I had my May Queen almost finished when the Day of May came rolling around. It keeps right on doing that, every year when April exits, stage left. Unfortunately, it was a day that I was not jumping over any Beltane fires, even in my imagination. Then there it was the 2nd of May and I thought, “well, I missed another one.”  I missed the Winter Solstice - it was the day of my surgery. I came home on Christmas eve and was so drugged I slept through most of Christmas, it seemed like it didn’t happen.  I had a lay-you-flat migraine the night of the Vernal Equinox. I’m not doing real well with holidays so far this year.  When I realized another one had floated by, I had a sniffly moment and remarked to myself that it hardly mattered, it wasn’t as if anyone was waiting with great anticipation for my personal Beltane Celebration.

I was wrong. When I got myself to my computer Friday Morning there was a note from Corrina (Time to Shine) telling me that she had come looking for my May Poll.

“I came looking for your be-ribboned Maypole

Round and round we go we hold each other's hands
weave our lives in a circle
our love is strong the dance goes on
our love is strong the dance goes on……. (repeat repeat repeat until all the Maypole ribbons are braided…)
xoxox

What an magnificent braiding rhyme! What an incredible gift. ‘I see you.’ ‘I remember you’ ‘I missed you.’ It meant more than I can even manage to say. Thank you Corrina for remembering and for reminding me. Beltane, like every celebration, is not about a certain day, it is about a feeling in the heart. Midway between the Vernal Equinox and the Summer Solstice, Beltane opens the door and ushers in the fullness of spring. May 1st is the beginning of another ever changing, ever returning, glorious dance of life. On May the 3rd Spring is still blooming, I didn’t miss Beltane, it has just begun. My apple tree is so beautiful it hurts the heart, pink and white and full of bees, smelling like a dream of Avalon. A very serious robin is sitting on her sky blue eggs, in a messy, but well constructed nest on my back porch. The gentleman with the red breast struts around fluffing himself and looking important until he is called upon to actually go to battle with a marauding crow, which he does with heart and valor.

 It is a promise that is ever kept, a miracle that is never ending. The cold, fallow, waiting days of winter will end and life will burst forth from the earth again. Again. Ever again.

The Goddess manifests as the May Queen and Flora. The God emerges as the May King and Jack in the Green. The danced Maypole represents Their unity, with the pole itself being the God and the ribbons that encompass it, the Goddess. A beautiful symbol for a festival of flowers, fertility, sensuality, and delight. We braided the May Poll at my school when I was young. Every year we learned a new dance, a more intricate way of weaving. The little ones just skipped and kind of went in and out the windows. By the time we were in the sixth grade we were doing a complex and elaborate dance that involved spinning yourself up in your ribbon and then unspinning, fast running steps with leaps,  leaning back against the ribbon to pull it taut while dancers went under and holding them loose while the other dancers jumped over the loop. It has been a lot of years since I have braided a May Poll. I would love to do it again.

My Beltane post last year told about my daughters May Day traditions. In fact, I just went and looked at it and there are both poems I intended to use with this post! Well, here they come again! I happen to like them both. You can think of it as being redundant, or you can think, that like the miracle of the earth’s turning, the poems just keep coming around just like the seasons! Maybe by next year, I’ll write a new poem!

 I do have a new painting this year. My May Queen joins with The Green Man, who comes at this time as Jack-in-the-Green. They toast their union with May Wine, the blessed beginnings begin again. Ever Again. And Ever Again.

MAY 6TH . . .TODAY IS THE DAY AFTER THE DAY AFTER WORLD LAUGHTER DAY!

Don't you like my new idea of celebrating everything a day - or so -  late? So much more distinctive! I mean, everyone was celebrating on the 4th. Today it is just us!

PLAY-POD MEMBERS! And everybody else! This whole Blog is at PLAY-POD on the "Very Merry UnBirthday" Board WORLD LAUGHTER DAY 2008 Thread.

If you don't want to read the entire article (It has been mentioned that it is a little LENGthy) scan through and see the great pictures and then send answers to the questions at the top. You can do that here, but it is probably easier at PLAY-POD. Check out Ally's Answers. This will be some awesome information to have with the thought of making a Healing Laughter Book to send to our friends who need healing by the best medicine. The Laughter Healing Group would be simply this - if someone let us know it was needed, the Healing Laughter Book would go out to the person who needed healing, you would be notified and could remember them in your meditations, prayers and especially donate a laugh to them along the way. I think that is a marvelous idea that I don't think I've ever heard of before. Kind of like donating blood, you know?

