Have YOU had a laugh attack lately?

When I was young, my older sister & brother and I used to have laugh attacks. Now, I say I was young, but actually I think we did this up to about my 20s or so (I'm the youngest of the three of us so I don't think there's an age limit on this one). I'm not sure how or when we ever started it, but we did it for years. One of us would start just with a fake laugh. Then another would fake laugh too. We would keep doing this until we were all laughing uncontrollably. I remember thoroughly enjoying it - it felt satisfying in a way only a really GOOOOOD laugh can.

Laugh attacks can still do their magic. Not very long ago I was with a group of women I didn't know very well at a photo shoot. We were at an old farm and one of the places we were going to shoot pictures in was an old slaughter house. Someone had tried taking away the S, so we were left with a laughter house instead, which I much preferred. Still, the air of the Slaughter house still felt like it was there so I decided to prove it was the Laughter house instead.

 

I went into the little building and just started laughing. It felt a bit fake at first and then suddenly, I was laughing loudly and easily. I heard the women outside all laughing as well. It brought back the strong memories of my sibling laugh attacks and from then on, that little building WAS the Laughter house.

That episode made me remember how quickly we can change the energy around things. Obviously, it's not always appropriate and sometimes we might not really want to laugh through something. But I'm offering laughter as an alternative - a tool to move the energy through and/or around you.

If you're interested in the science of laughter, you might like to read this article. But whether you 're interested in the scientific links to laughter or not, next time you're feeling a heaviness or maybe just that things are a bit stuck, I invite you to laugh; laugh alone or recruit a laugh partner. Yes, it might feel a bit stilted and strange at first, but I promise you, if you keep laughing, you'll experience, firsthand, the benefits of a laugh attack.

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