Laughter Meditation

By Robin Weaver 

We all know that “laughter is the best medicine,” but did you know laughter is also a form of meditation?  Seriously, it’s a thing. In addition to laughter meditation, I discovered several forms of therapy that use laughter when I researched this month’s theme.  Heck, there’s even laughter yoga.  When I first encountered that term, I assumed it was the response of people who’d seen me do yoga, but I transcend, I mean digress.

Laughter Meditation is similar to traditional meditation but adds some giggling to the process. When I first attempted “regular” meditation, I was skeptical, but over the years I’ve come to truly appreciate the value of deep breathing. Granted, I needed scientific evidence supporting the benefits before I gave mediation a real chance. While I couldn’t find specific studies supporting the merits of laughter meditation, there is abundant research indicating laughter is indeed good for us humans, so I decided to give funny mediation a try (primarily for the sake of this blog).

There are three stages to this type of mediation: stretching, laughing, and meditative silence. The website I found did not include “stretching,” but I did that anyway—assuming yawning counts.  Here are the specific instructions I attempted to follow:

Step 1: (One Minute) Start laughing. Just laugh!

Okay, I just felt ridiculous. Have you ever tried to just laugh? For no reason? When all alone? My poor cat ran for cover. One website suggested “shout out “Yahoo” a few times and raise your arms up in the air. I did not try that. Come on—who uses “yahoo” for any but a search engine. Thinking about that did, however, make me smile for a few seconds, so I considered that “good enough” and moved to the next step.

Step 2: (One Minute) Sit in silence with your eyes closed. 

Now I wanted to laugh. Since the “yahoo shouting site” also suggested: if there is still laughter bubbling up, allow it, I kept laughing. Then, at risk of wetting my yoga pants, I had to interrupt my meditation for a potty break.

Obviously, laughter meditation didn’t work for me. I know I come across as irreverent, but I can be truly quite serious—um, maybe I’m just irreverent. Despite my snark, I am truly not belittling Laughter Meditation; the benefits of laughter mediation include presence, lightness, stress reduction, and emotional release, i.e., the same benefits as regular meditation. But hey, potato-poTOTo, give it a try. Here's a link with more detailed instructions: https://chopra.com/articles/laughter-meditation-5-healing-benefits-and-a-10-minute-practice.

If it works for you, do it. And don’t give a crap what us bratty folk think.

Grins and namaste,

Robin

Just Breathe...Correctly

While there are hundreds of ways to cope, there is only one way to keep going—tough times or not. The answer is simple: keep breathing.

But the human spirit wants more than mere existence, we want to feel good; we want to be happy. While most of us can “soldier on,” sometimes life makes every bit of that march pure torture.

When my husband died, my marching halted altogether and a friend suggested I meditate. I complied; not because I expected a new-age, guru woo-woo thingy would make me feel better. I mean, come on…nothing had helped. Not counseling, not exercise, and not even that pint of Ben & Jerry’s I consumed every night. I tried meditation only because I hoped I’d go into some kind of trance and maybe have an hour where I didn’t have to feel.

Imagine my surprise to find out sitting quietly and focusing on my breathing actually helped (the fact that moi could actually sit quietly was amazing in itself). My first inclination was to believe the passage of time was responsible for my improved mood, but there hadn’t been that much passage. There were other changes, too.  Not only had my grief fog started to pass, my overall focus was better than it had been in years, maybe ever.  The constant ache in every muscle in my body started to vanish. Being the logic-driven geek I am, I couldn’t accept that something so hokey as mediation could actually help, so I began to do research to see if my brain improvements were…well, all in my head.

Another surprise. Over 3,000 studies had been conducted on the benefits of mediation, all with a consistent theme: significant improvement in the human mind and body. MRI scans showed that the human “Fight or Flight” impulse actually shrank after only eight weeks of a mediation activity. The pre-frontal cortex responsible for Fight/Flight is also responsible for awareness, concentration and decision-making—enough said.

