discover how to truly listen to others. During laughter club, we practice being present, breathing, watching, listening, laughing and this simple formula assists in improving our ability to relate with other people. This all takes place very naturally and we may not even be aware of it.

Essentially, and summing up, laughter yoga is a great physical exercise which makes us feel better. Our communication and listening skills improve. It is a rich experience. Everyone benefits.

Yet again, I encourage and invite you to come to a laughter session in the park, or inside the Ferntree Gully and Boronia Libraries. It is never too late, and people have taken fifteen years or longer to do just that!

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club meets at 11am on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month for half an hour and afterwards, we head to Rapture Cafe, for a hot cuppa and chat. Belonging to the laughter club is quite a social activity and we behave like lifelong friends, sharing together when given the chance to do so. Do you feel like coming along and being part of our small group (usually 6-8 of us each time). 

Knox Library Laughter Yoga Sessions

We are at the Ferntree Gully Library 2pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month and the Boronia Library 11am the 3rd Saturday of the month and I expect not to be able to run it in June.

First timers, please contact me, Lynette in case of a meeting change.

You may like to receive an email newsletter or a free discovery call/chat. Please contact me to arrange a time for either. Additionally, I send out a reminder email on the Friday before the laughter club meets and there is a Facebook group which you can join, so as to stay  in touch.

Cheerio for now and be kind to yourself.

Lots of Love and Laughter. Lynette Mitchell.

Phone:          0425 799 258
Email:            lynette@laughterforliving.com.au

Equanimity From Laughter Yoga is Fabulous

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Laughter Yoga Provides Equanimity in Our Lives

Do you ever think about, ponder, focus on or are aware of the topic of equanimity? I do all the time, as part of my spiritual journey.

Equanimity is living in a state of balance, achieved by focusing on living in the present, self-aware mindful and with compassion. It may look like someone is centred in one’s being, remaining calm, grounded and centred, whilst experiencing challenges.

Equanimity is generally on board as we practice living in this form of self-mastery. It is not something we can choose in case of emergency; it is ingrained in our being through regular practice in our daily lives.

This is a wonderful topic and the cool thing about it is we can all improve in this area if it interests us and we can see the importance of living this way. Let’s face it, we are not alone and are nearly always in various relationships, whether they be family, business, work, social etc.

I feel that equanimity is a whole body experience, a feeling, spiritual thing and need not be a controlled mental state. This implies suppression and the heart is not involved, although there are good intentions present.

To effectively be in equanimity we need to centre ourselves first and act with clarity of intention and compassion. As I practice being in equanimity, in order to centre myself I pause, take a breath or two, allow myself to slow down and become aware of how I am feeling. To be in this calm, centred, mindful state of mind and emotions, I am better able to apply myself to every situation. It is not necessarily so simple, nor easy to do, which is why it is important to have the quality of equanimity on board in one’s personality and self expression. If you attempt to be that way in an emergency, failure is more likely to be the case.

There are many Buddhist references to living in equanimity, which is a state of balance where one doesn’t react to difficult situations. It is part of living in a grounded, mindful manner, without supressing emotions and feelings. Equanimity is a beautiful state to become endowed with, which has a positive, uplifting effect upon those around us in our everyday lives.

It is a non-judgmental, accepting way of being and it may be developed through the practice of laughter yoga. 

How laughter yoga helps you achieve equanimity

Did you know that laughter yoga is a practice that greatly assists us to live in equanimity? A lot of research mentions the benefit of being in greater equanimity when we come together doing laughter exercises. Isn’t that grand? Perhaps is another terrific reason to come along and join us for regular laughter exercises.

This happens organically, that is very naturally, when we come together in playful fun with each other. The way we perceive life upgrades to that of becoming self-accepting and it follows, we become more tolerant and accepting of others and of life situations.

Notwithstanding the times when we may need to walk away from things or people, this is not an airy-fairy way of being, where we become doormats and allow ourselves to be in abusive situations.

What laughter yoga helps with is slowly developing a more cheerful, fun filled, optimistic personal value, leading to living in far greater equanimity because of the way regular laughter can help us.

Some Aussies Involvement in Laughter Yoga

It feels like a good idea to impress upon you more about this, the fact that many people around the world work professionally with laughter yoga and also a great many who are making grounded differences here in Australia. They come from different backgrounds and fields of work.

