Seriously??? Come ON!

When I was staring at The Laughter Blog posts I realised that the past few weeks have been big nudges and wake up calls - almost to the extent of being a raised finger... Serious stuff, wouldn't you say? All with good intentions, though, and never meant as that raised finger ha ha ha.

You may not think I'm quiet but in year 2 my math teacher said to my mum:
'Finally Lotte has started raising her hand in class'...

I think, that just as much as I hope to inspire you, the honourable reader, I look to do the same for myself. I push myself in order to avoid stagnation and procrastination altogether - with high expectations and with a great belief that all this good stuff I can do, you can do even better!

I suppose, everyone needs a bit of a nudge once in a while - I know, I do.

Writing works for me - it gets me out of the standstill moment and reminds me of my unlimited potential for creating amazing things and results in life.

I love learning and thinking - a bit of a geek (I almost wrote Greek haha)! Thinking and learning keeps your mind youthful and healthy - always be curious!

So this week I thought I would applaud you - and me - only because we are quite extra-ordinary in an extra-ordinary way. Did you know that? Or do you ever think of that?

How fantastic is it to find all of us together, reading these words at this moment in time on this planet? There can only be one reason for it... because it was meant to be in this way at this exact minute. If you believe in synchronicity and things happen for a reason - then that is probably what we are looking at...

The deeper meaning of all this, if there is any, may very well be about the idea that it is okay to appreciate or acknowledge yourself and be kind to yourself.

Life is too short for beating up the poor innocent self for things that may be irreversible so what is the point in hanging on to grudges?

Instead choose the nugdes that push you forward!

Always remember to never stop believing that deserving and getting the best of all is within reach. Go for it - and be curious as heck!

What matter? You matter!

There is a lot of talk and writing about what matters in life and lot about reflecting on one's personal importance, improving self-confidence, self-esteem and self-image.

The posters and images stating 'YOU MATTER' are all very encouraging and nothing wrong with that but what does it actually mean?!

The statement is not just a nudge to say 'I'm okay - you're okay' and keep you safe in a nice bubble - it is a call to action!

My status on my personal FaceBook page on Sunday morning read the following:

It only takes one mind and one body to start the feel-good rollercoaster. However, the way it ripples into the world and affects other people is not to be underestimated. If you ever thought for a moment that you can't do 'it' by yourself stop and think again! You are the first person - the place and space where it all begins.

...and then it reflects back to John Donne who was key to last weeks blogpost stating that no man is an island.

It really is true!

We are all in this together and if we as individuals think we can't make a difference or make our voices heard, just think about those individuals who actually did make a difference and projected their voices for the worthy cause of better lives on our planet and in our own personal universes.

There is no point in pinning a sign on our foreheads to keep people away when in fact we need to step up and encourage each other to make that positive change and be a firm stand for it no matter how long we stand alone at first. The ripples, remember?!

My thoughts go back to one March morning in 1995 when one man decided to make an impact with the view to create World Peace - through laughter! Just one man and his vision...

Dr. Madan Kataria is not the only person who has taken action on an idea but his particular idea doesn't take much action other than a breath and a sound, a smile and a look - an instant connection between people from all walks of life. There you have it!

Ho ho ha ha ha!

Laughter Yoga is a commitment to making individuals matter and making play, fun, joy and life matter. This is what we decided for ourselves when we were children - decided to have a great time with what we do - ALSO growing up!

Every word you speak and action you take matters!

It can be one from love or one from fear - it all impacts those who are energetically connected with you so chooose wisely. 

My experiences in life add up to who I am - I can't compare them to other people's wonders, events, suffering and 'stuff' and I would never even consider comparing...

We all carry our own world and only the weight of it is decided by how much we allow the past to take heed in our present moment and into our future life.

Connect with your inner wisdom and make a decision to live fully and without regret - you can't change the past so does it really matter?

You and your thoughts matter - so act on them now!
What will I do to keep the good ball rolling? What will you do?

A man is an island - no man is an island?

I have forgotten why this thought miraculously entered my mind, however, at this moment in time where light workers and healers, healthy living prophets and gurus  and many more 'normal people' around the world join their spiritual selves to lift the energy in our Universe to protect life on Earth and beyond, it is fair to say that No Man is an Island.

We are all part of the bigger scheme of things whether we want to or not!

And whether we want to or not is not really a question because people on a whole are not meant to be isolated from others. We are in this world together with a wealth of knowledge and experience to share, or just moments in peace and being together is what it is all about - sharing life.

Still remaining, though, are the masses or people who have built barriers and are barricading themselves behind invisible walls and shields in order to be protected as an individual against the overwhelming world of 'sharers'.

Some have made their choice and for others the separateness, the isolation, has arrived as a result of 'circumstances'...

The attentive reader may remember my view on 'circumstances' from a previous post - we all create our own reality and attract into it what we believe and think is real.  That is, of course, in my opinion...

I'll repeat myself, people are not meant to be isolated from others. I am not referring to a chosen path of hermitism or silence because that is a different experience altogether.

