All too often our society equates “success” with “hard work”. Yet humans seem to be the only species where trying ever harder is considered a virtue.
The rest of nature just gets on with effortlessly being whatever it is. Grass doesn’t force itself out of the ground. Rivers don’t push the water, they let it flow. The sky doesn’t try harder to let the clouds float across.
Often, if we stop trying to force our life to go upstream and just turn around and let things flow, real synchronicity can happen and problems resolve themselves.
Is there a problem you could fix today by just letting things flow?
“A single word spoken in anger can undo thousands spoken in kindness.“
We’re all human and we all get angry at times…
It’s easy to snap at people, when we’re feeling stressed or angry. But that angry retort can cause pain and confusion and may even cause long-term damage to the relationship.
There’s an easy way to hold back, to allow more resourceful, kinder words to come out. And you don’t need a therapist to help you do it!
Whenever you feel you’re about to respond to someone angrily, simply take a deep breath in from your belly, pause for a moment, and breathe out fully through your nose. (If you do it through your mouth it can sound like a sigh which might not go down well!) As you breathe out, imagine the tension leaving your body.
By taking this deep breath, it helps you relax, can dissolve tension and will help you consider your words, rather than going with an auto-pilot angry response.
If you get a chance to try this one out, how about sharing your experiences via the blog comments?
Wishing you a day full of sunshine and laughter.
Namaste,
Clare
P.S. Sorry about the teporary absence of Daily Sunshine at the end of last week. We’re back now!
“Having a strong sense of the ridiculous keeps you sane.”
April Fools’ Day today traditionally sees silly news stories and practical jokes. And it’s a great reminder to us, not to take life too seriously.
Happy April Fools' Day!
The jokes might be subtle today, or more outragious. Either way, being able to laugh at life and enjoy the ridiculous helps keep you young at heart and feeling happpier.
What have been your favourite April Fools’ Day jokes today? How about sharing them via our April Fools’ Day comments box?
And you might enjoy our post on laughing, which includes 3 videos that we think inspire totally contagious laughter!
Smiles are contagious, yet how often do we consciously spread them?
Spread A Smile Day is about deliberately spreading a ray of sunshine around the world, by smiling at as many people as we can – and hopefully collecting a few smiles, too!
Please share this post by Twitter and Facebook, if you’d like to tell your friends about it!
Thousands of people joined in with International Spread A Smile Day in 2009 and here are some of the things they got up to:
“I awoke smiling. I’ve smiled at everyone so far. even people in their cars.”
“I’ve been smiling at complete strangers – and they’ve been smiling back. It’s such a cool feeling!”
“I work in a Phlebotomy clinic, so not many people feel like smiling when they’re anticipating pain! It’s amazing though, standing there and smiling at the people in the waiting room and watching a mini wave happen and they respond in kind.”
My lovely friend, Yamuna Loyal, is a firm advocate of laughter.
As a sound therapist, she knows the benefits it can bring. She has even developed a fab process of clearing out energy blocks in the body, through laughter.
She, like many others, are telling us that laughter can indeed be the best medicine.
The thing is that we often take life FAR too seriously.
We get lost in the sea of “to do” lists, hurrying from one appointment to the next, fretting about things that may never even happen.
Time to laugh?
I recently read some research that claimed an infant will laugh up to 200 times per day. By the time we’re adults, we’re lucky to manage 10.
What’s going on?
Isn’t it time to lighten up?!
The problem with being constantly stressed and worrying is that:
It’s bad for our health
It reduces our ability to think clearly
It makes us less efficient
It takes the joy and spark out of life
It leads to more worry and stress
The funny thing about laughing is that:
It’s contagious – once one person starts, it spreads around a room
It transforms everyone it touches. You CANNOT laugh and feel miserable at the same time
It releases endorphins, (or little dolphins, as my friend’s son used to say!) into your bloodstream, giving you a very natural high
The endorphins reduce your stress levels and have been scientifically shown to reduce the symptoms of illness
Laughter shifts your thoughts to a more positive vibe, so your day improves, exponentially
And the great thing is that we could choose to spend our day laughing our way through our tasks, just as easily as grumping!
So, to inspire you and give you a helping hand towards laughing-out-loud-till-you-cry-type-belly-laughs, here are 3 videos I’ve found that contain infectious laughter.
Hopefully you’ll find, as you watch them, that you can’t help but join in.
Laughter really is an amazing healer!
How about starting your own laughter collection? Videos? YouTube? Funny books? Anything that makes you laugh out loud! Got some good resource ideas? Please share them via the comments box!
We’re going to be collecting a YouTube playlist of our favourite laughter videos, so make sure you have subscribed to our Beyond Alchemy YouTube channel, to catch them all!
Wishing you a day full of sunshine and laughter,
Clare x
It doesn’t matter if you don’t speak German, this weather presenter’s laughter is contagious!
This baby’s laugh is wonderful. Guaranteed to bring a ray of sunshine to your day!
And for something different, how about laughing yoga?!!
Please do share your favourite laughter tips via the comments box!
My lovely friend, 