Without going into a lot of brain science, which makes my head hurt, here are just some of the many improvements scientist say occur as a result of mindful activity (aka meditation):

• Reduced Stress – One study of nearly 1,300 adults showed that meditation not only decreases stress, but  the effect was greatest in those who were the most stressed. Research has also concluded that meditation may also improve symptoms stress-related conditions such as irritable bowel syndrome, post-traumatic stress disorder and fibromyalgia.
• Controls Anxiety – If you’re less stressed, you’re likely to be less anxious (well, duh), but a study of 2,466 participants showed a signficant reduction in their anxiety. Symptoms of anxiety disorders (social anxiety, phobias, anxiety attacks) were also reduced. Another study in a group of nurses showed meditation may also reduce job-related anxiety.
• Improved Attention Span – While my own experience confirms this finding, I was pleased to see that perhaps it wasn’t my just my imagination (now that Temptations song is in your head, right? 😊). One study that examined the effects of an eight-week meditation course concurred: participants had a better ability to maintain their attention. Workers remembered task details better than their peers who did not practice meditation. Another review concluded that meditation (even meditating as little as four days) may reverse patterns in the brain which contribute to mind-wandering, worrying and poor attention.
• Reduction in Age-Related Memory Loss – A review of twelve studies found meditation increased attention, memory and mental quickness in older volunteers. I bet I have your attention now.😊 Meditation can also partially improve memory in patients with dementia and can certainly help with the stress of caring for family members with dementia.
• Improved Sleep – One study compared one group that practiced meditation and another that didn't. The meditation group fell asleep faster and stayed asleep longer. Meditation also helps control “racing” thoughts which tend to keep a person awake.
• Pain Control – One study used an MRI to watch brain activity as participants experienced a painful stimulus. The participants who had gone through four days of mindfulness meditation training prior to the study showed increased activity in the brain centers known to control pain and reported less sensitivity to pain. Another study researched the effects of habitual meditation in 3,500 participants and concluded meditation was associated with decreased complaints of chronic or intermittent pain.
• Decreased Blood Pressure -- A study of 996 volunteers who used a silent mantra (repeated, non-vocalized word) while mediating reduced blood pressure by about five points, on average. Meditation seems to relax the nerve signals that coordinate heart function and tension in blood vessels, thus lowering the pressure.
• The best part… Meditation is free, requires no special equipment, and can be done almost anywhere.  Trying it certainly won’t hurt anything, right? And just a few minutes each day (or even a few days each week) should do the trick.  Don’t expect major improvements after one session though.  Give it a couple weeks minimum.  You will get the instant effects of relaxation during the actual session.

So how do you meditate? That’s a subject for another blog since there are a variety of methods for achieving Zen. Personally, I’ve had really good luck with the guided meditations available on YouTube.  You will want to google mediation methods and find the specific type that’s right for you.

Let me know how you do. Peace be with you. 😊

Teddy Bears, Hummers & Me!

by Diana McCollum

I love our garden. I say 'our' garden, but really it's my husbands gardens. His dedication to turning over the soil in the spring, planting, watering, fertilizing and weeding which gives us the beautiful different garden areas to enjoy.

I enjoy the flowers and the critters they bring in, Butterflies, frogs, lady bugs, deer, birds and humming birds.

Sitting on the back patio in the early morning, with a cup of coffee, and watching the Humming birds come in to feed is one of the most relaxing moments of the day. I can sit and watch them work for a few minutes or half an hour. It is the meditative time of the day for me. Just me and the hummers!

 leekris (Follow)

The Hummers have gotten so use to us sitting there next to the Black and Blue Stevia, they fly with in a foot or two of where I sit, and work the plants.

One day I was sitting in the garden, reading a book and a Hummer flew between my book and my face and hovered there. I saw his beak, very pointy, and his beady little eye up close and personal. The whirl of his wings sounded like a helicopter when he was that close to me. An amazing experience, I wouldn't have had but for our beautiful garden.

My favorite flower, I love them all, but my very favorite is the mighty Sunflower. My husband always plants a wide variety. This year my favorite is the Teddy Bear Sunflower.

August 2015 Teddy Bear

Sunflowers start out as a tiny seed. And from that comes a Gigantic stalk, sometimes as tall as 12 feet or more, with one or more buds. When those buds open the flowers are so big, and beautiful. We have ones from saucer size to dinner plate size.

We always have a mixture in our garden. There are the Teddy Bear, Regular giant Sunflowers, Brown, Red, single flower, multi-flower  and multi-colored.

The Sunflower brings in birds of all shapes and sizes, butterflies, and even the Hummers have been seen on the blossom.

The Sunflower heads are dried and saved for winter. My husband puts the heads back into the garden area to feed the birds during the winter.

Do you have a garden, and what is your favorite flower you grow?