Knife Crime is Life Time

I did not know the young man who brutally got stabbed in St. Albans nor did I know the circumstances of this sad, sad event.

What a waste!

However, I know some of the young people who were in his friendship circle - young people who I hold in high regard and respect, young people who are close friends with my daughter who knew of the young man from her time in secondary school.

My deepfelt sympathy goes out to those near and dear to the 19-year young man.

Circumstances.

There should never be any circumstances where it is necessary to carry a weapon on a night out for fun and light hearted squirmish. Sadly, the nightlife culture dictates a different story, a different mentality.

It has got to stop!

We go on and on and on about how horrible war and suffering is and yet, we fail to avoid the fighting and killing at our doorstep.

It could have been avoided.

No matter how much someone gets to you there is never an excuse for plunging a knife into the depth of someone's flesh - watching the pain, the hurt, the terrible, terrible suffering and death too soon.

There is no excuse.

The event triggered memories from five years ago when my close friend was pointlessly stabbed and nearly died on a night walking home from St. Albans train station. This was a random attack - not triggered by heated discussions or fights but simply someone who held a grudge that got rammed into action that evening believing someone else was at the receiving end of the knife.

It does not stop when the knife drops to the ground.

It does not only involve two people, the killer and the victim.

Knife crime is for life.

For the perpetrator as much as the families, friends, and everyone who is touched by the event.

It never goes away.

So how do we move on from here? Move on from those sad moments, moments of regret, moments that cannot change back to how things were before someone died?

Back to the Future is not real.

However, we are all superheros who can make profound differences through our choices! Wear your invisible cape at all times and make a stand for the good stuff in LIFE!

And I worry - I am a mum, that is what I do. My daughter and her bessies go out on the evenings and I pray that I will never get a call like the one the young man's parents received.

If ever there is a dark moment where it seems pointless and without reason find someone to talk to - someone who has no vested interest in the story that is building up but instead can find ways out before it all crashes down into something too overwhelming.

Speak to someone who can make you laugh, someone who can help tap into joy, someone who can get the tears rolling and get back to the laughter and to what is important.

No matter how dark it may all look, it only takes a tiny spark to initiate something bigger than the ego.

And I do know that we are not all born into the same 'circumstances' but one person regardless of background can change the flow of events - only one person gives the first punch.

Remember what it is all about!
Remember community and friendship.
Remember joy and love.

Peace.

Limerick of the Pit Yacker and his Love

Today it is just a bit of meaningful romancing or random nonsense - depending on your perspective.

It so happened that I was in a romantic mood and started poetic pondering...

It may not follow all the rules of Limerick's wicked or fun rhymes but read it an weep is all I can say.

T'was a girl who would sing, laugh and dance
She found herself caught in a love trance
His blue eyes would stare
Bewitch, smile and snare
And they'd promise her more than a glance.

The distance was never a bother
Each other with love they would smother
They'd laugh, kiss and play
And they'd never betray
Their love for the sake of another.

The sound and the chimes of the bell
A beautiful tale they would tell
Of love on a beach
Where two hearts would reach
And echo 'I do' in a love spell.

The story of Lotte and Kris
Has a moral that's true which is this
Don't leave it behind
If ever you find
True love full of fun, sex and bliss.

I'm a poet and I didn't know-it!

Have a fantastic week, everyone, and embrace your inner poet!

Life goes on and on and on and on...

It has been almost one and a half month since last time I wrote in these pages.

Why?

No apparent reason other than life happening in many ways - also the once that need attention that takes the mind off thinking strange, weird and wonderful thoughts.

However, the thoughts never stopped - only the fingers glued to the keyboard.

No matter how busy life gets with all its happenstances there is ALWAYS time for good thoughts and good shares of whatever springs to mind or rather out of the mind.

It so happened that with everything that went down and up over the past few months, including a great conference, two car accidents, a prom, three training courses, 12 workshops, a house move, mostly love, and all the other normal events that create our life experience, and in this case, MY life experience.

It may not sound a lot...

At the end of the day, everything is just that, every thing - only material items that can be replaced even if it may take a while or even if it seems less great than what was there. It really doesn't matter!

As long as there is love and friendship, caring and compassion, and to be honest!? My life is complete.

On top of it all I am ever-so-fortunate to work with people who feel the difference of the stuff we do together in workshops and training courses.

This year I have been booked solid and my thought a few weeks ago was 'how am I going to find a place when I have a moving deadline and no time to look' and with no time to look even a thing like moving would be challenged come the day. I quickly apologised to the Universe as I did not mean to complain because I DID in fact ask for lots of workshops and lots of students (I love workshops and students), and I would like to keep the flow...please...