John Donne said 'No Man is an Island' in 1624 and although he was a Christian this way of believing that we all share the same space is shared by many other religions.

This brings me back to the original thought of how we can connect and create bonds and communities across borders and any differences we may have in opinions and ideas.

Many groups are offering many ways of meditating globally, of annual days where we celebrate world peace, peace one day, and other ways to raise awareness of our universal consciousness. However, when you think about these events they are all planned for a particilar moment in time, which is great because many people can then plan in advance to take part, but on the flipside of this is all the time inbetween these events... What then?

Honestly, laughter is the way forward!

When you remove all the ideas of why we should be laughing, and in particular why we should not, then laughter is truly a way to connect and be harmonious together.

Not just saying - I really mean it from the depth within and the width without and I know the difference it makes!

Start your daily Laughter Yoga or Laughter practice and your life experience will change! It starts with one person, yourself...

We really need to let go of stuff instead of hanging on for dear life - then there will be no more islands!

Complacency!

'Those who don't believe in magic will never find it.' Roald Dahl

Instead of following the dream that may be waiting at the end of the rainbow we stop looking up...

It is easy to get caught up in believing that things are just the way they are without any consideration for the possible and impossible pursuits that make life exciting.

Complacency, huh?

I think we all experience it at some point during our life journey but whether we get stuck with it or not that is a completely different story. Not saying it's a bad thing, just that it doesn't challenge any greatness (that is, of course, in my opinion as always haha).

For a brief moment in time when I worked as Cover Supervisor in Secondary Schools I experienced this way of looking at things. Sad - the place where we as adults are supposed to set an example and inspire the next generation of extra-ordinary life creators.

However, it was clear in the environment into which I stepped that there was no looking for the big and miraculous within these young people - they were just the way they were.

Every day was just the every day routine of putting things in perspective by handing appropriate 'yellows' to those who misbehave in a way that could not be controlled by standard measures and paedagicical teachings - or did they even try, those trusted adults?

When did we forget the promise we made when we became teachers of the minds and bodies - and made ourselves accountable and responsible for the moulding of young minds and their growth?

Not judging, though! We do what we do because we are equipped with our lessons and knowledge...

Over the years, experience have taught me many a thing, and I have proudly and humbly become a teacher as well as a student of life and opportunity - I teach grown-ups to see what we as adults lost on our way through commitments, challenges, bills and communting, and I learn from each and every one on the way!

In this world of change I truly hope that the students who cross my path and learn from the teachings I am able to pass on, will venture into the playfields of younger as well as more mature minds and take a stand for possibility, and for joy, openness and happiness in life!

Thank you all for teaching me greatness and compassion it is with this in mind and heart that I always write my little blogging posts - whether they make sense or not, sound harsh or loving - or whichever emotion and feeling you add to my words!

A while ago I said to one of my daughter's friends that whatever the exam results and choice of higher education at this stage in life, I hope that each one of you young people will always go out, into the world, and do the things you love doing instead of what you have to do because 'there is no choice'.

Always believe there is a choice and a choice to NOT choose 'laissez-faire'ism!

Skipping and jumping or maybe... tripping and frumping

In case you haven't noticed, I quite enjoy writing about small and large things in life, things out of our hands and things we can action - even if the 'things out of our hands' are often just opportunities in disguise - plus lots of other thoughts that enter my cerebral cortex non-stop.

Sometimes I wonder where it all comes from but then I get all excited because it was all there from the beginning and only question that remained was when and how it would come to life and express itself in momentarily weird and absurd ways.

If this is all a lot of mumbo-jumbo then you are on the right track and we are certainly making a connection because for me...it IS totally wacky and wonderful to have these thoughts that come out in a stream of mumbo-jumbo! So there, all said.

Welcome to my planet! We are a lot of good, fun-loving people here and life is full of possibility.

Where does it come from? All this nonsense - well, I for one, would certainly like to know so if you make the discovery do come tell - you know where to find me. On the flipside of that, though - would I really want to know? Probably not because that would be interfering with other great sources of information and could wind up in even more messy messages (note: neat wordplay).

Perhaps you, the kind reader, is shaking your head in disbelief thinking 'where on Earth is she going with this' - I would like to know that, too.

Haha, of course I know where this is going - it is all about getting our inner playful side out in the open and allow it play. Play with life in a gentle way - not in a mocking and hurtful or bullying way, but from a perspective of embacing all life with love and joy inside.

There, I've said it again - same message!

But, do you know what? It cannot be repeated often enough. Life becomes hard and problematic when we say it is hard and problematic. We can change this.

I was laughing as I was stumbling down the hill the other evening because it was rainy and the hill was slippery but I didn't fall - for once.  However, just the thought of tripping and slipping had me howling because the number of times I tripped over invisible cracks in the tiles on the hill cannot be counted on two hands. That is of course owing to the family clumsy gene that I have in abundance...

The thought, however, had me in stitches!

A thought is all it takes!

To either feel great or to feel less great, feel worried or feel full of anticipation...

The less great thoughts can impact life in a challenging way with illness and mishaps, and the great thoughts can impact life in a free-flowing way and help us cope with the illness and mishaps we attracted when having less great thoughts.

