How Can Everyday Lives Develop With Tolerance and Positivity?

How much do you believe what you believe, how much do you feel sure about what you believe and clear regarding what you are about, what the world is about, how much goes on in the world? Watching TV with my husband, we are often amazed seeing a show and dropping into say a village in a little known part of the globe, how so many things are going on at the same time, while we are sitting in our space, as we all are. We were specifically watching World’s Most Dangerous Roads. One man who was interviewed is the 20th generation living in the same area.Such tradition, he was very definite and clear about his life, which I surmise is probably not the norm.

Don’t we get limited by our small, narrow everyday life, thinking it is everything, the dramas, mostly self-created, the patterns and limitations we feel and become? Particularly in the Western World, look at the way that we live, the majority of the population needing to have a job and go to work, a smaller proportion being entrepreneurs. These may be stuck too, struggling to make ends meet, learning new skills and a still smaller proportion are making big bucks. I mention this to suggest, why not sit back and think, or rather feel, reflecting, to put your life into an overall perspective, if that would be of benefit to you here and now.

Circling back to clarity, are you satisfied with your life and where you are, because if you are not, it is up to you to change it, beginning on the inside with your belief system. As they say, if you think you can, you can and if you think you can’t, you are right, you can’t!

Whilst we cannot change our lives overnight, slowly, slowly, catchee monkey, we can work towards what we want, especially if we are clear about where we are headed and to something that makes our heart sing. I believe we are led by forces greater than ourselves and when we stop trying rigidly to be in control, we open ourselves up to the creative forces of the universal energy, living in an energy flow.

Take for instance, have you ever wanted something and it has come about and more, as there is a higher force at work and within us, which helps draw what we truly want to us, all in the fullness of time. I have mentioned this before and some may have heard about the 12 month letter. Let me explain, especially as it is still in the first month of the year, which is a highly beneficial time to do it. Write a letter to yourself, using your imagination, as if it is in twelve months from now and you are describing your year and how much you have achieved. After writing the letter and I hope you let yourself go without the limiting mind holding you back, you can seal it up in an envelope. Then both date and put in your calendar to open it up in twelve months, or ask a trusted person to return it to you in twelve months. Over time, by implanting this into your subconscious mind, you genuinely do help to create a more positive, fulfilling life, brimming with abundance. It is sowing seeds and you will be surprised how things eventuate, sometimes taking longer but still in progress. Writing a twelve month letter to yourself can work like magic. Now isn’t that what you want? More abundance, on every level that you would yourself want.

Now we started talking about tolerance and people all around the world going about their business, being totally caught up in their lives, oblivious to others. I suggest that we can dare to be different, take more chances, become very clear about our self, our life and be truly grateful for our lives. Gratitude is an important key. It may be that we are living a simple life and we feel peace and calm, yet do not realise how beautiful it is, that we are quietly going about life doing what we do in total acceptance. I feet though, that is in the minority .

Picture another scenario. "I need that thing to make me happy. I put people into my ‘make me happy box’ and go about living life feeling disgruntled, a victim to life, feeling that everybody is against you, nothing works out right, if only this and if only that."

Now which scene do you prefer? The one where you are living a fruitful, tolerant life, with gratitude, clarity and vision, or the one where you are constantly playing out the victim, struggling and feeling that life owes you big time?

Well, it is up to you. Pick one and work with that. Make your choice and if you choose the more positive picture, know that being human means sometimes slipping back a little. If that does happen, pick yourself up, do not give up and keep on growing, improving, giving back, enjoying, building those relationships and finding happiness both in something bigger than yourself, and within yourself, because God dwells within you as you. We are all spirit as well as abiding in a human body. Perhaps you could do more for yourself and make the most of your time in a positive way, in touch with your heart, not wanting to be anyone else. The choice is up to you. Please do connect or comment if this strikes a note in you. Thank you.

Disclaimer: This post is written from my personal understanding and experience and is not to be misconstrued in any way. 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 more holistic life.

I am available for either laughter yoga sessions or holistic counselling and and run the free community Ferntree Gully Laughter Club which you are welcome to attend. Phone me on 0425 799 258 or email me to make contact, or to receive my monthly email newsletter, or sign up on Laughter For Living.

Laughter is the Best Medicine and Getting Back to Basics

Hello and welcome to 2015. I am going to get back to basics and share some eliminatory information with you. Laughter is the best medicine. How often have you heard those words? Do you really believe it? There is truth in it and two full pages of images on Google come up for this search title, which seems to prove there is are strong beliefs to that effect.

Would you care to try it now, observing first how you are feeling, then you do a little exercise. Take a deep breath and as you breathe out, focus and laugh with your whole body. Continue this exercise for a couple of minutes or more, taking care to not hyperventilate. Then observe the difference, how different do you feel, whether a little lighter, more energised, joyful? Notice that much of the time we laugh superficially, which is fine but not what we want in order to improve our health through laughing more. And yet if you started with a superficial laugh, the chances are that it became genuine and even with practice, real genuine body shaking laughter. If you need a list of more laughs to do,

Did you know that the body does not know the difference between real laughter and pretend laughter? That is why at the Ferntree Gully Laughter Club and within the laughter yoga movement, we choose a laugh and go for it. New members may find it difficult at first and are more likely to ‘fake it till they make it’, however when we start pretend laughing, it very quickly becomes completely engrossed laughter.

With practice, the laughter improves and we lose all feelings of self-consciousness. Then we are walking the talk, taking the spirit of laughter with us wherever we go. Being contagious, other people benefit and we become one of those lucky ones who find it easy to laugh naturally. Some people I meet say they do not need to come to the laughter club, because they laugh a lot at home already. Then others say they need to laugh more and come and it is a good, healthy habit to get into. It gets better with practice and after laughing, we find that we leave the half hour session feeling uplifted and invigorated.

Dr Madan Kataria and Lynette Mitchell

By coming regularly, which is on the 2^nd, 4^th and 5^th Sunday of the month, you will definitely be using laughter as the best medicine for your health and wellbeing. This of course carries forward into our lives as we take the spirit of laughter with us wherever we go, sometimes calling on it in moments of stress when we need to have a sense of humour.

Did you know that Laughter Clubs have been going for twenty years? They began as the brainwave of Dr Madan Kataria, an Indian physician, who started the first laughter club in a park in Mumbai in 1995 with 5 other people. Initially they told jokes, finding that jokes can help us to laugh but did depend on one’s sense of humour and can be limited due to belief systems. By discovering how to ‘laugh for no reason’ laughter club were internationally born, to the extent that there are over 6,000 clubs worldwide in 60 countries.

Lynette Mitchell is available for holistic counselling and laughter yoga sessions and runs the free community Ferntree Gully Laughter Club, phone her on 0425 799 258.