So, anyway.
With friends and family there is always a place to go.

So back to what is essential.

The conference in Manchester full of Laughter Yoga people showed a true sense of community and friendship, and I was blessed with being there with my life partner to share this atmosphere of fun and play - a special event where my mentor, teacher and friend along with his beautiful wife shared the space and wisdom of joy.

We are quite good at that in our own time and space but it was great to share a different fun with likeminded people.

Through thick and thin - or sick and sin, I will be there for you and you will be there for me - in love.

Love is what gets you through life...

...and adds sparkle and glitter!

Love life!

Trains, strikes, and stern faces

I started writing my post a few weeks ago but never got around to publish it...

My post started on the Wednesday I went to London while the train staff was striking away and somehow got stuck in 'Thought Alley' for additional days...

Just a reflection of my mischievous mind on the train

As I was heading back to St. Albans on the very slow train that Wednesday afternoon I just sat pondering, minding my own business, noticing people getting on and off.

The elderly gentleman sat across from me, his fierce Vinnie Jones face set in some serious folds but as the phone rang reality took a drastic turn as his cheerful 'hello-oo' sounded into the air almost like  a melodic symphony.

How looks can be deceiving and I wondered how often people don't get a second chance because we all KNOW for a fact that first impression lasts.

The past few weeks since this journey have been manic in an exciting and also challenging way, and it makes me wonder if I have been at the receiving end of judging minds when my faces has been laid in serious frowns, hiding smiles and laughs as I have been going about sorting and considering options and decisions.

Probably.

But then - no one has uttered any comments or opinions.

My face is definitely not built for frowns and seriousness which became blatantly clear when my daughter requested my assistance in completing her A-Level Art work.

I was to model a variety of expressions, from various artists, most of which were frowning, angry, fierce and agressively shouting.

Lesson learned, it hurts to put my face into unfamiliar position and aren't I lucky that for me, those unfamiliar positions are those of expressing anger, frustration and hate.

My face is definitely made for grinning, smiling, laughing and a bit of mischievous chuckling.

What is your face telling you?

No matter what we deal with in terms of house, transport and other big materialistic challenges it is always worth remembering that where there is a heart that beats with love, there is a home and room for a smile.

Easybeats, Vanda & Young notes thread

The gentleman on the train jovially burst out 'well caught' as he made a clumsy attempt to pinch his pen off the woman's chest with his thumb and index finger. She didn't look amused...

When you drop a pen and it lands on a co-passenger's chest shouldn't you let the woman hand it back?

He had pushed himself onto the seat next to me and I had only caught a glance of him from the corner of my eye thinking he was an orthodox Jew with his hat and suit but he turned out to be an eccentric music critic or professor of some sort. Don't know.

I couldn't help but laugh at this little interlude unfolding at my feet, literally, as the gentleman regained momentum and made his way to the exit.

Eccentricity seemed to be pouring out of him as he ventured on, leaving the train - the kind of assumption I made without any other reason that having watched the pen drop on the chest of the woman sat opposite me, listened and watched.

The other misconception on the train is that when you look out the window and observe the world flying by people often mistake it for watching them in the window mirror.

Suspicion and paranoia thrive on the train and all you can do is shrug your shoulders and get on with your observation, ignoring the turning heads and stolen gazes to check your do-abouts. Tut tut tut is all I can say, relax!

People are judged by appearance and action every single moment of each day. Didn't matter anyway because it was simply a brief happenstance on an overcrowded train to London and not even deemed an encounter. When you are awake on the train there can be lots of fun experiences to be had - even if it's by yourself and no one else shares the joke...

...which possibly where I enter the category of eccentric passengers who make a small communication transfer on the rush hour train and subway, e.g. smiling, grinning, thanking or sorry'ing when none of it is necessary or expected.

Enjoy your train ride and if all else fails, pick up your phone and pretend someone is telling you a joke on the line - perhaps that will make you grin and it feels almost legit.

Ho ho ha ha ha - Laughter Yoga is so much fun!

It lets us play and have fun as our sense of humour and joy grows daily!

Besides there are little shops who nurture our sense of feeling good - even at the train stations.

Awesome thoughts, mate.

I don't want to sound full of myself but I was reading through some of the pages I have written in the past and to be honest, there were some quite cool things put in words and sentences amongst the rest of my sometimes unlikely blurb.

Many of my shared thoughts are not unique. However, my words have been spun around my own thinking and shaped into those lines which make them individual.

