Monday 30 September 2013

I am - but we are!

When I received the email telling me that I was a Finalist in the Mumpreneur's Awards I was excited and totally over the moon!

The work I do is amazing and the lives that are moving on to be changed following the encounter with Laughter Yoga can never be belittled or underestimated. I have seen changes that have touched, moved and inspired me deeply and it is often a real mind-challenge to try and pass that across to anyone who has not experienced the changes.

However, Mumpreneurs know about change!

Someone mentioned in their talk that the term 'Mumpreneur' had been suggested changed to just be 'Entrepreneur' but in the discussion the person making the request completely missed the point of what Mumpreneurs in fact are all about. Who we are!

We are entrepreneurs and we are mums doing what entrepreneurs do plus all the things mums do. That should put the name change discussion to rest I imagine.

The really big deal is that there is an organisation who recognises the extraordinary in being just that person, these people.

So I came to the Mumpreneur's Conference and Awards on Saturday being 'just me' with a vision, a dream, and a drive...and I left being part of a bigger scheme of things called 'Mumpreneur'.

Being a Finalist in the Mumpreneur's Awards is humbling in many ways. Until Saturday 28th September 2013 it completely escaped my attention what the women who make up the network have in fact achieved so when I sat there listening to the Award Winners' names being called I felt so proud and so full of love that these amazing women were chosen to represent us. I also felt a big chunk of deepfelt gratitude that someone saw something in me and my business that placed me in the league of these unbelievably fantastic Mumpreneurs and I had a brief and passing moment of 'I'm not worthy'.

It was indeed a rapidly passing moment because if I made small what I do I would make small any step my students, friends, colleagues, clients and business partners have taken in the direction of bringing more laughter into their lives, and, good people, those steps may be babysteps in the world of doubters but they are gigantic leaps of faith that someone is there to support them in grabbing the moment and the laugh.

Even my little girl (18 tomorrow) was nodding in agreement that it was quite exceptional to be a Mumpreneur Finalist and who am I to belittle that feeling of awe which my daughter expressed to eloquently?

No one who has a passion and moves forward on their dream is small!

It really is moving to feel the love and gratitude from everyone who believes in what I do and what we do together and it is reciprocated big-time on a multitudal scale.

The Mumpreneur Award for Most Inspirational Mum went to one woman but I have no doubt that every one of the Mumpreneurs are fully emerged and embedded into the ethos of being a Mumpreneur and completely inspires those around us.

The Mumpreneur Award was not for me but I feld awarded and rewarded in such a big way that it was perfect just the way it was.

Besides I don't need an award to know the difference what I do makes in the world and coming home to knowing that in his eyes and arms I am the best of the best and leave the rest inspires me to continue the journey of bringing about positive change no matter what the challenge is.

Mumpreneur forever - I salute you all, us all!
Laughter Ambassador forever and a day!

Monday 23 September 2013

A Joke

The work I do involves no comedy, humour or jokes - it is all about laughing for no reason and it is great! As you laugh more your sense of humour develops and you find more things funny - your laughter and joy become more easily accessible to you and lurks just under the surface.

Today I share ONE joke.

Often in life when we are facing challenging times we use humour to counterbalance the stress of the situation and avoid being upset all the time.

Too many of these?
Now, my situation is a tiny issue compared to lots of other people's stuff - I have a really achy tooth and my dentist has no time for me until midweek.

Friday was when I discovered the culprit - when it in fact decided to break.

Ouch!

I can cope, I thought, it is not painful...

Yeah, weekend! Woohoo! Toothache - boohoo!

So this is where I was reminded of a pretty poor joke that I will now share with you:
Question: When is the best time to go to the dentist?
Answer: 2:30 (tooth'urty)
Get it?

Well, the big thing about jokes is that they require the intellect to actually get the punchline - and do we all get it? Here's the issue, not getting it does not mean that we are less intelligent than those who do get it, it only means that our minds may not be focused on the track of the joke and so what.

Perhaps you recognise the situation where someone tells a joke and everyone laughs including yourself, but you mind is working overtime, steam rising 'what the h... was that all about - I really didn't get it' - you don't say, you just laugh politely with the others 'ha ha ha, yes, that's funny' - recognise it? How many of the group do you think have similar thoughts?

That thought alone would have me howling - never mind the joke, life is what's really great and fun!

Good jokes depend on your sense of humour and essentially 'sense of humour' is defined as the following in the Unabridged Dictionary:
the faculty of perceiving and appreciating the humorous
Many people come to the Laughter Club telling they don't have a great sense of humour but that is great news because Laughter Yoga does not require humour!

And just to recap, when you laugh you develop your sense of humour and start seeing the funny side of more situations and things in life, a really helpful and useful tool in this day and age where things seem to be more serious than ever.

So reminding you and myself...

Live well - love much - laughter often!

Monday 16 September 2013

Sickening...

'...when I hear myself talk about how tough it will all be...'