I will mention three people, firstly to give a shout out to Merv Neal, a local, who filled in for me when I was on a retreat recently. He is responsible for initiating laughter yoga in numerable places which call for more equanimity in people’s lives. For example, it is being accepted as a fabulous activity in the wellbeing and healing area; he is involved in research conducting laughter for kidney dialysis patients and working with the Cancer Council. He co-authored a scientific study book last year which I love.

A prominent Melbourne laughter leader, teacher and academic is Ros Ben-Moshie, who has written two laughter books. Ros also teaches short course courses in Laughter, Resilience and Wellbeing at Latrobe University.

There are many more prominent Australians doing amazing work in the laughter yoga field, which is taking off, i.e. becoming widely known and accepted as a highly beneficial practice for us all to be doing.

The third one I will share with you is Annie Harvie who lives in Adelaide and has written The Giggle Game. Annie has taken this fun, simple, interactive card game all around the world. It is designed for early learners, and I highly recommend it to school teachers and parents. It is a simple way of bringing the exercise of laughing together to us all and in particular, children.

Thank you for taking the time to read this article and wishing you an excellent 2025. You are always welcome to join John, myself and the small group who come regularly to laughter club.

First timers, please contact me, Lynette to in case of a meeting change. You may even like to add yourself to the email reminder for the laughter club or sign up for my newsletter. My website has information regarding workshops, classes, laughter yoga and blog.

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club meets at 11am on the 2nd & 4th Sunday of the month.

We are at the Ferntree Gully Library 2pm on the 4th Tuesday of the month March onwards and at the Boronia Library, 11am the 3rd Saturday of the month recommencing in May.

Cheerio for now. 

Lots of Love and Laughter. Lynette Mitchell. xo

Loneliness Prevention Using Laughter Club Involvement and More

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Hello Everyone

I feel you will agree that we and people generally, have changed significantly in the last few years, as a result of the trauma, sickness, and isolation due to the Covid-19 virus. Many of us live fearfully, in more isolation and feeling alone nowadays. Especially as the Covid virus is still prevalent and I know of people who have caught it either again, or for the first time, as well as others who live in fear of catching the virus.

We must march on and use these negative opportunities looming down upon us to reach out to one another in support and comradeship. This is exactly what many social groups are about, in particular this one, the Ferntree Gully Laughter Club.

Human Beings are social creatures, not meant to be locked up, isolated, alone, apart from family, friends, workmates, or social groups. We can use ‘bad things’ that happen to us to grow, to evolve, to be more connected with positive energy, spirit, or whatever belief resonates with our good self.

In Brief, Five Major Benefits of Laughing

1 – Reduces Stress Laughter is an effective stress management tool and is the fastest way to reduce stress, whether it be physical, emotional, or mental stress.

2 – Mood Elevator Laughter releases feel-good endorphins of serotonin and dopamine. Our perception shifts, making one’s life feel better, as well as energising us more.

3 – Health Benefits Laughter is a cardiovascular exercise that promotes physical wellness on all levels.

4 – Social Connector Laughter connects us. In particular, here I am referring to attending a free laughter club. Laughers feel like family.

5 – Laughing Through Challenges We can all laugh in good times, but laughter yoga teaches people to laugh unconditionally even in hard times. It provides strength in adversity and is a coping mechanism that may help us be able to feel mentally positive, regardless of the circumstances.

In particular, this article addresses loneliness and point 4 – Social Connector, suggesting it is highly important that we have various social networks, to avoid that horrible loneliness feeling.

Social or Learning Groups and Activities

A laughter club may not be your cup of tea. If you care to look around, there are innumerable social groups, many of which you may feel comfortable joining. Councils and libraries could be a place to start, as there is a huge support for people not only in learning new skills but also speakers from various groups introducing themselves and their group. The University of the Third Age, or U3A as it is known, is remarkable and people who join up at the start of each year can easily book into many classes, becoming busy with a variety of activities. Have you checked your local U3A out? 

Laughter Club During Covid

Members and even international laughter club people came together, with great gusto and camaraderie. We met weekly on Zoom, which was excellent for several members, some of whom lived alone. Belonging to this laughter family sets a lovely pattern and awareness of the importance of involving ourselves in life.

This may mean perhaps holding a more outward attention and awareness of what we are involved in, besides coming to laugh, it assists us in addressing and monitoring that.

