A Laughter Flashmob???

DUCKMOB 'Quack quack quack ahahahaha quack quack hahaha'

What the...??? How did that happen???

Numerous times over the past many years someone has said 'Laughter Flashmob' and everyone has excitedly joined in celebrating the excellent idea...

However, when it has come to realising the goal of flasmobbing a city with a laugh...well, that is a different story and the reason you are reading these lines in their current form and shape.

It so came about that I decided to spearpoint this event seeing that everyone thinks it is a superb idea but no one has taken the time to action it yet. The best thing about forefronting great ideas is that your team really quickly becomes a more-than-one-person team because the commitment to doing it, setting a date and getting the wheels moving makes it a possible happening and everybody LOVES that.

So, Laughter Network's Lisa Sturge and Lotte Mikkelsen (that would be me) are taking the idea to exciting reality - but let's all make it happen!

Does that make sense? Well, for me it does, because I have done that many times - agreeing to good ideas, nodding in the best-of-intention-type-of-agreement-nod and then doing nothing because no one ran with it and dusted the sneezy-dust off the project.

• Time has come to change things!
• Time has come to take action!

A good idea only lives when we act and when we act in unison there is a higher change of success, and when we act in a multitude of voices then we cannot fail!

So, here we go.
Somewhere in London on 5th July 2014 - and only the members of the club will know where exactly!

Rarely do I promote events on this blog but this is not only about the event but moreso about the courage and the will to take action on a good idea.

When Dr. Madan Kataria had the idea of starting a laughter club back in the 1995-days it took him 3 hours of action to kick it off - and yes, they were only 5 people on that day 13th March 1995 but things changed.

With willingness to put the bottom on the line and with a bit of cheeky courage and conviction we can overcome the worst cases of laissez-faire and boredom, stand-still and tiresome lack of urgency.

The support for this project is only a £2 donation which may cover our costs and the proceeds will be donated to our chosen charity!

It will be amazing to kick off the summer with a great and resounding laugh, echoing through London's touristfilled squares and streets.

Next stop...
World Peace!

Something about cold...

The beauty in frozen windows, icy feet and cold hands only reaches as far as to clattering teeth and a dripping nose.

However, going beyond personal discomfort with the approching winter chills there is just something life affirming and profoundly vitalising in spending time on a wave-ridden beach on a windy day.

Even the drip-dropping rain on a Monday afternoon seem to be infusing the mind and body with energy and my purple fingers on the keyboard are just a minor obstacle to feeling all great.

So what if there are a few freezing digits? My lungs are breathing the fresh November air - erm - fresh-ish I believe would be the proper term when thinking of the traffic frolicking down the road, but nevertheless, I am part of this wonderful breathing planet, breathing along at my own pace.

Why so cold then? Well, even after one year in this house, I still haven't quite grasped the heating technology of the boiler timer.

Somebody had a sense of humour...

No matter how cold it gets there is an extra pair of longjohns and gloves (unless they got lost in /the park...)...

...plus a hot cuppa to celebrate that the weather remains outside again today.

On that note, I am aware that not everyone is as fortunate and that some people may be even colder than I am, and may be without the comforting shelter of a home and added value of extra socks and jumpers - and that nice warm cup of tea with a dunking biscuit.

My heartwarming and heartfelt thoughts go to all of you out there who are starting to feel the wintry sensations!

I remain as always freezingly your pocket philosopher on a cold November Monday with the outlook of a starclimber - never losing sight of the miracles of this existence.

Graciously, gracefully, gratefully.

Homage to Friendship.

1974 Thorvaldsenskolen Class 1a

We are a sum of lots of different elements of the life we lead and live and yet we are not all that at all...

My past with all the ups and downs and mainly wonderful memories came into my mind big time this week and I was reminded that sometimes holding on to things that need to be let go is a way of holding onto something that is a moment of the past and best left there even if it is a great past in the present.

That may not make sense but that is okay - it is just my mind-toggle that is currently working overdrive-frequency on this topic.

Sadness when you say goodbye to people and things that really have meant the world in the past is a natural way of the grieving process and it is what made me think about this whole past subject and how it impacts everything we do - if we allow it.

Friendships happened in the past and they happen in the present.

2000 Ottar's virgin trip - vikings of the past in the present

My memorylane is full of precious images spent with my wonderful friends and some of them I have been fortunate to maintain even after moving country but on occasions time catches up with friendships - the moments they burst or come to a halt.

I experienced one of these changes and it saddened me to the depth of my heart. Distance had put a friendship in a time capsule for a later revisit or maybe never again.

