Laugh and Play Every Day

It’s fun to laugh with a baby. The baby laughs, you laugh, and on it goes. Children’s laughter is delightfully infectious and their play is completely spontaneous.

Babies and children never need a reason to laugh or play. We don’t either, we just think we do.

Make Your Day

Our attitudes, combined with our choices, work together like a paintbrush colouring everything we do or think about doing. If we burn our morning toast and then assume the rest of the day will follow suit, likely it will. It will become a “burnt toast” day, and we won’t be able to see the opportunities for laughter and fun in the rest of the day.

In my workshops, I use laughter exercises to stimulate others to laugh. We begin with simulated laughter. At first, people find it challenging to pretend to laugh, but then a magical thing happens. Eye contact with one another makes the laughter contagious. People lose their inhibitions and soon they are giggling and guffawing naturally.

Recently a woman told me that the laughter had made her feel so relaxed that her entire body felt wobbly. She couldn’t stop giggling at this feeling of release.

Ways to Play

Think about the messages you received as a child about laughter. Did someone ever say, “Stop laughing, it’s not funny?” Ignore them. Being playful reconnects us to our childhood state of trust and joyfulness. It helps to release our inhibitions and allows us to reconnect with our real self. We can do this in many ways. It can be anything from an organized sporting event to a moment of playfulness with a co-worker, to running along a pier and leaping into the water while yelling “bombs away.” I remember driving many years ago with my husband and son and feeling full of happiness. I rolled down the window of the car and yelled out “yahoo” with total abandon. It was a spontaneous moment of absolute joy and gleeful playfulness.

I encourage people to leave their inhibitions behind. Step outside your comfort zone and do something you’ve always wanted to do. Maybe you’ve always wanted to ride the water slides, but feel it would look silly because you are a mature adult. Or perhaps you’ve wanted to snow ski, paint, or colour.

Take steps to actively incorporate play into your daily or weekly activities. Start small and work up to something bigger. I promise it will enhance the quality of your life and the lives of those close to you. Plus, you’ll be more fun to be around.

People who know how to inject fun and play into their daily lives have learned to laugh in the face of adversity and are able to be remain flexible with almost all aspects of life. Burnt toast will never again be given the power to ruin an entire day.