I feel it is important to live in harmony with ourselves, in the community, with family, also extending out into the world and everything we do and are involved in. We live in a duality on earth, which is always changing. You know, we can be too introverted, staying at home alone, happy in that for a while and we can then do the opposite when we realise that it has gone the other way, and we feel secluded.

Self-Care and Balance

Check in with how your self-care is currently and make the appropriate changes. We need to look after our bodies, which work hard and could probably do with better care, food, and attention than we provide for them.

I encourage you to look for and find that balance in your life. Enjoy life! Do what you love to do. Make time for some fun things, get outside in the fresh air, with nature, in the garden, whatever rocks your world. Life can be and has been difficult, and depressing, apparently going in a direction we cannot possibly fathom with our finite mind. Writing this reminds me of Desiderata, by Max Ehrmann, the words ”With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world.”

When and Where?

Great news to share, John and I are both excited and grateful to bring you more opportunities to laugh, which is doing some laughter yoga and meditation sessions inside three local libraries. And one on 13th March at the Mount Waverley Community Centre.

Ferntree Gully Laughter Club – we meet behind the Ferntree Gully Library at 11am Sunday, on the 2nd 4th and 5th Sunday of the month.
Boronia Library – 11am 1st Saturday of the month
Ferntree Gully Library – 2pm 4th Tuesday of the month
Rowville Library – 11am on 3rd Saturday of the month.

For first-timers for the Ferntree Gully Laughter Club, please contact Lynette in case there is a meeting change.

Cheerio for now and all of us at the laughter club are looking forward to seeing you some time!

Lots of Love and Laughter. Lynette Mitchell.

Click Here for Ferntree Gully Laughter Club page

How Laughter Affects our Judgment and Self-Acceptance

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Release the Judgment with Laughter Yoga

Did you know that Laughter Yoga can help us feel better about ourselves? Gently, gradually, with regular connecting at laughter club, we can become more self accepting and a less judgment person. We develop a tolerance as we accept other people, situations and things in our life and at the same time, lose self-judgment.

Many of us humans are full of crippling self-judgment, lacking in self-love and self-acceptance and the great news is that laughter helps lose that pattern. Our habits are developed from a very young age as a survival mechanism, even from a baby, we instinctively and unconsciously develop ways to have our needs fulfilled, even when so tiny and unable to express ourselves clearly.

Habits develop as we grow and for those like me who believe in reincarnation, habits are on board when we are born, where we pick up where we left off in our previous life. Our habits, strengths, tendencies and abilities make up our self-expression and it is a humungous subject.

As we learn, we are drawn to having pleasure and avoiding pain. In fact, it is said we learn best through painful times, which by far motivates us towards growth, rather than when things are going well. Most of us can attest to that.

Parents generally judge their kids, some lucky kids have kind, loving parents, but parents are frequently judgmental, although they want the best for their children. Parents often toughen us up with cryptic remarks, thinking it is in our best interest. However, it can also create the system where we learn to judge ourselves which can develop into us being quite judgmental. To cope, children develop the attitude of being self-judgmental.

Words can hurt and we cope the best we can, which may be to have a warped sense of humour as it may help us get through life. Of course, we may also learn to supress our feelings. Life coaching teaches us that we do things in order to feel free of painful memories or situations and can feel safer when we are not criticised. We can learn the habit of self-criticism, because subconsciously, we feel criticism outside ourself cannot then hurt us.

When we are moulded by feelings of being judged, we can feel that we are wrong and others are right, they are ok and we are not ok, and feel lost. It can be felt like a background whisper and we can feel isolated. We have taken it on board and our lives are filled with the taste of criticising ourselves and others and somehow, we do not feel okay within. We experience a harmful stress, (beneficial stress can actually be necessary at times, in order to fulfil a goal) a need to please, the list goes on.

The good news is that once we become aware of something not being ‘right’, we can begin to do something about it. Ideally we will work towards living in harmony with ourself and others once we do become aware that there is a better way. As we realise unhealthy habits, we can work on them and live a happier, more purposeful, fulfilling life.

How Laughter Can Help Us

Being in a group of laughter club people can make a huge difference in our life and how we feel about ourself. We can let go of anxiety tied in with self-judgment as we practice accepting each other and they of us. We acknowledge and honour everyone’s uniqueness, contributions and belonging in the group. We listen, we care and have drawn to us lovely people, who appreciate one another. Gradually, coming from feelings of being ‘not quite right’, needing to change to feel loved and fit in, we discover that we are, in fact, very ok!

