Hello Friends
Laughter Yoga helps with your worthiness in a natural way, when you do it regularly, get out of your comfort zone when laughing together and embrace the authenticity that only laughter yoga can bring forth for you.
I felt drawn to delve deeply into the worthiness topic and have a deeper appreciation of how affirmations and laughing together helps us.
Do you consciously focus on a desire to be a worthy person? Perhaps the answer is yes. It can also be an unconscious activity, driven by an internal desire where we yearn to feel better about ourselves.
We probably grew up being told to be nice to people and respect our elders etcetera, which came from the influences of our parents and their predecessors, as it was passed down through the genetic timeline.
Did you even stop to think about it, that behaviours we are told to live by have actually caused us to become passive and supress our true feelings? Being a ‘good’ person may have been at our own expense, when we uplift and look after others, we may neglect or forget about our own self-care.
Of course it is ideal to be good to others, let’s replace the world ‘good’ with being ‘kind’. It is worth considering our motives for what we do and the rewards we get for the behaviour. In trying to be a ‘good’ person and nice to others, we may be driven by an inner desire for worthiness within ourselves.
Much comes about through behavioural patterns and conditioning as we are growing up, influences from the beliefs and backgrounds of our parents and people who are in authority in our lives. However we can outgrow these belief systems, which may encompass being nice to people, where we behave automatically and unconsciously. Our feelings of self-worth can become reduced, and we develop into being a people pleaser, or even a doormat.
This is commonly more related to the females amongst us, or men with a strong feminine nature. From my experience when we live with dominant people, it can crush our souls and take away what was originally a strong and pure essence, turning it into a trembling, fearful individual. That was so for me and as well for others whom I have encountered in my life. Rather sad isn’t it, and yet we can reach a point where we decide to do something about rectifying the situation, such as going on a self-help and healing journey.
I believe that working on one’s feelings of worthiness is a lifelong occupation, with distinct layers of unworthiness being released throughout our life. I reckon it isn’t anything to be judged about ourselves or others either; it is as it is, a mere fact of life and good to be aware of, as a driving force within us. Ideally, we will reach a stage where our worthiness is not dependant upon the opinions of others.
How does laughter yoga and in particular, attending a laughter club contribute to increased feelings of worthiness?
As laughter works on all aspects of our bodies, physical, emotional, mental and spiritual, these bodies combine, expressing as an individual person, within social settings. At laughter yoga sessions, we are openly expressing ourselves with other people. With determination and vigour, we unleash our inner child with the silly antics that we get up to. Generally, over a short time, we become comfortable in our own skins. That is, we can embrace the activity of laughing together, releasing our own inhibitions, judgment of others and self-judgment.
Laughter yoga is a stress releaser which energises us, taking us out of our critical, left-brain analytical thought patterns as we embrace our creative, right brain hemisphere expression. Naturally this will be limited by our personalities, as some people are doing it tough mentally, finding it harder than others to let go and relax into the laughter exercises.
Usually over time, or perhaps straight away, we feel better about ourselves and our life, without necessarily stopping to analyse what is going on. We just feel better and more together than before.
After the regular Ferntree Gully Laughter Club sessions, we continue the social interaction, heading over to Rapture Café for a cuppa, where we share with our laughter friends what we’ve been up to within the close-knit community.
Do you need to come on a regular basis?
Many people have very busy lives and attend a laughter session spasmodically. This is a terrific way to belong, since it is optional when you come, instead of being a requirement. I mention this because it is worth coming along for a visit and to try it out once, twice or three times to see if it is a good fit for you or not. You may not know if you come only once and decide, so please give laughter a fair try out before finally deciding. And then you may come for a while and stop, or turn up intermittently.
Laughter yoga is also a great aerobic exercise and recently a few members share how they are managing to include it in their lives in different ways. Such as to watch Dr Kataria on YouTube every day, he is the founder of laughter clubs worldwide, following the exercises in his books, or other watching other laughter videos. People even go through a regular daily routine as an exercise option, incorporating the deep breathing and affirmations that we do.
