Laughter is the Best Medicine

Laughter is one of the most useful and energizing ways that we can "lighten up"... Swami Beyondananda, in an excerpt from his book, Duck Soup for the Soul, reminds us that laughter is healing... and then gets the healing energy moving...

Here is a story from my life to explain why I include an article on the healing power of laughter in our series on Being Psychic.

In the mid 80's I lived in Lexington, Mass., where I had the great good fortune of connecting with another psychic and healing arts practioner, Rev. Julie Kaye Brier. We took to exchanging readings periodically, so when my life took a very weird and difficult downturn, I went to see her. We started the reading sitting across from each other at a small table, but as we got deeper into the reading, Julie kept moving further and further away and pushing me to move back also so she could sustain an objective view... and the further away we moved from each other the more she laughed. Finally, I couldn't stand it anymore. By this time we were as far away from each other as she could manage, each in opposite corners of a rather long room... and she was roaring... laughing so hard, the tears were rolling down her face... I was horrifed: "Julie, this is terrible, you are giving me this awful news, and yet you are laughing, what is going on?"

I learned a most valuable lesson that day... Julie had discovred some very big and very dark energies in my aura, was describing images that matched a kind of nightmare that I had had the night before, -a lot of her work that day was around backing those energies off me enough to give me some room to breathe so I could find some solutions to the challenges I was facing. She explained that to do the work and also keep from taking on any of this energy, she needed to keep her vibrational frequency as high as she could manage to... so she laughed, and laughed and laughed....until she finally got me laughing with her.... it worked.... it actually took about another three years to fully shift out from under the weight of that energy. But that day brought enough light around me that I could see what to do and how to get moving again...

Laughter lifts your vibrational frequency, helps you to connect with your heart.... Joyful laughter is wonderfully healing - and balancing... laughing at ourselves and the craziness of our lives makes it easier to see the purpose in the craziness... and most importantly, enables us to maintain an objective position so our Third Eye, that objective, all-seeing observer in us can do its good work... laughter enables us to "see" more clearly, it enlivens all of our senses, including the inner ones.

The Daily Practice of Fu Ling

by Swami Beyondananda, http://www.beyondananda.com

All indications are that in this new millennium, we will need more laughter than ever before. The pessimystics are making their usual dire predictions—hordes of humorless huddled outside a shabby Duck Soup kitchen waiting for a few crummy jokes. But this need not happen if we prepare enough laughingstock to last through any crisis. Remember, laughingstock stores indefinitely as long as you keep adding to it. Here is a daily practice that will keep you and everyone else laughing until the sacred cows come home:

Wake Up Laughing. It has been said the great Fu Ling masters are able to laugh at the very instant they wake up in the morning—or at least the first moment they catch a glimpse of themselves in the mirror. There’s no reason why you can’t do the same. If the thought of looking at yourself in the mirror first thing in the morning seems horrifying, try this: Pretend you are looking at someone else. The worse you look, the harder you will laugh. As you laugh, you will begin to look better and better until you no longer look funny enough to laugh at. When you stop laughing on your own accord, you have dispersed the laugh force throughout your body and you are ready to start the day.

Mine Your Own Business. It has been said that the bull is always funnier on the other side of the fence, but the first place to look for bull is in your own back yard. Your own bull makes the heartiest laughingstock. Every day, find something that’s funny about your own laugh story, and laugh at it. Laughter will help dissolve your bull. When nothing is left of the bull, you will have achieved the goal of every aspiring Fu Ling master—you will have the No Bull Peace Prize.

Humor Yourself And Others. Practice lobbing one-liners into serious conversations. When you hear an explosion of laughter, you know you hit your target. Take jokes from Internet, share them on the Outernet. There’s nothing like watching a joke detonate right in front of your eyes. If it is easier to remember short jokes, then short jokes are fine. Humorologists tell us it’s not the length of the joke that matters, it’s how much pleasure it gives. A good joke proliferates and nourishes like manna. Think about it. One person arrives with a good joke, and dozens leave with it!

Love the Fun You’re With. Yes, it’s true. Four out of five metaphysicians tell us that life is more fun when you laugh. So love the fun you’re with -- even if it doesn’t feel like fun at the moment. Anyone can have fun having fun. But having fun not having fun is the Fu Ling master’s art. Next time you’re not having fun -- and not having fun not having fun -- remind yourself that life is a comedy of situations and you’re just having an episode.

If life is nothing but a sitcom, what can you do but sit calm and enjoy it? Picture yourself as the Creator’s favorite toy -- a little rubber ducky sitting calm in a sea of Duck Soup. As soon as you do, you will begin to feel the ripples of laughter washing over you. May you have the last laugh, and may your laughingstock last forever.

Excerpted from Duck Soup for the Soul, copyright 1999 by Steve Bhaerman. All rights reserved.

NEW FROM THE SWAMI! Swami’s brand new audio tape, Beyondananda and Beyond, is now available! The tape offers two hilarious takes on healing laughter. On side one, Swami holds forth on Achieving Fool-Realization. On side two, Swami’s alter ego, Steve Bhaerman, covers the Five Healing Qualities of Laughter. 60 minutes of laughter and insight. Guaranteed to leave you mellow and laughing or double your stress back! To order by mail and get a catalogue of Swami's products, send a check or money order for $12 (plus $2 shipping) to Lite Headed Productions, 400 W. Third St., Suite D-144, Santa Rosa, CA 95401. To place a credit card order, call Swami's special product ordering line at 1-800-SWAMI-BE or visit Swami ‘s website at http://www.beyondananda.com.

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