Self-consciousness certainly effects our sense of purpose, our wellbeing, of feeling okay within ourself and laughing out loud can be a hurdle to overcome when experienced for the first time, especially in a group, to the full extent. When people first attend laughter club, they feel uncomfortable to some extent. Even I remember feeling self-conscious, despite embracing the new experience wholeheartedly.

My husband John frequently suggests to people new to the concept of laughing together as a healthy practice, “It will get you out of your comfort zone”. Which it does, gradually and gracefully. What happens is that at first most people will feel uncomfortable and choose to join in and experience it firsthand. Over time, people settle into the pattern and how the session is run, which is spontaneous and interactive with one another. Self-limiting inhibitions are removed and in its place is generally a self-acceptance from all the frivolity and role playing that we do.

Laughter Club is very social, we are a small number of people, about six or eight as a rule and like many other social clubs, there develops a sense of camaraderie and total acceptance of each other. I believe this helps us to accept ourself, to feel safe, nurtured and to feel we belong.

I am not saying that we will radically change into a completely different, non-judgemental person, full of self-love. I am saying it all helps in that right direction and being involved in laughter yoga provides the ability to let go of some things and feel greater inner peace and purpose. Some of us do not have connections with people other than one’s immediate family, neither go out for lunch or see a show or movie. In this way our club serves a purpose, after we meet, we generally have a cuppa at a café. Most of us come together in a social environment, which may be to see a non-professional theatre show, or go to Morning Melodies and have lunch. There is great friendship and some even meet up for a coffee at random times. These may include past members who are always welcome, held close in our hearts as we stay in touch.

Overall belonging to a laughter club enhances our lives, as we bear in mind the founder’s motto of ‘World Peace Through Laughter’. We would love to see you at a meeting and you are very welcome to join us and try it for yourself.

Summing Up

The Ferntree Gully Laughter Club is having its 18th Birthday in April and if you were to come along on a regular basis, I am confident to say that you could expect judgmental and low self-esteem issues to radically improve. Give it a try this 2023. What a momentous year it will be in many ways, if you embrace, flow and run with it.

Click Here for Ferntree Gully Laughter Club page

Grounding Courage, Trust and Laughter

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Is Your Life Difficult or Easy?

Are you Happy having an easy time in your life? I was speaking with a lady on the train who was down from Darwin for a few days. Heather has two male children, one with ADHD and the other with Asperger’s. My immediate reaction was to feel she had a difficult life. She responded that her life was no more difficult than anyone else’s. immediately I felt that she was very courageous. I concurred when she said she believed we are given only that which we are able to cope with and learn from. This is my firm belief, we will be handed challenges, call it what you will, in order to evolve, expand and grow as human beings into becoming more spirit-based, whilst in a human body.

Laughter is important and the little dog Trixie is our mascot, trotting around us as we do our laughter exercises.
Laughter is important and the little dog Trixie is our mascot, trotting around us as we do our laughter exercises.

I have chosen to bring up the subject of Courage as being a very important quality to hold and express yourself through. Do you see yourself as being courageous? People generally live life unconsciously, being led and drawn throughout their lives. Granted there are decisions, activities and goals that we busy ourselves in. We can either express from a selfish centre, where it is all about me, which is prevalent when we are young. The whole world revolves around us and our desires. As time passes, this alters and many of us ponder, feeling to give back and share from our life’s experience and gained wisdom. Life expresses more about how may I serve? This revised attitude may also be unconscious, rather that we have a growing feeling of liking to help or be useful in some ways.

Life Throws us Challenges

Courage comes in when challenges present themselves to us and we can take the stance to be strong, to not give in, to never give up, to keep going on, no matter what. We can feel utterly and completely lost, or perhaps see the end in mind, whether we feel we have it all worked out, in line with our purpose and plan or otherwise.

It takes guts to turn up no matter what. Nothing stopping us, becoming unstoppable. There is a fine balance with not burning ourselves out either, as we must give from an overflowing abundance of energy or else our own health may be depleted. We can feel resentful also if we are coming from the ‘wrong’ motives.