Gently and over time, involvement in laughter sessions can help us enormously in our lives to cope and feel good about ourselves and clearer about our lives. This includes people who come to the laughter and meditation sessions that my husband, John and I facilitate at the Knox Libraries. These libraries are at Boronia, Knox, Ferntree Gully and Rowville. At present we go to Rowville once a quarter.
If you wish to phone me to make a time, I would love to share some Worthiness affirmations for you to read through daily and when you feel the need. These affirmations are filled with positive energy, as perhaps many are which you may otherwise find online through your own searching.
I will also share some simple positive affirmations, that we sometimes use at laughter sessions. You can see the change on people’s faces and in their body language after saying and repeating them. To make them powerful, we say them out loud and with conviction.
- I Have Lots of Ideas, Life Inspires Me!
- I Am, You Are, We Are Amazing!
- I Am So Enthusiastic!
- I Am in Love With Life!
- I, You, We Can Do This!
Benefits of Affirmations
You can Google about this yourself, how researchers from the University of Pennsylvania show us that self-love affirmations reprograms one’s brain, which helps during difficult times.
It can help in other ways, helping to rewire the brain, known as neuroplasticity and importantly, when we focus on positive words, it lessens our inclination to see things in a negative way. Positive self-talk can change our thought patterns of negative self-talk, shifting our perspective from the inner critic to that of the inner coach. It is good to remember to watch how we talk to ourselves and be kind, as we would treat our pets and little children.
Recapping that repeating worthiness affirmations helps us be positive, creating positive behaviour changes and at the same time, we will feel more in tune with life. Our motivation and self-determination is stronger, we can also feel ourselves being adaptable and resilient and experience an overall feeling of emotional well-being. That of being more connected with others in our lives and life itself. Isn’t it an awesome topic?
How to use Affirmations
I like to begin my day by saying with feeling ‘I choose Joy’, Being filled with joy really is our choice; when we choose Joy it becomes a tangible experience. Our freewill governs what attitude we take on and express and it means the difference of experiencing something in a destructive, negative manner, or with joy. This then attracts positive growth and experiences.
Affirmations are best when you say them out loud and if you wish, in front of a mirror, with a good tone in your voice. Some people like to set reminders on their phone, computer, or Google Home.
Why not write them on sticky notes and put up where you can see them? We can also repeat them when we are exercising, working out or walking. You can incorporate them into your daily self-help or meditation processing routine or cut them up and put them into a jar, taking one or more out as an inspiration. My last suggestion is to share them with like-minded friends or family, as people like to share positive, uplifting ideas with one another.
Parting Feelings
The world needs more love, peace, gratitude, joy and positivity and it can begin with you. Us. Begin with growing your own self-love, worthiness and self-esteem and focus on your cup being half full, as it fills up brimming with potential. A popular exercise we do at laughter club is ‘I have this much limitation, showing our thumb and forefinger almost closed, and this much potential, opening our arms as wide as possible, as we finish with a loud Yay!
Thank you for your interest in reading this. Feel free to phone us and check on the website in case of a change in time. We have a surprise eminent laughter yoga personality leading the Ferntree Gully Laughter Club on the 13th of October. Come along and bring your friends. I will be absent, John will be there and ??? You will have to come along and find out for yourself now, won’t you?
Lots of Love and Laughter. Lynette Mitchell.
We laugh together as follows and YOU are most welcome to come along.
Meeting outside at the rear of the library –
Ferntree Gully Laughter Club 11am 2nd & 4th Sunday
Meeting inside the library’s meeting rooms –
Boronia Library 11am 1st Saturday
Knox Library 2pm 3rd Thursday
Ferntree Gully Library 2pm 4th Tuesday
First timers, please contact Lynette to confirm, in case of a meeting change.
Thank you – your article hit the spot!