So! The article is good, if you have the time. If not, scan the pictures and answer the questions. Amber copied them out and will do them as she has time today, which is also a great idea. And so: " May you Laugh so Hard the Sprite Comes Out Your Nose!!"


Euuwww. Sorry about that Sprite. It's an old blessing, but I think we must change it for our uses here. How about the Super-Green-Wheat-Grass-&-Carrot-Juice?

I am so enamored of the whole idea of World Laughter Day. I wanted to have a "Laugh-in" at PLAY-POD but got a late start (to say the least.)  We now are having a mini-laugh-in through the grape vine. When you get your laugh notice, give a gigantic giggle and sent it on to someone else. Laughing, of course, should happen every day - innumerable times every day.  So, though the designated day has giggled and gone, the Laugh-in Continues! When you get the Laugh-in at your Grape-Vine, send a laugh on to someone else, until we all are laughing so hard that they will begin to wonder what we have been up to!

 This entry is quite long (imagine that!) It has a borrowed article in it, more articles and papers - with site locations - if you want to read more. And pictures. I can’t truthfully say that looking a picture of someone laughing always makes me laugh, but it does make me smile and feel  delight inside. So. There will be pictures of great faces doing great laughs.  And I’m going to ask you to do some things.

Things I am going to ask you to do - in honor of World Laughter Day & All The Days After World Laughter Day (May the Laughter Continue!)

1. LAUGH - as deep and full as you can.
2. LAUGH - just for the sake of laughing - not necessarily because anything is funny. Experience the physical feelings of laughter.
3. Do some stretches and deep breathing  - THEN LAUGH and feel it through your whole body.
4. Make someone else laugh. Consider why these traditional words are “MAKE someone laugh.” Interesting. Invite someone to laugh?

WRITE BACK HERE OR AT PLAY-POD and tell me what you think about these questions - all of them or any of them. You can answer in a comment here or at PLAY-POD in the "A Very Merry Unbirthday" Board, the thread on The Day After World Laughter Day.

1. What kind of things make you laugh the most, the most often?
2. What body feeling does laughing feel most like to you? [Examples: Kissing, Dancing, Running]
3. Is crying the opposite of laughing?  Why do we cry when we laugh hard? If the opposite of a laugh was a Hgual, what would you be doing when Hgualing? Crying or stony silence?
4. Is laughing a physical act or an emotion?
5. What is the funniest movie, in your opinion? List as many as you would like to. I would like to build a good list because, when you are sad, hurt, sick and you need to laugh, funny movies are probably the easiest way to access this.
6. Given #1 and #5  - Wouldn’t it be lovely to have resource full of movies, laughing pictures and other activities for people to use when they need healing from physical problems or sadness?
7. Would you be willing to participate in a Healing Laughter Circle?
8. The Theme for World Laughter Day 2008 is “World Laughter Day: World Peace Through Laughter.” Why is this important? How will it work?
9. If you have ever experienced Laughing Yoga please tell us about it!

10. This is a question just because I am interested.. A lot of the humor for healing I read about used clowns. Does ANYONE think clowns are funny? I am scared of clowns. A lot of people I know are too. Isn't there a better mascot somewhere for Healing through Humor?

FUNNIEST MOVIES

1. Ground Hog's Day
2. What's Up Doc
3. Duck Soup

As a Lover of Words (L.O.W. How LOW can you go?) I would like to make a list of different kinds of laughter. In this message I talk about the dreaded “Silent Laugh Mode” What are some of the other words for different kinds of laughter? I’ve started the list. Please add to it.

1. Giggling
2. Tittering
3. Guffaw
4. Snorting
5 Silent Laugh Mode

SUGGESTIONS FOR NEXT YEAR’S LAUGH-IN
1. Everyone visits me at my castle in Italy (must win lottery first) for a week and we watch all the movies whose names we have collected. We laugh. We hire several Stand-up Comics. We laugh. I let my three children and my Son-in-love loose. We laugh a lot. We eat a lot. We eat some more. We laugh about how much we ate. We eat some more. We drink some too. We laugh. We laugh.Someone takes photographs, we do Co-creative Art of all kinds, then we write a book containing all of this - "Laugh With Gaia and Gaia Laughs With You" It hits the NYT Best Sellers List & stays there for months. We use the proceeds to donate to lots of Great Green projects and to fund World Laughter Day 2010 somewhere in the South Pacific. Or Norway. I'm voting for Norway.
2.