I am a strong advocate for shaping our own thoughts but I also listen and ponder, I become an info magnet and contemplate what's shared.

And then I decide.
We decide what's worth our attention.

I love when other people's words are shared in individual phrases and streamed with added intellect or varied vibration instead of plainly sharing what has already been said in the exact same letters and structured in the exact same way.

Having said that, there are so, so many fabulous quotes by famous people that are inspiring me daily and no douth inspiring you, precious reader, so they are worth sharing in their original flavour, too.

As long as we think when we read what's so then we are not too far off the track.

And don't just swallow it all - raw and unsweetened (perhaps another Danish transmorgryph, not sure).

So to finish this whole self-indulgent nonsense off I'd like to quote one of my early life idols and bring you to where we need to be in order to grow and learn - and don't forget to add your 12 hugs per day...

In the undying words of Bruce Springsteen, 'Mister, I ain't a boy, no, I'm a man, and I believe in the Promised Land' (which may have been taken completely out of context but never mind for now)...

The Promised Land, Paradise, Nirvana or any other name we use to describe something magical and perfect, which we continuously strive for and yearn for outside the self, while we forget to stop and listen to our heartbeat and listen to the peace within, relaxing into the safe haven and becoming one with the void where all these wonderful aspirations and places become one with here and now and you!

Be at peace with yourself and peace will come to us all - no nonsense and no religion either.

Just think what's worth your fretting and what's not!
I think that's it for now.

Baring it all...

...and feeling happy about it!

Last week saw a campaign for battling cancer which involved posting make-up free selfies on FaceBook and Twitter.

Interesting.

Well, in my book of interesting things it was but perhaps it was just rather random to you...

A once in a lifetime moment captured on camera

Anyway, the part that was interesting to me was the uncomfortable feeling of letting go. Letting go of the image I have held onto for many years - and it will still be there even after more than just one nomakeupselfie, that's for certain.

It was for a good cause and the campaign stirred up a lot in the media and was altogether successful. I am in awe of everyone who really bared it all, so to speak.

A great reminder that in order to be our authentic self we sometimes need to show some of what we hide... And it made med think of my teacher, mentor and good friend, Dr. Madan Kataria, who some odd years ago decided to shave his head and step out of the image-zone in order to be who he is.

The authentic, unconditional image of compassion, love and laughter!

Vanity rules a many a mind in our materialistic society and it was a great exercise in letting go of the familiar - even if just for a moment or two.

Happiness in a flowerpot

Last week also saw the International Day of Happiness taking place. It tied very well in with the idea of being the self and as I was pondering on the quote from Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon about how 'happiness may have different meaning to different people but we can all agree that it means working to end conflict, poverty and other unfortunate conditions in which many of our fellow human beings live' it surfaced in my thoughts; the truth in the words stating that as long as we are at war with the self in our own stressful ways, that is how long we will have war outside the self and the stiving for peace and happiness is all it is, striving.

Happiness is a choice in the here and now and tapping into the inate joy everyone is born with can deeply and profoundly aid the process of being in a state of happy-happy-happy.

However, I do empathise with Ki-Moon's statement although in my opinion it is in the realm of the measures of the happiness index and based on the social, economic and environmental well-being which cannot be separated, as it goes, and this in itself makes the happiness a chase outside ourselves.

Definining wealth by measuring material prosperity and GNP etc are measures of the past and Bhutan have long known this - and that's what UN and everyone else have realised, and that's what The International Day of Happiness is about!

Woopeedoo!
Going back to my roots!

What!!??

I exclaimed fiercely just at that very moment when I answered my phone. The phone went silent and I realised I had just let my initial reaction to being cut off in traffic be expressed as I picked up the phone - my unknowing client was at the other end...

Laughing as I was explaining the traffic situation on the M1 I felt completely rediculous as this is what I teach in my Laughter Yoga Coaching and Laughter Yoga Training classes... Don't get affected by traffic, just laugh it off or speak Gibberish.

Hahaha - even Laughter Yoga Professors have their moments!

The beauty in the awkwardness is that people understand perfectly well these situations and the awesomeness in the moment is that we can all let it go and laugh it off.

Besides, even if traffic does get the better of me, there is no reason why I can't be polite and instead of a frustrated 'WHAT!?' perhaps take a deep breath and play with it while exclaimin 'Snurfy bubchi zook!'.

Yes.

It is definitely more fun when we play with life and everything life is and everything we make life mean.

Less stress, less upsets, better health, better mood, more fun, more play, more love, more laughter - improved quality of life altogether.

