Laughter the Best Medicine... Yes!

I definitely agree that laughter is the best medicine. And let me add my feelings towards the simplicity of life's greatest prescriptions, laughter and breathing. We are constantly searching for that magic pill to take life's woes away, when we embody it completely and totally. It is so simple it almost feels like a joke (so start laughing... it will greatly reduce your risk of dis-ease!). We have been so trained to look outside ourselves for the solution, when in all actuality we embody the true elixir to life... our own fountain of youth.

It brings to mind the story of the journalist Norman Cousins'. On his path through life he learned the Qigong of positive emotions which he believed 'was the key to human beings' success in fighting illness'. His struggle with this illness is detailed in the book and movie Anatomy of an Illness.

"Told that he had little chance of surviving, Cousins developed a recovery program incorporating megadoses of Vitamin C, along with a positive attitude, love, faith, hope, and laughter induced by Marx Brothers films. "I made the joyous discovery that ten minutes of genuine belly laughter had an anesthetic effect and would give me at least two hours of pain-free sleep," he reported. "When the pain-killing effect of the laughter wore off, we would
switch on the motion picture projector again and not infrequently, it would lead to another pain-free interval."

For us 'left-brainers' that need a detailed explanation, it has been proven that laughter can raise the levels of immune-boosting hormones in the blood and the benefits can last for up to 24 hours. Laughter and positive emotions were also proven to diminish the secretion of the body's stress hormones, cortisol and epinephrine, which have been shown to weaken the immune system's response to viruses and tumors.

I will end with a simple yet profound Qigong exercise I learned in my Chi Nei Tsang studies:

Take 20 minutes (yes, even you can find the time). Shut off your phone and any other
distractions (you are worth it). Find the most comfortable position for yourself, sitting, lying or standing. Start by feeling your entire breath, all the way down to your toes. With each exhale see the stress leaving through your body. Now, picture someone's face in front of you (eyes closed). Someone or something that brings a great big smile to your face. Feel that smile penetrate every part of your body, down to your DNA. And now, start to laugh, like you are sharing the most funny moment together. Keep laughing... I know, it sounds corny, so just laugh out of the corniness of it if you must! Keep it up as long as possible, just keep laughing and smiling into your entire being. I even make the bubble larger than myself and embody the Earth into it as well, we all know she needs it too! Laugh your way back to health! Hai!