Laughaholics!

Get Addicted to Yourself!

Ever hear of those “laughter clubs” in India where people gather in parks for half an hour every day just to laugh? There are over 400 of these clubs! More than 50 in Bombay alone, with a total membership of 25,000 laughaholics! Members and experienced gigglers meet in groups of 50, limber up with breathing exercises, and then egg each other on into extended bouts of hilarity! I read this and thought, wow, we could use this sort of thing in America!

Sales of anti-depressant drugs is around $40 billion. Insurance rates are skyrocketing. Cancer and stress related diseases are increasing. We need to be proactive to maintain our health and keep our immune systems strong…and if laughter is the best medicine…it’s also a great way to have some fun in between stops to Whole Foods or Starbucks! If we get addicted to coffee from caffeine, why not get addicted to ourselves from our endorphins!

Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body's natural painkillers, and produces a general sense of well-being. Laughing lowers blood pressure, reduces stress hormones, increases muscle flexion, and boosts immune function by raising levels of infection-fighting T-cells, disease-fighting proteins called Gamma-interferon and B-cells, which produce disease-destroying antibodies.

"A clown is like an aspirin, only he works twice as fast." - Groucho Marx

So why not “laughter spas”! I'll keep you posted!

Genius is Wisdom and Youth

Genius is wisdom and youth. Wow. A friend texted that to me the other day. I never thought of it that way before. It made me remember something I heard Wayne Dyer say as I was flipping channels and caught him on PBS...

"Wisdom is knowing we are nothing. Love is knowing we are everything."

Perhaps somewhere in there is the eternal balance. I like to believe we are all geniuses; each in our own state of becoming.

My goddaughter Allyssa is 6 years old. During a recent visit we were in the backyard playing, jumping on a giant trampoline, laughing, giggling, and reaching high for the trees. Allyssa said out of the blue, "Good fun brings good luck!"

I smiled from ear to ear and just hugged her. Genius is wisdom and youth! So I went home and bought a trampoline!

Jonathan Cainer writes, "can you remember where you were before you came here? No? Strange, isn't it. None of us can. An entire planet of people suffering from selective memory loss. Even stranger, we worry about where we go when we leave. Yet if you look at the new arrivals, you can see they clearly come from somewhere special. The smile of a baby brings in the light of another world. It is not the unknown that we need to fear. If we must be wary, look out for the world we know only too well."

So there you go. My new book, yet unpublished, will be called...

"The Meaning of Life. The Ultimate Guide to Being in the Moment"... and all the pages are blank!