At Mary’s Profile  there is more about World Laughter Day. Thank you to Mary for the Head's Up that it was coming. Without your profile last week telling me about World Laughter Day, we would be celebrating Day after Day after Day after the Day after World Laughter Day!

Lastly - My husband scans hundreds of jokes each week, finds the best and sends them out to his “funny list.” It began being just family, then people at work, then people that knew the people already on the list . . . he now has a huge list. The good thing is you can email 100 people just as easily as one. If you would like to be on Verlin’s ‘Joke List’ send me your outside email and you’ll get jokes almost every day. Definitely Adult Humor, but on the clean side of dirty - if you know what I mean.  ME

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I started this out by writing: “Obviously, laughter and play go hand in hand, they are so related to each other that they are probably identical twins.” It was a good opening sentence until I re-read it and realized that maybe the word “Obviously” didn’t belong there. I’m not sure that everyone understands the connection between playing and laughing, laughing and playing. You can do one without the other, but when they happen together, there is a feeling that it is utterly right.

In the last few years I have had two different people approach me with similar problems. One said, “I don’t know how to have fun anymore.” The other said, “I’ve forgotten how to laugh.” I know both of them socially, not professionally, but they asked me this particular question because they said I always seem to be laughing. One of them said, “you enjoy things more than other people do. I don’t know if it is because you just find things more fun than other people do or if it is that you are not always looking around to see if anyone else is laughing.” That was an interesting comment. I hadn’t ever thought of it before. I do laugh when I find something funny whether or not anyone else does, but I didn't think everyone else was looking at each other to see whether or not to laugh. Then I started watching people.  Certainly everyone is not watching the other people before they laugh, but, in a group of adults, some of the people are fairly consistently before they laugh. Then I started  to wonder things like . . . what if every one WAS looking before they laughed? How would they ever start laughing, if they were all there just looking at each other?

I suppose it would be because of the “blurter” - you know the one who as a child was always laughing when no one else was. We are socialized that this is not acceptable. I was the one with my hand over my mouth a lot of the time, after having blurted out a great big laugh when no one else was even tittering.

I find that I ‘blurt’ during Shakespeare quite often - all alone, unless my daughter is with me. I have had a lot of people glare at me, even turning around in their chairs with withering glances. Recently, one woman in a very purple huff  informed me, at intermission, that it was extremely rude to laugh when nothing in the play was funny. But there WAS something funny; really funny.  Part of Shakespeare’s brilliance is that there are layers and layers to his work. The thing I had ‘blurted’ at was a very hilarious, artfully masked, quite dirty double meaning that, granted, you might not have have caught if you didn’t know  the vernacular of the time period. I didn’t tell her that, I just said that since people are different, they do perceive different things as funny and that I would try to not laugh so loud. She laughed plenty loud herself at an equally shady joke later on in the play which was worded closer to modern English.  

I think that when I was a teenager, I may well have been one of those who checked to see if it was permissible to laugh. I’m not sure what liberated me. I guess it was coming to the point that I really didn’t care if people thought I was loony or not in “group think.” The question is what caused that? I’m not sure if it is age or having teetered on the pointed little brink of death a few times. I didn’t turn into a wonderful person, become incredibly spiritual or decide to only see the good in life from my Near Death and Almost Dead experiences. I whine with the best of them and I have to work to keep negatively at bay. What I DID get from coming back from the jaws of death, was a great appreciation for humor and especially for laughing; the ability to laugh more, more loudly and with more gusto and less inhibition and enjoy it more. The most noticeable thing from all of these experiences was the ability to enjoy everything more. Laughter is something I enjoy. On a good day I find just about everything funny.

 For instance: in writing one of those sightly run-on sentences above, I got this great visual of myself poking a big stick into the jaws of death to hold it’s mouth open - you know like they do on cartoons. It’s usually a big bull-dog that is slobbering a lot and the stick sort of boings up and down as if it is going to break any minute. (It will break, with a sharp crack, right after the naughty mouse/cat/skunk/me has made their get-away)  After I’ve stuck the stick in, I tip-toe over the terribubble teeth of death and tickle it on the Uvula. After this great visual, I started saying “Uvula” out loud and starting laughing fairly hard. I then looked up the word to make sure I was spelling it correctly and didn’t have it mixed up with any other parts of the body. (a-hem.)  When I got to Wikipedia I found this fantastic photo along with this description. Read the description out loud. Try it with different accents.

