More Woohoo, Less Boohoo

It's easy to get caught up in all of the serious news these days. I can't lie—it does feel serious because it is serious. There is so much hurt, confusion, mistrust, and fear going around. It's easy to want to run and hide, point a finger to blame, or worst of all, internalize these times as if we ourselves are the cause and effect. What are we to do?

I like to do yoga, particularly in these times. It nurtures my mind, body, and spirit, even though the type of yoga I practice is pretty lightweight. Suffice to say, I am not a human pretzel.  One of the cool things about yoga is that there are so many different styles. Some are thousands of years old, and others may have just been made up by the teacher the other day. I can benefit from almost all of these styles and forms, but the one I would like to tell you about today is "laugh yoga".  Goes like this... Did you know there are at least 43 different ways to laugh? Repeat after me, "ha ha ha. he he he, ho ho ho. oompah oompah. Barrrumpf!... and so on. Now, on to exercises to improve the laugh muscles in your face. Next, funny hand gestures. Let's move on- please turn and face the person next to you and recite your favorite funny joke. Let's try smile therapy. Turn to another person, face them, look them squarely in the eye, and whatever you do, DO NOT SMILE OR LAUGH. We all know what happens next; the room will erupt into many pairs of uncontrolled laughter. This is so healing. This is the essence of laugh yoga.

Sometimes we need a reminder to exercise our good nature.  Are you afraid to appear to be a strange person if you just randomly let out an occasional "WOOHOO!" several times a day? I highly recommend it. This is laugh yoga, practiced "off the map". It's also an ongoing practice of gratitude. A WOOHOO is one of those joyful sounds the Bible urges us to make. As the carol, "Joy to the World" says, "repeat the sounding joy, repeat the sounding joy, repeat, repeat... the sounding joy". Shall we?

One way to get through these dark times is with balance. Let's balance our fears, with cheers. Boohoos with Woohoos.

More Boohoo, Less Woohoo!