More wants mooooore...
The raindrops were tapping on my windscreen last night as I was making my way from the north to the south to the beat of Steffen Brandt's voice from the 90s consumeristic Danish paradise where everyone was trapped in the dreaming of a better life - the pre-stage to dotcoms booming, rise and fall...

An easier way to make an easy life... So many opportunities, goodness knows how many people have spent the money I have on trying for that one glossy solution...

My heart bursts with love and hope when his voice proclaims 'I'm saying this again and I shall say it only once - it is now in the now that everything happens now' - my clumsy translation doesn't really cut it but the beauty in those words from 1995 is everlasting yet we have a long way to go.

So many still trapped in the dreams of yesterday's glory of the future 'hidden at the bottom of the soup' - once again his cynical words hit a button and I am thinking of the many people who lost their mojo because of recession, circumstances or lack of inspired drive owing to leaving responsibility behind.

Forced into the unnatural social stress of appropriateness and political correctness where we forget the moment we should reach for the sky and kiss the stars. Looking for solutions outside the self... the lyrics keep flowing and inspiring my mind...

My thoughts are drifting to my weekend spent celebrating love, dreams, hope, and more love, knowing this is the future and the future is here and now. I know that everything does not happen overnight but I know the image and the pictures of how it will all be, and have the confidence and certainty that it is not from a hope perspective but from real knowing.

Visualisation of dreams is beautiful and with a bit of motion, action, and trust in the process the visualisation becomes real-life happenstance with all its amazingness and bold truths.

Never underestimate the power of your mind and your thinkings - whether you believe or don't believe, perhaps the things that happen in your life are based on thoughts from yesterday...

Time to move the boundaries of what we think we know and how we were told to think!

I've said it before and I shall say it many times again, I'm sure - life is now!

Monday 9 September 2013

To status

I was inboxing back and forth with my Australian Laughter Friend, also touching on the subject of holidaying, and language (once again) popped into my mind...

Since when did 'inbox' become a verb? Well, it has been for quite a while and I believe it was my daughter who introduced it to me years ago when she stated that she would inbox me a link. That was my first introduction to the fact that you don't 'email' on FaceBook, you 'inbox' when using the email facility... Der???? Same with holiday - to holiday???

Well, not necessarily having thought it through I started thinking about how I am statusing daily to inspire and lift spirits. I hope my aim is achieved and that no one feels let down or undermined or even uninspired.

So, now introducing:

To status
- verb I status, I statused, I have statused, I have been statusing, I will status (won't status)

Okay.

Now, I have been going on quite a bit in my past blogposts about language but in all fairness I find it invigorating and interesting, exciting and exuberanting to explore communication. Afterall, it is one of our methods of interaction and it can either be exhilarating or it can be downright depressing.

Share wisdom but don't point fingers - be the centre of exploration and make sure people are left empowered in a conversation.

It is all in our words, posture, attitude and expression and it comes across the moment we open our mouth and let it out. Don't tear it all apart.

Create the world!

Words - where creating magic begins...

Have fun statusing and beeeeee gooood.

Or as we say in Gibberish: Glysdi snoogle abishpiboop!

Monday 2 September 2013

Future footsteps in the past

As I am sat here on Friday afternoon pondering on next Monday's Laughter Blog post it feels as if I am writing in the past for the future which reminds me of selfhelp books and personal development trainings teaching to write a letter to the future self about all the achievements and the journey getting there, then open the letter ten years from now.

Haha, I've done that!

My future footstep in the past...

The reason I am writing now is simply because I am away next week and want to be well-prepared before heading off to the beautiful North-East England to run Certified Laughter Yoga Teacher Training - did I mention that I am the only person in the UK who is proper qualified to run this training? Yeah, I think I did - once or twice in the past - but I am everso proud of this achievement.

So back to the future and yesterday's typos and scribbles...

The sun is out and it is a beautiful day outside my window so I want to make lighthearted sense of what I write and I don't know yet what it will be.

Empty stare - waiting for thoughts!
Every Sunday evening or Monday morning my head is ready for The Laughter Blog and I don't have to think too much - it kinda just spills but this time, I am 2-3 days early and my mind is not yet tuned in!

It is funny how the mind works and I have been doing Ahhh in the morning just to build my manifest and clear it at the end of the day with Ommm in the evenings.

Just wondering if this will work for blog ideas...

Smiling slightly with my own thougths of manifestation and cosmic ordering. There are so many books, CDs, DVDs, workshops, courses etc. to help us all get to the essential state of abundance, both physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritually - and all I can do is smile.

I already have an abundance of resources and I love my books and CDs because they are elements of de-stressing. But, you know what?

What I have found to work the best of all of these gazillions of wishful and positive methods - one way that works in an instant and is not even listed in these categories - Laughter Yoga - Laughter Therapy - Tao of Laughter!

Laughter! It simply does the trick every time!

Laughter is attractive when it shared freely and isn't used in a controlling and manipulative way.

When we laugh there is no pretence and hate, anger and suffering - we simply are right there in the e-motion of chuckles and self-expression.

Ho ho ha ha he he hu hu guffaw!