The uvula (pronounced /ju-vj-l/) is conic projection from the posterior edge of the middle of the soft palate, composed of connective tissue containing a number of racemose glands, and some muscular fibers. "Uvula" redirects here. For the urogenital uvula, see Uvula of urinary bladder.

My favorite was a High British accent, interjecting the name “Nevil” at a few inappropriate places. I read somewhere once that talking to yourself didn’t really make you crazy, nor did answering yourself, but if you started laughing at yourself you have a problem. I have a big problem. One on my many daughter’s suggested that when I am in the grocery store alone and I find something funny and starting having hysterics (it happens quite often) I should pull out my cell phone and pretend I’m laughing at whoever is on the other end of the phone. I think that is too complicated just to ensure that the people in Shop-n-Kart don’t think I’m nuts. A lot of them already know.

After a few minutes with “Uvula” and the “racemose glands” I was heading fast for trouble. It is a serious condition which some people are more prone to than others. I am greatly afflicted. It is called “Silent Laugh Mode.” In Silent Laugh Mode, you don’t make any noise at all,  you just shake. The danger is that you keep breathing out, but can’t breath in.


I had a boyfriend whose favorite party trick was to tell me several really funny jokes one right after the other, or do impersonations or whatever it took to send me into Silent Laugh Mode. Then he would call everyone in the room to come on over. He thought I was so darling when I started to quiver, quaver, twitch, tremble and turn blue.

Way back at my two friends who had forgotten how to have fun and to laugh. The remedy was the same: Play. With one of them I did just what the article below describes - I got out my “art supplies” and we made and played with Paper Dolls. At first she kept trying to do something “useful” like making a journal. I wouldn’t let her. It took three sessions, but on the third we had made a lot of dolls and we played. She looked around a lot, but there was no one there, but the two of us. Finally she got past the internal stage fright and was playing - and laughing - a lot!  


My other friend I started with a version of the word “Play” that she was comfortable with. I said we should get together and play our instruments. What I didn’t tell her is that though I can ‘sort of’ play a number of instruments, I can’t play any of them very well. My very bad banjo playing finally won her over and she too began to laugh. After some more playing of many kinds I turned them both over to my dance teacher for Interpretative Modern Dance. Play, laughing with the full body worked in. It’s marvelous and they both felt ‘cured.’





A lot of the articles listed below deal with the medical benefits of laughter. I said to my daughter, “if laughter is supposed to be so good for you, why am I still so sick? I laugh more than anyone I know.” She looked very serious for a minute and then said, “Mama, maybe the fact that you laugh so much is the reason you are still alive.”

A sobering thought, and entirely possible. Actually the more I thought about it, the less sobering it seemed. The less sobering it seemed and the more possible. I’ve come to the conclusion that she is right - the fact that I laugh so much is the reason I am not dead . . . and I think that is really quite funny.

Below is a very good article on laughter. I read a lot of articles on the same subject and I liked this one. I liked it because it is accessible, easy to use, has good over-view content and a wealth of other things to read if you are interested.  In checking out some of these extra links, I discovered something wonderful. An entire medical group made up of professionals in the field of humor. AATH -  Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor. PhD’s, MD’s whose emphasis is on humor. Do you remember Patch Adams? He is everywhere now and more and more ‘Humor” is becoming a legitimate form of speciality in Medicine and Psychology. FANTASTIC!!  READ ON!  If you come across any more great articles please post them on this thread. Also post great pictures of laughter, jokes, laughing words (Uvula,Uvula,Uvula,Uvula!!)



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~`

From: Help Guide.org
Leslie Lindeman, Gina Kemp, M.A., and Jeanne Segal, PhD 

Health benefits of humor and laughter

"Laughter activates the chemistry of the will to live and increases our capacity to fight disease. Laughing relaxes the body and reduces problems associated with high blood pressure, strokes, arthritis, and ulcers. Some research suggests that laughter may also reduce the risk of heart disease. Historically, research has shown that distressing emotions (depression, anger, anxiety, and stress) are all related to heart 1disease. A study done at the University of Maryland Medical Center suggests that a good sense of humor and the ability to laugh at stressful situations helps mitigate the damaging physical effects of distressing emotions.