Choose Gibberish and choose laughter - today!

Why? Because you are worth it (as they say) plus the fact that people are people and not sheep.

And remember today is also tomorrow and the day after etc. - it is always worth noting that when you arrive tomorrow it is today!

Finally, no matter what, the traffic doesn't move faster just because you wave a fist and shout profanity at it - worth remembering...

Now the Dr. Kings are you and me...

Laughing for no reason is not only what it is about - there really is so much more to it.

"...so, love thy neighbour, and turn thy cheek to 'I have a dream' the leader speaks..."

Easy to say and I wish it was easy to do, too, but there is still a war within many people and as long as that persists there will be no peace outside of ourself.

When you laugh you cannot feel any negative emotions like hatred, fear, remorse etc. There simply is no room for it all. Your mind changes and it is in fact a change that kicks off and happens in your body first of all. Aren't we all just wonderfully connected in every way there is?

Many years ago I was asked to complete 'unfinished business' with friends and relatives in the sense that every little thing that I may have said or done over the years, things that weren't in full agreement, was to be tidied up and put back where it belonged - in the past without regret.

Now, you may think something to the extent of 'why dig out stuff that has been long gone and forgotten'? Well, you may have forgotten it and have to search you memory for things you can settle but the person that was at the receiving end may still hold a grudge or be lacking in all sorts of ways, confidence, self-esteem, compassion, and so on - things we often have no idea is going on between people we used to know.

Making sense? Maybe not.

But, ask yourself how many people you know that you have NOT spoken about to other people or spoken to about other people when the other people were not in the room? Doesn't have to be nasty, awful things that were said but perhaps things you wouldn't say to them in person.

That was the kind of stuff, among the other direct stuff, that I was sorting and although I didn't place much value on the exercise and the little things I 'cleaned up' with people, it was as if a huge weight was slowly lifting off my back and my shoulders when I looked back over the weeks of the process. This was years and years ago before I came to the UK but I am still reminded about how the change I made changed the world.

Even if you don't think there was anything that was left in limbo - well, perhaps there was for the other person or people.

I don't think I would be where I am now if I hadn't searched my soul and cleared my mind back then and I don't think I would do what I do now if I hadn't made life changes to accommodate a clean conscience, a compassionate heart, and an open mind.

Right now, thinking about those events makes me think about my current life, and in all honesty if you have ever felt over the past many year any negatives from me or felt intimidated in any way that has held you back in life. I sincerely and deeply apologise.

Now, back to the fact that it seems 'all the leaders of the world are gone'...

When we make peace with our past and everything in it we are on a fasttrack to peace within and guess what the next big thing is?! Peace without limitations and without prejudism, fear and hate.

I will repeat what I stated above:

When you laugh you do not have negative emotions chewing away on your mind.

Laughter Yoga works because it combines all the elements of having fun, laughter, play, singing and dancing.

In a world where people are desperate for lightness and positive experiences but where every moment seems full of distraught and unhappiness, Laughter Yoga brings an improved outlook along in its wake.

No more laissez-faire, it is time to take charge!

Life is too important.

Just a word or two on laughter or something like that

Ha ha and then some he he he or perhaps even ho ho ho ho!

I would even go so far as to say hruf hruf hruf... but that is kinda advanced laughter...

So anyway.

Laughter.

I have had the privilege to laugh with a great variety of people for the past many years and the past week all these different people seem to have been embedded into the groups I had some great laughs with in just a few days.

Of course that is not true because every single person is an individual and it is simply the fact that my week was manic in terms of laughter work and I loved every minute I spent laughing with fantastic people ranging from business professionals to cancer support groups to teenagers to young stressed-out people to vulnerable women to people who wanted to learn and then there was the laughter club people. And this reminded me of all the wonderful people I have met over the past many years of laughing for life.

Oh yes, what a wonderful week full of fun and laughter as well as challenges and rainy weather!

How is it that laughter is made out to be so amazing?

Well, first of all - it is not just 'made out to be amazing', it simply IS amazing and totally awesome in the way it touches us all.

No one who gives laughter a chance can honestly say it doesn't work. Truth.

However, it is easy to say no to laughter because it is a safe place to be when that is the only know place. There is comfort and safety in the known even when it is not great.

People have walked out on my workshops and trainings in the past because 'it was not for them' but I don't take offence, I feel great compassion because I know it is not easy to leave the familiar and try something a bit edgy - something that challenges confidence and requests removal of inhibitions and the well-known 'what-so'.