Good friends will always be in my heart and I will probably shed loads of tears over the absence of the fun, laughter, love, tears and times we have not spent and that I thought we would spend together in the future.

Letting go of what we think is our make-up is a daunting thing and it is okay to keep holding onto when the make-up is willing to stick... At times it is time to let go.

Everything happens for a reason and when it happens it is that moment the reason became a reason.

You always have a place in my heart, my friends, new ones and old ones - those from the past and those from the present.

Those who said 'goodbye' and those who said 'hello'.

No matter what, I will always be there if you need me - I may not be just around the corner but I am only a phonecall away.

You are my homies!

The 1987 crash and life on the motorway

1976 Opel Kadett - 1987 Crash Version

When I was 19 years old I crashed my first car quite seriously. It was the year's first snow storm - in April - and I was driving from Copenhagen to my home in Vordingborg, about 80 miles, late that evening. This was before the motorway was extended between Rønnede and Udby, and on this particular stretch on the way the snow was wooshing across the road (which wasn't even a dual carriageway but just a plain small-size A-road). I was tired and to keep myself awake I had windows down and was smoking heaps of cigarettes - yup, I used to do that yonks ago...

Really cold it was! So windows closed again. I must have just blinked very very slowly becuase at that moment my car went over the edge of the road, onto the frozen field and took a few rolls before landing on the side - me inside.

I was lucky and I count my blessings every day.

I got myself unstrapped from the seat and climbed out of the window which was now above my head - in heals and very tight skirt, those were the days of those outfits...

When I got onto the road there were very few cars and a few that passed me as I was waving my arms vigorously, finally someone stopped. Those were the days before mobile phones and before dodgy drivers taking advantage of stranded people on the highway. A nice angel who drove me home and everything got sorted, a nice person who along with my universal protectors got me home safely.

Nice people exist - and there are plenty of them when you expect nice!

For many years I had an ingrained concern about long drives and being tired on the road. I still have ever so much respect for the hours we spend on the road because if heads are not clear... Well, split seconds happen in moments of weariness.

However, years later I realised that if I wanted to go places, I just had to deal with it and get going.

So, I started venturing out on day breaks where I would drive for hours and hours in order to beat my fear of driving lenghthy stretches on my own.

The great thing about cars is that they pretty much do what you tell them to do... This is also the case if you want a break then it will in fact drive the way you turn the wheel, e.g. into a resting area or so.

Cool stuff, eh?

I went to Glastonbury, Bamburgh Castle, Manchester, other places, and most importantly to the North-East Coach where I now drive almost every weekend.

These days, every week I spend between 8-10 hours driving to Co. Durham and do you know what? It is kinda recreational in a strange way.

Some would say it's a waste of time, and I guess you could argue that it is but on the flipside, I get to spend those hours in the company of Thomas, Sanne, Gabrielle, Heather, Kim and my love songs, and although they have been in the car for a long time - isn't it just great to spend time singing along to familiar tunes, knowing the lyrics, and enjoying the trip? Yup, I think so, too and best of it all - it leads to love!

The most important thing, though, is that no matter how many miles and hours we spend on the road, there really is no need to rush and there is always time to take a break! I've had a few close ones over the years and I am thankful they were only close. Being respectful of other drivers, the weather and road conditions is key to living many moments on the motorway - whether it is in the fast lane or the granny lane.

Take a break!
Break away from the rush!

As for the miles...
Never underestimate the power of love!

Defiance.

Btw, this is not about the TV series from 2013 - this is about life!

• Too short for the rollercoaster of a lifetime
• Too young for travelling the world
• Too heavy for Cloud 9
• Too old for playing

Whether it is our personal or our professional life the majority of us encounter stops and opinions non-stop.

Add caption

...and yet! we defied all the adult settings of our childhood and brought ourselves to this moment in time.

When I first started running UnitedMind full-time back in 2010 (mind you, I had been running my business part-time since 2002) I was met plenty with the comment 'So, when are you going to get a real job?'

It didn't faze me, just made me even more determined to ensure the success of laughter as a tool for creating greater health in all areas of life, physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health and wellbeing - on a personal as well as a professional level.

Yes, Laughter Yoga really is the root of all good.

Well, just re-capping on the 'fazing-bit', to tell you the truth - sometimes it did in fact faze me - in particular when it was comments made by friends, but do you know what? Those are the times you make decisions everywhere.

A big and life-changing decision doesn't just pop out of nowhere, there are often prices to pay and many choices to make. Does that make you, make me a bad person? Not really, just someone who stands up for values and beliefs, AND makes that extra move that gets the ball rolling.

How do you know when to give up? Well, I don't know. Do you?