A good hearty laugh can help:

    * reduce stress
    * lower blood pressure
    * elevate mood
    * boost immune system
    * improve brain functioning
    * protect the heart
    * connect you to others
    * foster instant relaxation
    * make you feel good.

Laughter's Effects on the Body

Laughter lowers blood pressure.
   

People who laugh heartily on a regular basis have lower standing blood pressure than the average person. When people have a good laugh, initially the blood pressure increases, but then it decreases to levels below normal. Breathing then becomes deeper which sends oxygen enriched blood and nutrients throughout the body.

Humor changes our biochemical state.
   

Laughter decreases stress hormones and increases infection fighting antibodies. It increases our attentiveness, heart rate, and pulse.

Laughter protects the heart.
   

Laughter, along with an active sense of humor, may help protect you against a heart attack, according to the study at the University of Maryland Medical Center (cited above). The study, which is the first to indicate that laughter may help prevent heart disease, found that people with heart disease were 40 percent less likely to laugh in a variety of situations compared to people of the same age without heart disease.

Laughter gives our bodies a good workout.
   

Laughter can be a great workout for your diaphragm, abdominal, respiratory, facial, leg, and back muscles. It massages abdominal organs, tones intestinal functioning, and strengthens the muscles that hold the abdominal organs in place. Not only does laughter give your midsection a workout, it can benefit digestion and absorption functioning as well. It is estimated that hearty laughter can burn calories equivalent to several minutes on the rowing machine or the exercise bike.

Humor improves brain function and relieves stress.
   

Laughter stimulates both sides of the brain to enhance learning. It eases muscle tension and psychological stress, which keeps the brain alert and allows people to retain more information
Humor improves mental and emotional health

Humor is a powerful emotional medicine that can lower stress, dissolve anger and unite families in troubled times. Mood is elevated by striving to find humor in difficult and frustrating situations. Laughing at ourselves and the situation helps reveal that small things are not the earth-shaking events they sometimes seem to be. Looking at a problem from a different perspective can make it seem less formidable and provide opportunities for greater objectivity and insight. Humor also helps us avoid loneliness by connecting with others who are attracted to genuine cheerfulness. And the good feeling that we get when we laugh can remain with us as an internal experience even after the laughter subsides.

Mental health professionals point out that humor can also teach perspective by helping patients to see reality rather than the distortion that supports their distress. Humor shifts the ways in which we think, and distress is greatly associated with the way we think. It is not situations that generate our stress, it is the meaning we place on the situations. Humor adjusts the meaning of an event so that it is not so overwhelming.

Here are some additional things we can do to improve our mood, enjoyment of life and mental health.

    * Attempt to laugh at situations rather than bemoan them – this helps improve our disposition and the disposition of those around us.
    * Use cathartic laughter to release pent-up feelings of anger and frustration in socially acceptable ways.
    * Laugh as a means of reducing tension because laughter is often followed by a state of relaxation.
    * Lower anxiety by visualizing a humorous situation to replace the view of an anxiety-producing situation

Humor helps us stay emotionally healthy

A healthy sense of humor is related to being able to laugh at oneself and one's life. Laughing at oneself can be a way of accepting and respecting oneself. Lack of a sense of humor is directly related to lower self esteem. (Note that laughing at oneself can also be unhealthy if one laughs as a way of self degradation.)
Mental Health Benefits of Laughter

    * Humor enhances our ability to affiliate or connect with others.
    * Humor helps us replace distressing emotions with pleasurable feelings. You cannot feel angry, depressed, anxious, guilty, or resentful and experience humor at the same time.
    * Lacking humor will cause one's thought processes to stagnate leading to increased distress.
    * Humor changes behavior – when we experience humor we talk more, make more eye contact with others, touch others, etc.
    * Humor increases energy, and with increased energy we may perform activities that we might otherwise avoid.
    * Finally, humor is good for mental health because it makes us feel good!