Yes, I know all about that and I salute every person who has made it, and also those who didn't quite make it but at least gave it a go, but no one can say it is not right unless it has been tried.

That is of course in my opinion.
And deciding based on reading a book does not count!

All I can say, and I may have said it before, is...

Laughter Yoga has changed my life.
Laughter Yoga can change any life.

I laugh therefore I am.

Laughter, Rain, and Bladder Control

Going to Bridgend on Wednesday was exciting!
I was on my way to meet an MS Society division and laugh with people living with MS.

All ready and only a three hour drive.

Things changed from normal-M25-traffic to rainy about 20 minutes into the drive and no matter how good time you feel you have when taking off, there is no such things as being in good time when the motorway starts piling up with rain and traffic.

A Sunday evening on M1...

The more I was stuck on M25 the more I sent a loving thought to the M1 which I frequent most weekends.

The chance meeting with a motorway service station becomes a risk to the 'being on time' challenge that has not been presented owing to what seems to be the Heavens' having opened their flood gates for no particular reason than perhaps 'it rained for 40 nights and 40 days'...

Or did I get that one wrong?

To people in Somerset it must feel as if that is the truth in the rain. Even the News Presenter commented on the scenery as being 'almost biblical' in the way it looks from above. My thoughts really are with everyone who is being affected by either floods or drought or any other weathery measures that seem out of proportion altogether.

Back to the journey and the choice of stopping for a quick relief or continuing the journey without weeping too much. Now, there's a word you don't want stuck on your mind when you got to go and you REALLY got to go... Weeeping wiiillows, peeeople whiiinging etc. And on top of all that - the sound of water running freely down the windscreen, happy as a little clucking stream... Stress?

What can you to, though? If you drive past the next service station it will be quite a few miles before the next one and the next one and the next one.

So - what???

I started laughing. A tough one and not very accommodating for the situation but after a while it actually takes your mind off any challenge and I arrived safely and dryly in Bridgend in well good time for the laughter session.

So, if you are in need then start chuckling, it can potentially provide the mindshift that is required to remove focus from the urgent need!

Not the M25 either...

Lesson learned - even if you can never fully foresee how the journey unfolds - even if it is M25 or any motorway in the UK. 

However, the bottomline is that with a long journey ahead of you it is always a good idea to have served the ways of nature and emptied what needs emptying - even if it's just the ash tray...

Fare well out there all you M25 inhabitants plus the rest of us on our journeys.

A day late... and a lot of apologies...

So I had this thought of trying to blog a day later because it is one of my things... being on time...

Funny that.

I learned about this whole hooohaaa about personal and professional integrity which includes being on time and in a timely way a log time ago - and it has kinda stuck to me.

I believe I may have mentioned it in past blogging over the months but it seems to come back to haunt me on the odd occasion.

Good thing is, I get less uptight about it now than I used to (honestly!!!) - although sometimes it seems my buttons get pushed more than others but that is a while ago (honestly!!!)...

So. What is it about time and being on time?

Well, first of all, it is about respecting other people's time and not just! but also the self-time - and it is also about missing out on important stuff that happens for everyone on time.

Why?

Even if the person being late may seem completely stressless upon arrival, there is no doubt that being late has an effect on everyone including the 'perpetrator'.

By the way, please read this knowing that I have a smile on my face. I can't help laughing thinking about the past few weeks where I have been made fun of for having a time-strickt gene but I suppose as a teacher/tutor/trainer there is a certain truth in being time-static - it still makes me grin, though, because it is true about me.

I have always had plenty of time to get somewhere when going somewhere but somehow I have always been dealt people who have been totally laid back and I think I have been the one stressing them by tapdancing around trying to get them on their way. I do apologise ever so much for causing stress to other people - no matter what the cause may have been in the past.

While writing this I feel there is a lesson for me hahaha...

The thing about this whole topic is that it is intriguing to think about where in our lives we may be to laid back or may be hung up about things that are not really important.

And does it matter if we are in fact comfortable in our own skin?
Really?

Whether people are late or not does not prevent the on-timers to kick off their planned schedule.

And at this point, I would like extend my apology to everyone who has ever waited for me and my own lateness.

You are all alright and I love my people who are on time as well as my people who are late - there is a bit of it all in me, too, and we all get there in the end - with a little help from our friends!

Luckily I can laugh at myself for having this element of stressiness in my life which is otherwise (mostly) stressfree.

Yup, goes to show, I AM human after all.
And aren't we all - early or late?

Coming from a home with a piano?