Laughter Yoga is an extra-ordinary way to develop the great thoughts indefinitely - the challenges do not disappear but it is how we cope with them that make the journey so fantastic, even when it seems bleek and miserable.

It is never too late to develop the childlike playfulness we all have somewhere inside - a small step is skipping down the road instead of walking in a composed manner...

And now I shall finish with a wonderful and bubbly quote: 'Ho ho ha ha ha' - now you can go and practice.

With love, joy and laughter we conquer the world!

The only thing about open windows in the summer...

...is that the flies and wasps enter in big numbers and occupy the window areas to try and escape through the glass... It is the time to look carefully where you step as the late summer and ripe fruits get the pointy-bottomed bees and wasps on a drunken cruise in the end only to land on the floor where innocently stepping feet squash them with swelling to follow. Ouch!

But open windows also bring lots of other pleasures streaming through the openness - sounds of bumbles buzzing, laughing children and adults, birds tweeting, church bells chiming.
I have ear-access to the St. Albans Cathedral and it proclaims its existence ever so often.

Do you ever stop and listen - beyond the noises from the traffic? Just take a moment and allow your hearing to go one step further than the immediate sound pollutants - there is a space where the quiet is vibrating and leaving only the beauty of nature, of life, and its sweet music a passage through to your mind's ear and your soul's listening.

This is the space where you listen from love and embrace everything life is and is not.

In a conversation today I was reminded of the many obstacles life can bring to one family let alone two families or even the global family. It is often easier to stay with our personal troublesome dramas than to let them go, but letting them go and learning from experience is where there is room for growth and health. On the way, though, it is great to have good friends who can lift the spirits when times seem tough.

At this moment in time friendships are forming through time and space with caring thoughts for those who are challenged by life's 'noises' and those who are not. We are an amazing community of people!

Whether our friendships are created in real life or the virtual world, we are all reaching out and sharing love, healing, laughter, joy, support, smiles, care and hugs. Things we all need to get through in life in the bestest way that we can imagine - and perhaps even a little it better...

World Laughter Day 2000 in Copenhagen

Even if you cannot physically hear the songs of these wonderful sharing people, you share the world with, you can open your mind and your heart and allow for the love to settle in you. It is the only way forward and it is the true inner spirit of laughter and joy.

With love in our hearts we can conquer anything! Even the painful bee stings.

I know you already know all that has been said here, and it is being spoken about by everyone more famous that me, but I bet that when you started reading about open windows and bee stings you probably had no idea where this blog post would take you - me neither!

However, by now, perhaps you have a slight idea that the mind of the blogger (me!) works in an inquisitative and curious way that may (or may not) inspire your own mind to wander off in the distance where there are limitless horizons of ideas waiting to be explored.

Enjoy!
Thinking curious thoughts can be a VERY good thing!

Obsession...

- Young at heart. Slightly older in other places -

The lines are deep ridges making their way across his forehead, the laughter has made its cheerful highlights on the corners of his eyes, the worries that never turned to problems but nevertheless made their marks, the skin that creases when he grins and his blue eyes extend their smile and love to me...

The face that is perfect - just the way it is!

A bit of healthy obsession with the ones we love and care about, the people we dream of sharing our years with through aeons plus this life time.

I guess it is just my way of seeing - no one is perfect, yet everyone is perfectly perfect in exactly that moment in time and space that is now.

However!

People are SO obsessed with youth - when did that happen? Was it when images started being air brushed and we turned to technology to wipe the blemishes away? When news became readily available at our fingertips and we discovered how we 'are supposed to look'? Digital remastering of our own photos taking years off our naturally aging beauty?

Or perhaps it has always been that way because of the general concern with being replaced - whether it is by  our partner or our workplace replacing us with cheaper workforce with fewer years of experience, or just competing for the attention of our peers... Trying to keep control of something that has its own way, time.

Maybe just a natural sociological phenomenon that exists in all species - or are we the only species that has others dictating what is attractive, brain washing us into thinking age is unattractive or whatever the standardised 'belle du jour' tells us is beautiful as the 'truth'?

Youth - the time challenge which will never grow old!

But our friends know us! and there really is no need to hide because our friends and family are there no matter what signs the years caress our bodies with.

The sentence 'if I knew what I know today when I was 20 years old...', then we could have been wise and young? Well, there is probably a good reason it was not so. One reason being that life experience comes with the years and if we know it all consciously at a young age what trouble would we then avoid getting into? Trouble,  which at the time we are 20 is great fun getting in and out of! What a waste of years of learning - that would truly be missing out on building our character, turning us into arrogant know-it-alls at 20 instead of 40.

And no matter how wise and knowing the years have made me and how many wrinkles and laughter lines it has added to my face, a balloon still pops when you poke it with a pointy object making it burst with a loud sound that still makes me jump and all my wrinkles jump with me!

Another fact of life along with growing older!

Long live the years we learn and grow, the love we feel in our hearts and souls, and the wrinkles the lessons leave on our faces!