Social benefits of humor and laughter

Our work, marriage and family all need humor, celebrations, play and ritual as much as record-keeping and problem-solving. We should ask the questions "Do we laugh together?" as well as "Can we get through this hardship together?" Humor binds us together, lightens our burdens and helps us keep things in perspective. One of the things that saps our energy is the time, focus and effort we put into coping with life's problems including each other's limitations. Our families, our friends and our neighbors are not perfect and neither are our marriages, our kids or our in-laws. When we laugh together, it can bind us closer together instead of pulling us apart.

Remember that even in the most difficult of times, a laugh, or even simply a smile, can go a long way in helping us feel better

    * Laughter is the shortest distance between two people.
    * Humor unites us, especially when we laugh together.
    * Laughter heals.
    * Laughs and smiles are enjoyed best when shared with others.
    * To laugh or not to laugh is your choice.

Bringing more humor and laughter into our lives

If laughter is the best medicine, where is the pharmacy where we can fill our prescriptions?

Although healers have intuitively known for centuries that laughter and humor are beneficial for health and well-being, in our modern world we have only very recently begun to scientifically investigate the relationship.

And though we’ve begun to measure the benefits humor has on our health, we have yet to focus on the question of how to bring humor and laughter into our lives as therapy.

Nevertheless, pioneers in this new discipline are out there in their wagon trains braving the trails. We’ve collected their early findings and present them as follows.
Developing our sense of humor

Laughter is a birthright, a natural part of life. The part of the brain that connects to and facilitates laughter is among the first parts of the nervous system to come on line after birth. Infants begin smiling during the first weeks of life and laugh out loud within months of being born. Even if you did not grow up in a household where laughter was a common sound, you can learn to laugh at any stage of life.

We may begin by setting aside special times to seek out humor and laughter, as we do with working out. But eventually, we want to incorporate humor and laughter into the fabric of our lives, finding it naturally in everything we do. Here are ways to start.

    * Smile. Smiling is the beginning of laughter. Like laughter, it’s contagious. Pioneers in “laugh therapy,” find it’s possible to laugh without even experiencing a funny event. The same holds for smiling. When you look at someone or see something even mildly pleasing, practice smiling.
    * Count your blessings. Literally make a list. The simple act of considering the good things in your life will distance you from negative thoughts that are a barrier to humor and laughter. When in a state of sadness, we have further to travel to get to humor and laughter.
    * When you hear laughter, move toward it. Sometimes humor and laughter are private, a shared joke among a small group, but usually not. More often, people are very happy to share something funny because it gives them an opportunity to laugh again and feed off the humor you find in it. When you hear laughter, seek it out and ask, “What’s funny?”
    * Spend time with people who have successfully incorporated humor into their lives. These are people who naturally take life lightly, who routinely find ordinary events hysterical. Their points of view and their laughter are contagious.

Incorporating humor into everyday life

Here are two examples of people who took everyday problems and turned them around in order to bring more humor into their lives and to help solve the situation at hand, and even others unrelated to it.

Semi-retired, Roy finally had the chance to play golf seriously and often. But before long, he realized he wasn’t enjoying it nearly as much as he had hoped. Every poor shot, and all golfers hit them, was cause for remorse.
But Roy wisely realized that his golfing companions affected his attitude, and he began playing only with those capable of keeping the game in perspective. Now the game was as much fun as Roy hoped it would be. He scored better without working harder. And the brighter outlook he was getting from his companions and the game spread to other parts of his life, including his work.

Jane worked at home in her apartment complex designing greeting cards. Two pre-school girls who loved to make paper dolls lived nearby. Eventually, Jane invited the girls in to play with all the art supplies she had. At first, she watched but in time she joined in. For a year, Jane and the girls played together nearly every day.

Making paper dolls and doll clothes, laughing and playing pretend with the little girls transformed Jane’s life. It sparked her imagination, helped her artwork flourish, brightened her outlook, and best of all rekindled her playful side in her relationship with her husband.

Spending time with children is one way to enhance our playfulness, add humor to our lives and help take ourselves less seriously. Not taking ourselves so seriously is an important component in adding humor to our lives.
Taking ourselves less seriously

Angels can fly because they take things lightly - Anonymous

Some events are clearly sad and not occasions for laughter. But most don’t carry an overwhelming sense of sadness or delight. Most fall into the gray zone of ordinary life, and they give us the choice to laugh or not.

One characteristic that helps us laugh is not taking ourselves too seriously. We’ve all known the classic tight-jawed sourpuss who takes everything with deathly seriousness and never laughs at anything. No fun there.