A Danish phrase meaning being from the upperclass in society - but not only that, the underlying meaning is that you know what you are talking about when you voice your opinion because you are per definition better educated than those who didn't have a piano or perhaps couldn't afford it - or something like that...

My dad used to jokingly say it because in fact it was true, not the upperclass part, but that we had a piano (and probably were quite wise-bottoms, too - in a nice sort of way I guess). I played it - almost 10 years of learning, and then I sold it when I moved to England. I wonder if my class relation went along with it...

But then, we never were upperclass apart from the fact that our family and closeness was certainly out-of-class in a loving, caring and sharing way - so what does class matter when you have everything you need? A lot of snobbery is what I think!

How wonderful it is to have beautiful memories of  luxuries I didn't really appreciate at the time but thinking back it was amazing to have a piano and be able to play it whenever I felt like it.

I always wished I was as good as my uncle at playing the piano but he was a total star (in my opinion), just like other things I wanted to be good at but - there was always someone who was better... These are my evening thoughts on some of my pursuits in my early life and early work life but things change!

Things change when you decide to be you with everything this 'you' entails - including stopping comparing to other people! There is no one quite like you or quite like me or anyone else.

I decided to discover the greatness of being me.

So I did that.

At some point in the late 90s... Rather late, you may ponder, but you live and learn what works and what doesn't and I learned I cannot please everyone forever so I changed into who I really am.

I am me.

Without a piano these days and no saxophone either (but that's a different story). And I mostly know what I am talking about (but that's another different story).

And then Laughter Yoga showed up so now I am from a home with Laughter Yoga!

But no matter what, I will always come from a home with a piano because that was my parental home and it is my foundation, the love, the support, the caring and sense of family. This is what I bring forward in my present life and hope to inspire in other people; the discovery of all the goodness and greatness in everything we are as individuals including the baggage we carry along as part of our creation.

Be who you are in a loving and compassionate way - directed at yourself just as much as others.

Go forth and change the world - with love, laughter and full of life!

Tunnel Vision

Going back to St. Albans after a great Blue Mondy Laughter Session in Central London I was thinking of all the different things that have been going on this morning - in particular on the train to London, I just couldn't help smiling.

It has been a great morning and honestly, every morning is although this one was slightly different in its content.

This smiling-thing all went down while I was waiting for the train at St. Pancras...

Until I heard the announcement that any suspisciously behaving people would be apprehended for questioning... I thought I'd better stop smiling - and started giggling instead.

So what was so 'all that' about going to London on the train?

Nothing much, except a few notes taken!

Tunnel vision, good people, is not a requirement to move through the tunnels between the stations although it seems people going through these tunnels adapt to this way of viewing the world. No smile, no frown, no connection - just plain straght and forward directed gazes that look empty and meaningless - I wish they were... empty and meaningless.

The crammed Victoria Line rolled by towards my Oxford Circus destination - once - twice...

As I watched the fresh perms squashed against the tube windows roll by together with crinkled suit jackets and unjolly faces, I started wondering.

I politely raised my question question to the train-waiting-group I was enjoying the quiet waiting time with. Asking if anyone was regular and thereby would know how many trains on average it would take before we would get on one. A few shrugs, a couple of smiles, a comment or two saying 'we don't commute here daily' and a few LOOKS. The tube rolled by and then! The fourth train and luck struck.

I couldn't help grinning - no one got it, I just grinned on...

It is Blue Monday today but does it matter?

I was on my way to meet a group that didn't care much that today is a day for the blues because we were all set up for a laugh and by golly! We had a GREAT laugh - right there, by Oxford Circus Tube Station we did milkshakes and mental flossing along with lawnmower and meter laughs - all in a good days' work!

Even if only a few shared a shy smile - it is always worth wearing yours!
Even on the tube!
Especially on the tube!

Now THERE's a thought!

We are all just humans and I say that in my Laughter Clubs, Laughter Yoga Trainings, Laughter Workshops and everywhere I share my work.

Why?

Well, I have been laughing for a very long time and it has profoundly changed my life and my outlook, my perspective and my view on what is possible to anyone who makes choices.

However, often in conversation people use negative phrases about things being 'tough' or 'hard' or similar and it really is all in the language.

We create what is 'so' with out language.

So.

Even though people often think I am always in a great and cheerful mood (I am mostly just for the record), I also have days when things are not as I imagined them to be and I get upset or fed up or tired or frustrated. I am just human and we all are just human afterall. But the essential message here is about picking the self up with a grin and letting go of what is not serving a great purpose!

