"A desire without a plan is a dream. A plan without action is a piece of paper".
Below are 4 simple ways that can help you add more laughter into your life. They're all time tested. They all work. Reading them may entertain you. Doing them is the only thing that will produce results. Have fun!
Ways to Add Laughter into Your Life
Seek Outside Stimuli:
- Find something to laugh about e.g. seek laughing people
- Collect toys and play with them
- Laugh along with strangers
- Play with small animals
- Watch funny movies
Practice Happiness Exercises:
- Write down three positive occurrences that happened during the day, every night for one week.
- For each occurrence write down an answer to the question of why the good thing happened and relate and share good news with others.
- Challenge each negative thought as it arises.
- Enhance the positive traits rather the negative thoughts.
- Make optimistic attributions to real life situations as a preference to pessimistic conclusions.
- Live proactively and recognize your strengths
- Practice positive affirmations daily
- Express gratitude, appreciation and forgiveness
Creatively Approach Stress Management:
- Become a smile millionaire
- Play with laughter cues (finish all your sentences with "Ha Ha Ha" or "Tee Hee Hee")
- Get some perspective: see small annoyances for what they really are
- Write about the stressful situation with a funny slant
- Express yourself: state your frustration out loud while doing something silly (e.g. jump on one foot 3 times and then twirl around. Adding a playful element to any charged situation helps counteract stress.)
- Shout a positive motto during your most stress-filled moments (this may work best when you're alone.) For instance, you're in your car, stuck in traffic, and you have an appointment in 10 minutes. Rather than blame the drivers around you for everything wrong in your day, shout "I'm so happy" or "I'm really in love with life"
- Pull out the props: breathe your stress out into a balloon, write it on a piece of paper and burn it or Wear a clown nose.
Decide to Laugh and Just Fake it.Why leave laughter to chance? Faking is by far the easiest option because how you feel doesn't matter. All it requires is you. Take yourself through the motions of laughter with enthusiasm! Just as with any other form of exercise you will get out exactly what you put in. A mild chuckle will not give you the same workout and therefore level of feel-good chemistry as a more "hearty" belly laughter.
Sebastien Gendry is the C.E.O. of the American School Of Laughter Yoga and a leading Laughter Yoga expert in the world. A passionate and charismatic individual, he travels over 70,000 miles every year to train several hundred Laughter Yoga Professionals in North America and Europe. He has appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and numerous other national mainstream media. Learn more at http://www.laughteryogaamerica.com/