Someone who didn't give up on the job...

If you don't know when to give up that is, in my opinion, rather extra-ordinary and superb, because it just means that you haven't met that point where it became unbearable and you had to throw the towel in the ring. And how cool is that for starter?!?!

The essence of my words today is just to go for it, if you don't give it a chance and stand back with other people's opinions, you never get to shape your own meaning of life and you never get to succeed on your own terms.

I hope I am never perceived as arrogant or better-knowing or just better, because I am not, I really am just a person on a mission to create a better world for those people I love and for those who are willing to come on the journey with me as well as for those who don't know this is the mission haha...

I am truly grateful and feel humbled by the trust individuals, teams and organisations have placed in my ablility to provide a platform for making a difference within themselves.

Thankfully I have had amazing teachers, mentors, tutors, my loved once who have stood by their words and enabled me to do the same.

Every day is full of fun, play, laughter, love and joy - and some of the serious adult things but they are carried out with fun, play, laughter, love and joy in mind which makes it a whole lot easier and enjoyable.

Believe, trust, act, love, live, laugh - some great key-words to play by.

Just go for it!
And if you ever feel too heavy to bounce on Cloud 9 - start counting your blessings and you will see that there is always room on that pink cloud and the minute cos the minute you realise and remember the good fortune of life 'too-heavy' becomes light and floaty.

How long is short?

I bet we are all guilty of using the expression 'juuuust around the corner' from time to time - or have done in the past.

Whether it is that place we are going to, or being late for an appointment... we are juuuust around the corner or 5 minutes away even though the timer says 10 or 15 - always certain that we'll make it within the 5 minutes.

No excuse, though.

Why not be honest and apologise for being late or having miscalculated the time and distance? It happens in even the best of families (another Danish expression? or just another expression)...

So how far is a short distance?

Does it matter when it is taking us where we need to go? I guess it is just young people's wish to be there NOW that created the 'Are we there yet?' when it comes to going places in the physical realm. 

Sometimes, though, it is as if time is on a stand-still when short is really long. The wait! Waiting for results, for that one thing, event or person that this 'short distance' has been all about.

Don't give up. Please don't give up when there is only a short distance, it is within reach and you are the one person that makes it happen.

The final push, that drive that keeps the spirit going is what it's all about - no matter how long the short distance seem to be. The trust and the belief that everything will come together as wished for.

Even when the end result may look and feel different from the initial request - well, we don't always know what's best for us until we get what really is the best, and perhaps we were not quite specific enough with our wishlist when we entered to soul supermarket and decided for that unique experience which was only a short distance away.

It doesn't matter.
With what we have we can make it all that was ever perfect.
Your own Universe of uniqueness and special perfextion.
Be happy here and now - happiness is not a strive.

My life is brilliant...

The day we all grew up?

One for the road and one for the teenager - Haribo is just too good

How amazing it is to be a witness to the whole growing up process - not just from a personal perspective because somehow that experience tends to only show its face when thinking back to 'how it was when I was young' so it is moreso from a perspective of someone who plays a vital part in a young person's life - a mum or a dad for example.

I'm not a dad so for me it has to be as a mum (helloooo, Captain Obvious!).

And so it happened that my little girl turned 18 - last week, last Tuesday on 1. October 2013. An adult with adulthood benefits as well as responsibilities.

The touching moment when you know you can still say 'be careful out there' but you are no longer as in charge yourself as you used to be up until 17 years and 364 days, 23 hours, 59 minites and 59 seconds plus a whole lot of milli, micro, split and nano seconds.

However, the day we grow up is not when we turn 18, it is maybe not even when we become a parent but it happens so subtly in those years between 0 and 18 that we may not even notice it - that is the 0 to 18 years of our children, not our own age. Because what is more important in these 18 years than to maintain a glossy overview and keep calm and collected in all situations that may occur at any time. Calm and collected?

But, let's face it, who is grown up at 18 anyway?

Hopefully for everyone, we manage to maintain a tiny fraction of the fun loving and playful side we much to soon grew from when we became invincible teenagers, and somehow stored away for years until at a much later stage we manage to dig it out and become grown up children who can laugh and play in later life.

That's me anyway - and that's what Laughter Yoga did to me - or rather I did to myself by taking on the promise of change that Laughter Yoga presented to me so many years ago. Wow! 

Dreams are made of Laughter Yoga and a bit of glitter, rainbow dust, shooting stars and lots of unicorns, our favourite superhero, and kisses.

That's what my dreams are made of - and every day they grow even brighter and more glorious!

It is AWESOME to dream!
It is even AWESOMER to live the dream!

Never give up! Never surrender!