Wrong is in inverted commas, because in theory there is no right or wrong. We have choices and consequences. Our motive may be to fulfil a need we carry due to low self-esteem and is not as clear or pure as when it is from a genuine desire to be embracing life in a way that we feel we are giving back to life.

Taken in context, therefore, we have the opportunity to call on Courage in our lives when we feel the need. Courage is an interesting word, or quality. Many of us have it in some things that we have to do and not others. We may work well, be smart, on the ball and feel strong, together and yet on a personal level, we can shrink.

It is all okay, either way. Just get real with yourself and know when you need to call for outside support to get you going, through to the other side.

Call on Courage to see you through, offer support and you may in addition call on Trust, as together with Courage, they go hand in hand. If we don’t feel Trust, it will be harder to accept Courage when we ask for it.

Laughter Yoga Strengthens our Capacity for Courage

This is where using Laughter Yoga can come in, to support us in our lack of commitment and when our fears hold us back. Do we want to be chicken or have the Courage of a Tiger. Or would you pick another cat? Maybe a mouse, who in one story stands up to an elephant.

I sincerely say that the longer I run laughter clubs, the more certain I am that to include (not to say it is all that you need) laughter in your life, you will be changed in ways that will please you! That is for the best, we do not want to be settled, we like to feel safe and secure, but what growth is in that? Nil.

John, my husband who joins me frequently speaks of how laughter has been instrumental in getting him out of comfort zone. John recently shared that he will speak with anybody, new people who he would not have otherwise approached before him joining the laughter club.  He feels it may be more difficult too for the men out there.

A regular male attendee who has been coming for several years astounded us when he said that he was very shy and had to make himself come back again. That is not always the case, as many people come to laughter club once and feel it is not for them. I feel they may not attend long enough to find out if that is so. Quite a few share they felt uncomfortable and returned regardless. The longer you come, the better you will feel. Even though it gets you out of your comfort zone, you will once again experience child-like playful fun, but this time as an adult with other adults. It does become natural and spontaneous once more, with the practice of regular attendance at a laughter club.

Laughter helps you get over yourself, your appearance, lack of confidence and resistance to being outside in a social group. Many of us withdraw or, through no fault of our own, are quite isolated, especially as we age.

We improve being inhibited when we connect with adult members in the laughter club. Part of what we do is embrace child-like playful fun with each other. Such as you may recall as you would have as a child, playing outside with the neighbourhood kids on a hot summer night, or however you remember those precious childhood memories.

What we do at Laughter Club.

We do laughter yoga exercises, deep breathing, singing using ho ho or something similar instead of words, dancing around and in general behave as if we are doing improvisation theatre.

It is never too late to start something new like attending one of our laughter clubs, or that thing that you have held off doing. What is on your bucket list? Does it require Courage and Trust to do it or is it related to time or money?

Develop new Brain Pathways

Neuroplasticity is about the science of neurons, the brain to develop new cells and pathways. Brain Gym is becoming widely practiced and educates people to expand themselves with exercises. People can further develop their brains and have greater cognitive behaviour with various activities. The top activity for Neuroplasticity is laughter, next singing and dancing. We do all of these when we meet at community laughter clubs.

My involvement with laughter has certainly done that, released me from my comfort zone, expanded my horizons, opened up new pathways, not only in my brain but in many other areas of my life.

No doubt we could be led to be involved in many activities that would help us to achieve a feeling of expansion in our lives. That is if we allow ourselves to be inspired by a greater part of us which is beyond physical limitations, we will find our way.

Finishing Off

My wish for you is to dig deep, make an effort if you aren’t already, to discover new things to do in your life. We want to have a greater expression of ourselves on all levels, well many of us are into growing and if what I share does not resonate with you, that is fine as life happens and evolution can take as long as it takes.

We may feel out of our depth, like being pulled along and without being in control, rather than our life being of our choosing and being able to follow our passion.

If you have lost yours, direction and passion, then please, please come to one of the local laughter clubs, or another one if you live elsewhere. It may be just what the doctor ordered!

Laughing together with supportive, like-minded people is extraordinary. We come together sometimes quietly, throw ourselves into the session and leave feeling magnificent. We feel uplifted, energised, appreciative and with the intention of bringing more laughter into our lives, in whatever way is possible.

Cheerio for now. Lynette.

Disclaimer: Information shared is intended to support you and is from my personal understanding, experience and is generalised. I am not responsible for how you take it on board.