Here are some ways we can lighten up.

    * View your life in context. Even world leaders realize they have limited ability to affect others’ lives. While we might think taking the weight of the world on our shoulders is admirable, in the long run it’s unrealistic, unproductive, unhealthy and even egotistical. 
    * Be less serious.  Realize that while your ambitions may be noble, being overly serious about them weighs you down and lessens your chances for achieving them.
    * Deal with your stress. Stress is a major impediment to humor and laughter.
    * Dress less seriously.
    * Keep a toy on your desk or in your car.
    * Laugh at yourself. Share your embarrassing moments. The best way to take ourselves less seriously is talk about times when we took ourselves too seriously.
    * Pay attention to children and emulate them. They are the experts on playing, taking life lightly, and laughing.

Checklist for lightening up

When you find yourself taken over by what seems to be a horrible problem, ask these questions:

    * Is it really worth getting upset over?
    * Is it worth upsetting others?
    * Is it that important?
    * Is the situation irreparable?
      Is it really my problem?

Creating opportunities to laugh

    * Watch comedy DVD’s and TV shows. Remember classics like the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges.
    * Go to comedy clubs.
    * Listen to comedy while driving.
    * Read comic authors.
    * Seek out funny people.
    * Spend less time with overly serious people.
    * Bring humor into conversations. Ask people, “What’s the funniest thing that happened to you today? This week? In your life?”

    *  Laughter is the "Best Medicine" for Your Heart  http://www.umm.edu/features/laughter.htm
    * Laughter is Good for Your Heart http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/laughter.htm
    * Humor Survey: How Well Does Your Sense of Humor Protect You From Heart Disease?
    http://www.umm.edu/news/releases/humor_survey.htm

How Laughter Works – Explains the physiology of laughter, as well as its physical and emotional benefits. (How Stuff Works)  http://people.howstuffworks.com/laughter.htm/printable

What is Humor? – Discusses the relationship between humor and health and suggests ways to improve your sense of humor. (Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor)
http://www.aath.org/articles/art_sultanoff01.html

Humor Library - http://www.aath.org/library.htm  - I PARTICULARLY LIKED THIS ONE!


Humor Articles / White Papers

    * Humor and smiling: Cortical regions selective for cognitive, affective, and volitional components by F.A. Rodden, etal. http://www.aath.org/articles/research_article.pdf

    * Human, Klingon and Vulcan Humor by Dr. Frank T. Rizza http://www.aath.org/articles/art_rizza.html


    * Funny Games by Bernie DeKoven  http://www.aath.org/articles/art_dekoven.html


    * Do Children Laugh Much More Often than Adults Do? by Rod Martin
       http://www.aath.org/articles/art_martin.html
      
    * On the Other Hand - What Do We Mean By “Empirical Research”? by Bob Nozik and Shirley Trout   http://www.aath.org/articles/art_nozik_trout_01.html
      
    * Applying Critical Thinking to New Humor Research by Deb Gauldin
       http://www.aath.org/articles/art_gauldin_01.html
      
    * "Research Critiques Incite Words of Mass Destruction" by Ron Berk
          http://www.aath.org/articles/art_berk.html
      
    * Client's opinion about the use of humor as a therapeutic intervention strategy. by Esther Quintero Cartagena  http://www.aath.org/articles/art_cartagena.html
      
    * "Laughter and Mental Flexibility" by Steve Bhaerman
    http://www.aath.org/articles/art_bhaerman_01.html
      
    * "Spirituality and The Practice of Clowning" by Alex Chamberlain
         http://www.aath.org/articles/art_chamber_01.html
      
    * "How Can You Laugh at a Time Like This?" by Allen Klein
       http://www.aath.org/articles/art_klein01.html

    * "Men and Women Respond to Humor" by Ellie Marek And Judith Tingley
         http://www.aath.org/articles/art_marek_02.html
      
    * "A Little Bit of Everything, a Little Bit of Everywhere." by Shobhana "Shobi Dobi" Schwebke  http://www.aath.org/articles/art_shobi_bit.html
      
    * "Beyond Goofy to Teddy Bear Range ." by Shobhana "Shobi Dobi" Schwebke
         http://www.aath.org/articles/art_shobi_goofy.html
      