Not to beat myself up because I still have a tiny control freak hidden inside me and sometimes it is bigger than tiny and I lose my mind to it but the truth is, that I have everything inside me to snap out of it when it's no longer worthwhile to remain with the experience of the ego-grasp. And it is NEVER worthwhile!

Another fact is that laughing every day for no reason provides perfect a reason for laughing in this style because it enables me, and anyone who practices it, to quickly realise self-staged little dramas and decide they are not what's needed and what's great.

In the end this realisation makes the choice to let go so so so much easier.

I realised my own little 'thing', the stuff I still have attached to me, the 'stuff' I'd love to let go of, when I came back from a lovely break in the north-east and discovered that my home which was supposedly 'just as when I left it' was NOT 'just as when I left it'.

After 10-12 teenagers having celebrated New Years' Eve and afterwards done their best to put things right, well, I threw a tiny tantrum at the mere sight which was, to say the least, NOT what I expected...

One and a half hour later, after hoovering, scrubbing, re-organising etc. I apologised to her for getting upset about what had not been done to my satisfaction and instead decided celebrating that my daughter and her friend had actually done a good job with the things that had in fact been tidied.

It is okay to apologise when you are an adult and your kids have done their best - even if you feel they should know better.

It creates great freedom to acknowledge, set straight, and let go!

I love my daughter and her friends are ace.

They partied until 6am and my neighbours didn't complain because they had been warned them in advance.

To be 18 years old and know what is expected inside your mum's head - now, THERE's a task that no child will ever truly graps.

Kudos to Karen & Co. for their effort, and thanks to thought process for the ability to let go of how it should have been.

The New Year 2014 is here and is seeping into every corner of 2013 remnants with tremendous speed, erasing the past year's fnuff and dustbunnies with amazing integrity and empowering style.

That's what comes from letting go and being in the moment instead of all the other past events and should've, could've, would've beens - momentum.

The only thing at stake when you let go of being right and in control is your ego - and honestly, the ego is not worth the fight, what's behind the ego is what matters!

Peace.

What a difference a year makes!

Looking back over the year 2013 I am bewondered by all the amazingness that has happened in my life and in the lives of the ones I have been blesssingly connected with - either personally or professionally.

Although, having said that, the professional connections in so many ways are personal, too - it kinda comes with the work that I love so much and feel so truly blessed being able to conduct full-time.

You are all my people.

Yeah, it seems 'blessed' is a red thread through my year...

But life was and is ALWAYS a blessing - even when it comes in great disguises as challenges and hardship. As long as there is life - there is hope for the dreams we visualise in our mind's eye.

So what happened in 2013?

Hm. Where to begin...

• This is the first full year of running Laughter Yoga Teacher Training and I love it, I love the impact this amazing way of being has on everyone it touches
• Dr. Madan Kataria agreed to be summoned for the 2014 Laughter Festival which includes an Advanced Training Day for Laughter Yoga Professionals around the UK and beyond
• Unfolding business relationships and development of great new courses - a great year for laughter
• It was also a challenging year as it has been for many small businesses but as a true laughter spirit no challenge is too big and UnitedMind pulled through thanks to lots of enthusiasm and will power plus action and great support
• Radio, TV and news press mentions and appearances
• Mummy Mikkelsen came to visit
• Friends are the wonderful base for any life in both directions
• Two of my besties got married
• The year my little girl turned 18
• And with 18 came a drivers licence and a car
• My little girl, now 18 years old, received two university offers and one interview for early 2014
• 30th March was the official first date and love flourished into free flowing life
• 25th December - engaged - with a ring and a wonderful man!

So the year is not just about bling and growing business - all the things that come from putting your life at stake and make a stand for what you believe and what you dream are just things, but the true blessing and the true magic lies in the feelings, the sensations, the emotions all of this creates in you and in the people who are touched by your miracle of being.

On that note I wish you a very happy New Year with great health, love - and all of it in abundance!

A secondhand dream

Dreaming begins...

The strange dream wasn't mine - it was Dodo and the Dodos'...

But it made me think a lot of thoughts about dreams we all have. Sometimes they make sense and sometimes...they just seem like a load of nonsense and we think and think and think and try to work out what is the meaning. Yeah, I've had those dreams. I still have those dreams.

Sometimes dreams are like ripples and reflections - and that is what they cause, reflection. And what is it to reflect? Relection is as a mirror you look into where the mirror looks back at you checking you got what it was all about - isn't that what we do when we reflect? Checking our lessons and checking the mirror for any escaped wisdom.

Another dream?

We bare ourselves for ourselves. Wisdom happens when we let go and look at the nakedness of ourselves.