Ferntree Gully Laughter Club Celebrates
Lynette was walking towards the camera for this weird shot.

Greeting Anew

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Greeting Anew, how to live a spontaneous life.

It is vitally important to greet each moment as if it was the first moment, bringing a new experience to us. This helps us work towards releasing old patterns of connecting and relating with ourselves and other people, with everything in every moment that we encounter. Otherwise we find ourselves running on subconscious patterns, not unlike animals who are instinctive. And instinctive is not the same as living with our intuition unfolding. That is what we want, to be intuitive, in touch with our feelings. Feelings are the sum total of our experience and separate to emotions. If you want to hear more about feeling as against emotions, I am happy to hear from you and will respond to an email.

Greeting Anew works your non-physical muscles and is beneficial to the way you live your life. If we are fresh in our approach, we can identify and be fresh ourselves. We feel and see through different eyes, giving us truer feelings and spontaneity in absolute awareness, instead of living and being on automatic pilot.

It is a part of self-mastery to constantly greet people and situations anew. Each day I give myself constant reminders to greet anew with everything and everyone with whom I encounter.

Categorising into boxes

It is all too easy to slip into the hum drum method of automatically categorising into boxes. It’s a natural way our body works, trying to assess people and situations to make sense and order in our lives. But it causes separation and ideally, we can unlearn this automatic way of living our lives. It happens ion a milli-second, as we use our senses in our lives through filters which helps prevent an overload of sensory input.

In particular I am talking about people, who we can automatically categorise and put into a box. And then carry with us an expectation of those ones always behaving in the same way, we see them rather through our memory of how they were and what they mean to us. This is very disrespectful and what we are doing is projecting onto them which may keep them stuck. You know the feeling, you feel that you are evolving, changing, improving and other familiar people in your life see you and treat you in the same way, always the same way. They are unable to appreciate how you feel new and consequently, you feel unheard, misunderstood, unseen.

It may constrict them even if it is done unconsciously, which prevents those ones from changing when we contribute to the situation in this way by expecting them to be the same old way.

To be able to bring new life into our interactions and stop expecting things to be on repeat, takes effort. It is human nature to automatically slot things into categories and boxes and attempt to make sense of things, according to our unconscious rendering of the situation and it helps us to understand everything more.

But because we keep growing, our understanding expands and grows with us and it is not stagnant. If we do not continue to grow, learn and expand ourselves, we start going backwards. We are part of evolution, and if we aren’t evolving, we do not stand still, we devolve! I feel qualified in commenting on the saying to ‘use it or lose it’. It takes greater effort as we grow in age to stay active and improve in our self mastery, which is of interest to me and no doubt to some readers also. Worth mentioning here is a premise of self-mastery which is just that. It is about evolution and heading in the direction that allows us to release fear-based patterning and incorporate more love based activities into our lives.

When we were younger, fitter, more agile, there was a lightness in our step that is often absent over time, if we become more settled and sedentary. If that’s what it takes, greater effort, then that is what we must do. From my experience until a year ago, I had become quite sedentary and luckily somehow, energies draw to us what we need. In this case it was joining a twice weekly strength building exercise class. From that I had more energy to walk on a regular basis and my core strength keeps improving.

How we live our life can be conditioned unconsciously by society, community, cultural differences and so on. Seniors in Australia, and that’s a generalisation, from my experience, are very active and involved in a whole plethora of interests and activities. They are out and about, leading very busy lives. Well good on them! Good on you if that applies to you! If it is not you, then great also!

Returning to the earlier comments about your life, purpose and goals. I have available a particularly good document, which is a process of Creative Visualisation. This works well when done every day and helps over time to energetically attract what you want in your life. Either email or phone me for it.

I love it when I can live life with enthusiasm, disallowing tendencies to become cynical and flat. It can be so interesting, many of us feel we understand and are getting a handle on why we are here with clarity and conviction. And then there are times with this outlook that we comprehend that what we once knew and understood continues to grow, expanding more and more. We build on our experiences and what we know, which is ongoing, helping us to evolve further and further.

Cheerio for now, please write or call, I would dearly love to hear from you.

Love and Laughter,
Lynette xo

Disclaimer: Information shared here is from my personal understanding and experience. Advice given is general and as I am not a medical doctor, take no responsibility for how it is received, my intention is that articles will be supportive and assist in living a fuller, holistic life.