    * "Open Heart Clowning ." by Shobhana "Shobi Dobi" Schwebke
         http://www.aath.org/articles/art_shobi_open.html
      
    * "Using Humor in Crisis Situations" by Steven M. Sultanoff
         http://www.aath.org/articles/art_sultanoff02.html
      
    * "Humor Touches The Whole Brain — The Whole Person" by Shirley K. Trout
    http://www.aath.org/articles/art_trout01.html
      
    * "Mumbai: Home of Laughter Clubs and World Laughter Day" by Steve Wilson
       http://www.aath.org/articles/art_wilson01.html

   * "Tragedy, Laughter, and Survival". by Patty Wooten and Ed Dunkelblau.
       http://www.aath.org/articles/art_wootdunk1.html

    * Humor and Aging - Keeping our Wits About Us by Kay Caskey and Laurie Young
       http://www.aath.org/articles/article_caskey.html

    * Humor: The Spice of Life by Leslie Rose Seminars
    http://www.aath.org/articles/art_rose.html

Joke Sites

Henny Youngman Jokes – The definitive Henny Youngman collection (Funny2.com)

Steven Wright Jokes  - The Master of the Absurd (Funny2.com)

Good Clean Funnies List Archive – This list contains links to clean jokes. (Good, Clean Funnies List)

Yahooligans! Jokes – Provides jokes for kids. Clean jokes in 12 categories with a Joke of the Day feature.  (Yahoo Kids)

Lastly - My husband scans hundreds of jokes each week, finds the best and sends them out to his “funny list.” It began being just family, then people at work, then people that knew the people already on the list . . . he now has a huge list. The good thing is you can email 100 people just as easily as one. If you would like to be on Verlin’s ‘Joke List’ send me your outside email and you’ll get jokes almost every day.

I think maybe I better move this offer up into the first part of the Blog. If you get this far, let me know and you get a prize!  I'm betting on about - um - three. :-)
PP HIDDEN TREASURE HUNT!!    REMEMBER YOU HAVE TO TELL ME THAT YOU SAW THE TWILKING HEART TO GET YOUR PRIZE!

This is a message to everyone who I owe a letter or who might have of wondered if I had fallen of the face of the Gaia. Strange things are afoot.

Last week I was so bad I couldn’t sit up most days and didn’t even get to the computer. It got to the point I was afraid that they would come in one day and I would be gone. There would be just a lump of pain sitting there - kind of a viscous, mucilaginous glob the color of rotten meat - differing colors of grey and brown with green accessories. It would be throbbing, a constant low beating sound that went up everyone’s nostrils and made them hold their heads. Someone would gasp, “WHAT have you done with our Dryad?!” and there would be this huge, gross, satisfied belch.

My insomnia thinks that it is still in charge. I have, however, also been sleeping; often 18 hours at a time. I've decided to view this as a good thing. A glass 3/4 full instead of 1/4 empty. Until someone tells me differently: it is not some new die-ease, but just my body trying to get with the program and get me well. I have been walking on my new Nordic track and going upside down on my new inversion table. Eternal blessings to Rapunzel (Jeannie) for telling me how well they work and encouraging me to get one. It actually hurts really bad right now, but I can feel the spine stretching and lengthening, so the disks (who mistakenly believe they are balloons) will slide back into place. Like any exercise, I am getting less sore every time I use it.

I have also been hit with a huge creative surge. Unfortunately, said creative surge, was not accompanied by sudden magical organizational skills. Its almost the opposite. I’ll be going along doing something and suddenly get a great new idea. Then I run off and start something else. I try to go back to what I was doing before, just when I get started working again, I remember I HAD to tell someone something . . .

So while I finish the six letters that are started . . .the three paintings . . . the one huge collection I’ve been working on for months . . . and, Oh yeah! Those new Boards over at Play Pod that everyone has begun to believe are fictional . . . I thought I’d put this up. It is titled “Who Came To Beakfast?" It started out being "Breakfast With Seuss." Then I looked up and there was Salvador Dali playing with the marmalade. I actually had it up here and ready to post when Henri Matisse stuck his head out of the kitchen and said, "Isn't there any coffee? Did VanGogh put it ALL in the paint?"  It’s kind of like those “Find It” Pictures that used to be in Highlights Magazine. Anyone remember that? This is what I did while I was supposed to be doing all of the above.

Is there such a thing as a Senior Senior Deliquent?