Often we put things in boxes and try to make reality of unreal events and miracles instead of letting the magic unfold and become from the thoughts and ideas of a million lifetimes, lessons we forgot about letting be, teachings of mindfulness and a loving stateful peace or a peaceful loving state.

Yet another dream

Reminding me of the undying words from Michael Jackson, 'if you wanna make this world a better place, take a look at yourself and make the change'.

A dream come true

Shedding all pretence and seeing what's there without the dramas and added stories and meaning we often apply to situations in order to make them fit into our reality. Imagine being free of all this and just be who we are. Imagine, if we could see each other just like that, see each other for who we are when no one looks - for anything else (just another paraphrased thought from Dodo).

We all dream when we sleep but we don't all remember our dreams and we don't remember all our dreams either.

Another beautiful dream come true!

Another reason it is important to dream when we are awake - and dream big!

Dream big - and even if only a fraction of the dream comes true, then it is still a dream that's been lived.

I had a strange dream, my head was a square.

The Seven Giant Dwarfs of Indulgence and Spenditure

Garbage, Rubbish, Junk, Litter, Debris, Waste and Scrap.

Re-Cycling (courtesy of someone else)

Today's blogpost is a little moan and a sigh...

Who on Earth teaches children to throw their food wrappings, cigaret packaging, drink bottles and other stuff in the street instead of in a bin?

Trash!

Where did people pick up that habit of infesting our world with filth instead of being mindful and holding onto their junk until the nearest bin appears and it can go in there instead of out of it? Well, they didn't pick it up in the bin because that is seemingly foreign ground...

Even so, it seems the bin in many cases has been within reach and yet the garbage is littered just few feet away. It really hurts my eyes and my heart that there is so little consensus for using bins instead of the big space around them.

When did we agree on this meaningless wasteland of rubbish to be the standard learning environment for young people, grown-ups, adults, seniors?

A little thought and thinking here, please.

With pleasure comes mindfulness - when we enjoy we also contribute. Or have I got it all wrong?

I don't think so.
It is a shame and the shame is on us in our society and our communities.

Binned Water???

I grieve for the Earth as I pick up one piece after another on my 5-minute walk from Sainsburys to home, the road is littered with McDonalds packaging, cigaret packs, chocolate wrappings and other items that should be in the bin. As I extend a regretful glance toward the retail park I sigh and dig my hand full of other people's junk into the bin - and... let it go.

Even if I picked it all up the road would be the same tomorrow. BUT this is where we start - with our own consciousness, for me - I start with myself!

So that was my little heartfelt moan.

On the other hand, the day was beautiful, the grass was green, and we have Litter Heroes amidst the trash!

Love is just a four letter word

Weed and seed  - another few beautiful four letter words!

A four letter word is defined to be a word that is coarse or offensive... effing and blinding in those one-syllable terms.

Doesn't it seem great though that nice words are also numerous and maybe even more so than the 'bad language' ones?

Words such as good, love, life, true, give, care, ease, mate, wish, kind, home, Moon, star, hope, play, free, epic, dear, luck, glad, soul, hero and lots of other amazing words that inspire with their simple four letters, keeping us motivated and cheerful.

My heart is bursting with the feel-good sensation all these words create and I wish for the miracles of them all to flow into your life, dear Laughter Blog reader, as well as the lives of those who don't read these thoughts but who are touched by four letters every day, touched by life.

Amidst baubles, icicles, past events, one-syllable words, and confidence discussions it seemed that the essence came back to one thing, love.

Irrespective of what goes on for me, there is no way I can change another person into being the way I would like - this is probably one of the key reasons why some relationships failed in the past, because I wanted so badly for the other person to be like I wanted the other person so badly to be... But it really isn't how life works, is it? Or how love works...

Acceptance, compassion and unconditional love!

Being in the flow of life.
Flowing with life.
Living on the tide of life.

There is nowhere more enriching to be in life than in the space of trust and honesty.

That goes for friendships, family, work relations, and that true love connection.

Se here we are, 2013 drawing towards the end of November and soon towards the end of the year and has anything changed in the way of perceiving life?

I'l like to think so.
Every day represents new life, new beginnings, new ends, new love - and even if all of that is still the same as yesterday, well, it is still brand new and fresh.

Look at life with bewonderment and awe every day and I guarantee that these four letter words will flow like magic in every area of life. 'Flow' - another wonderful short word.

Joan Baez 'Love is just a four letter word'.

But it isn't just a four letter word - it is a positive four letter word.

So, live your life...
...and laff!