I often find that the neo-spiritual world becomes very serious!
It's like once people decide their on a Spiritual/ self healing journey they loose their sense of humour! I mean it's very cute and earnest, like a deep dedication to the healing path, and we all try to emanate buddhist monks, doning white robes, talking in hushed tones and focusing deeply on aligning our chakras and speaking to our guides...in tongues!
But let me remind you of the image of the laughing Buddah!
There's this movie of a beautiful friendship that was between the Dalai Lama and Desmond Tutu and how they laughed sooo much together. Now albeit NO one is 'perfect' in this world (whatever that means anyway) but these guys have done a lot of good and a lot of healing and a lot of self-refection in life and they both laugh(ed) a LOT!
I think it's something that we have got a bit wrong in our quests for enlightenment- I mean after all how light do you feel after a good bout of the giggles?! It's impossible not to feel lighter once we've released with laughter- even if you have to force it initially- try it now! Go on- replicate the belly laugh, curl your mouth up, let the breath find that trigger...and sure enough not only will it find it's own way to come into a real laugh more often than not, but you will release chemicals in the brain that will allow you to feel lighter! (If you want to play with this more- join our Emotion Yoga sessions)
They actually have done tests to proove that if you do an exam with a smile on your face you will get better results than with a frown- SO it must be for our higher good to be joyful! Playful! Fun! Silly even!
And the Universe is definitely full of jokes! Look at all the weird animals we have.. or a penis!
I think we get caught up on there something being 'wrong' with us that needs 'fixing' and there being some end goal of 'healed' that we have to reach and that we are already late in trying to reach!
And that's the BS. We are all perfectly-imperfect and imperfectly-perfect and we are all Whole wonderous beings with unique gifts to give the universe that are inherent in our make-up.
We just picked up a lot of distortions about the world and ourselves in this crazy journey called life thus far that we can benefit from LETTING GO of! That's all we have to do- let go...let go the judgements, the expectations, the plans, the time-lines, the self-doubt, the self-loathing, the patriarchal frameworks that small us, the need to 'produce', the unworthiness, the not-enoughness, the projections of us that others have put onto us...easier said than done sometimes...but it's all part of the process of maturing and coming into that full expression of Self that only you can be and that will ultimately lead you to being able to give your unique vibration in it's fullest to the world (just by being unashamedly you!).
That's also why embracing our fun, silly, child-like self is sooooo healing and necessary- because as kids- before the distortions took hold- we knew our magic- we knew our greatness inherently- AND we learned exponentially about ourselves and the world through PLAY.
This is how we learn best- trial and error- messing about- exploring without a fixed goal or outcome- seeing what happens if i do.... without worrying what people might think or say or how i will look if I...
And most of us didn't get enough time to PLAY as kids- it was cut short- or we were stopped for being too much or making too much noise/mess or needing to 'grow up and get on with things'...
When I run PLAY AWAKE workshops, people are always terrified (of what? getting 'things wrong' or 'looking silly') and then when they allow themselves to surrender they have so much fun and re-find a freedom- because they loosen the grip of the "watcher at the gate of the mind" that harsh judge/critic who is waiting to censor anything you do or say to stop you from looking silly or making a fool of yourself. And yet that same critic will also prevent you from finding original thought patterns, from relaxing your embedded neural pathways so that you can spontaneously create NEW IDEAS and patterns...
Writing my MA thesis (sorry/not-sorry i can't be bothered to find the reference right now) I found evidence to prove that learning happens best when in a positive heightened state of emotions. So the more joyful and playful and excited we can be about the world and our lived experience, the more likely we are to release the chemicals which help us to learn! (Which is why embracing your emotional capacity is so important! A primary motivation behind SO many of our offerings at the Conscious Connection Community FYI!)
Of course the problem is that because we were edited and controlled from so young (bless them for they knew not what they did), many of us don't know HOW to have fun...what it is that really brings us JOY- and it's OK to not know- it's normal to find this a tricky thing to figure out (once your over the age of 12).
So take the time to go back to that childhood- remember what you were naturally drawn to- don't stop yourself by saying "but that's silly" or "but how can that help me or the world" or "thats too obvious" and allow yourself to indulge it. Start experimenting with things that you think might be fun to do...do them! Prioritise time for them! And don't keep doing them because you think you 'should'. YUK! Only do them because they bring you JOY!
Aside from anything- life's just too short not to have fun doing it! I mean really!
We are all energy beings and I believe (and say often- I know!) that "the only way to heal the world is to heal yourself". The reason I say that is because if we are all energy, then to raise the vibration of the universe and come into higher states of consciousness we HAVE to raise our own vibration- and by coherence and interconnectivity that in turn will raise the vibration of others... and joy and laughter are some of the most accessible ways to raise that vibration. (Love and Bliss are also deeply powerful and important- yet I think that sometimes we try to spiritually bypass to these as they seem further removed form the personal- but it has to start with self and in the lower chakras too...).
So go for it! Have a good old laugh! As long as its not at the expense of another it is definitely a spiritual act of self-love!
And if you can laugh at yourself with an open heart then you'll be doing a good EGO-CLEANSE too!
And if you can laugh at the cosmic-jokes of the Universe- the eternal paradoxes it throws us, and acknowledge that playful Trickster energy within her (and therefore All of us) then you will also be able to accept and surrender more greatly and graciously to all of the Chaos within this mad world.
For the more you open to it, the more you can see the cheeky glint in the eye of the Universe, the eternal game of hide and seek she plays with us, the many a garden path she leads us up, and the giant clues she leaves in plain site only to fox us again into new levels of confusion!
The more you can surrender to the GAME of it all,
the more loose your grip will be on it all,
the less resistance you will have to it all,
the lighter your steps will be within it all,
and the easier your Whole experience will Be of it All.
I guess having a background in clowning, it was a beautiful cosmic joke that after burning out in the UK running my theatre company and giving it all up, I should (after a series of mystical events) find myself serving Magic Mushrooms in ceremony. Known as the "naughty cousins" or the "little children" they certainly help us to remember our playful side, and to stop taking ourselves too seriously!
Yes that is a hint to come to ceremony!
Love Always in Playful Joy
Tārā Love
