31 Days of Laughter

Just in case you missed any of the daily reminders on Facebook this month, here they all are in one place (feel free to bookmark this page to come back to whenever you need a reminder to laugh!):

1. The daily practice for October is…laughter! Are you going to join me in laughing every day this month?

2. Practice laughing for no reason. Just laugh. That’s the ‘purpose’ of Laughter Yoga (find the videos on YouTube) – one of my favourite things! Big breath…and HAHAHAHAHAHA. Just to laugh.

3. “May laughter fill your home, relieve your stress, and strengthen your friendships. Do not let a day go by without laughing; it is good for your health.” – Catherine Pulsifer, from SEVEN GIFTS TO GIVE TO A FRIEND

4. Here’s a video that will help if you don’t feel like laughing…http://youtu.be/HUkPGL4zQyw

5. What’s your favourite ‘crap’ joke? Here’s mine – What do you call a sheep with no legs? A cloud. Makes me laugh EVERY time! Xxx
What do you call a fish with no eyes…. A fsh
Why does Edward Woodward have so many D’s in his name?…. Cos he doesn’t want to be called Ewar Woowar

6. October Daily Practice: Laugh. Who’s your favourite comedian? Go onto YouTube and find some clips of your favourite comedian today (let me know who you’re looking up!).

7. Laugh. The most wasted of all days is one without laughter. ~e.e. cummings So get laughing today!

8. What films make you laugh? This weekend, put on a DVD of something that makes you laugh…and get laughing!

9. Laugh. Hoorah for youtube and funny clips – this is one of my fave tv moments of all time! http://bit.ly/nzBs56

10. “Laugh. I am thankful for laughter, except when milk comes out of my nose.” ~Woody Allen

11. What’s your favourite comedy show? For Irish humour (not for those who don’t like ‘bad language’!), check out Mrs Brown’s Boys. Funny. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdSaWW9vuow&feature=channel_video_title

12. Laughter and tears are both responses to frustration and exhaustion. I myself prefer to laugh, since there is less cleaning up to do afterward. ~Kurt Vonnegut

13. YouTube is such a gift for this practice of laughter – check this out – one of the most ridiculous things I have ever seen: http://www.donnaonthebeach.com/blog/2009/03/friday-fun-japan-binocular-football/

14. What’s your favourite joke of all time? Here’s mine:http://www.donnaonthebeach.com/blog/2011/10/friday-fun-gis-a-push/

15. Dogs laugh, but they laugh with their tails. What puts man in a higher state of evolution is that he has got his laugh on the right end. ~Max Eastman

16. When was the last time you laughed until you cried? If it’s more than a week ago, that’s too long. Try harder!

17. Try this yoga laughter technique for laughing alone…let me know how you get on! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NsbqDglPNsk

18. A good time to laugh is any time you can. ~Linda Ellerbee

19. October Daily Practice: Laughter. When you need to laugh quietly and alone… http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QvAkyoA7l4U&list=PL97C19BBBD0F7FDB5&index=3

20. Some more laughter yoga exercises – my favourite is at around 1.27 minutes – reminded me of starting my car…a good association, I can now laugh every time I start my car! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NoamivA4SY&list=PL97C19BBBD0F7FDB5&index=7

21. Laugh. A good laugh and a long sleep are the best cures in the doctor’s book. ~Irish Proverb

22. The sillier we are, the easier it is to laugh. Get more silly in your life, laugh more. Today, be silly.

23. Your mission today, should you choose to accept it is to laugh, cackle, chortle, chuckle, giggle, guffaw, snicker, snigger, snort and titter. 1 point for each. 10 bonus points for doing all 10 (and you can fake it – release your inner thespian and act them all out!)

24. More laughter yoga exercises – this one is a wonderful way to start the day! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZNKf7_ZJC0&list=PL97C19BBBD0F7FDB5&index=6

25. More crap jokes: What bee can’t you hear very well? A mumble bee.
What’s the name of Zippy’s wife ? Mississippi
What’s brown and sticky??
a STICK.
What do you call a boomerang that doesn’t work?…..
……a stick
Did you hear about the cat who swallowed a ball of yarn? She had mittens!
What is long, brown and runs around the garden??

A fence.

26. “I love people who make me laugh. I honestly think it’s the thing I like most, to laugh. It cures a multitude of ills. It’s probably the most important thing in a person.” Audrey Hepburn

27. They have to do more of these – I’m wiping away the tears of laughter! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qmsh0kRKyB4&feature=related

28. This captures the joy of booking a cheap flight perfectly! http://youtu.be/uVASZ2lCY5Y

29. “It is impossible for you to be angry and laugh at the same time. Anger and laughter are mutually exclusive and you have the power to choose either.” Wayne Dyer

30. “Live by this credo: have a little laugh at life and look around you for happiness instead of sadness. Laughter has always brought me out of unhappy situations.” Red Skelton

31. It’s the last day of the daily practice for this month. Did you join in? Will you continue? Today, find any way and every way you can to laugh loud and free! And keep laughing!

With love and laugh.

Donna.x
PS Get ready for the November daily practice…it’s another fun one! Make sure you ‘like’ my facebook page to join in!

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OnTheBeach – What Would Love Do Now?

This week’s article is inspired by the Beach Card of the week: “What would love do now? Remember that love is strong, not a doormat.”. I hope you enjoy it!

We’re on the last few days of our October Daily Practice. Did you laugh every day? There’s still time! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this practice, and I’ve got another fun one lined up for November – I hope you’ll join me!

To get a daily Beach Card, and to get reminders of the Daily Practice (and this month, links to make you laugh, rubbish jokes and quotes about laughter!), come and join me on Facebook.

- What Would Love Do Now? -

Yesterday I had a mini-meltdown. I have one about once a month, if ya know what I’m sayin’?! And although it was so tempting to force myself to stay at my desk and keep my nose firmly to the grindstone, my higher self intervened and advised me to finish early (20 minutes early, but hey, early finish is early finish!) Today, having come down off the ceiling, I can see that my highest self suggested the most loving thing I could do for myself in that situation. It answered the question “What would love do now?” Love, funnily enough, would not keep me chained to my desk when I was upset and struggling, it would let me go take care of myself so I can come back raring to go this morning.

But how often do we do what love would do for us? The way most of us treat ourselves is more ‘what would our evil stepmom do to us now’ than ‘what would love do’. Don’t you think that’s a bit sad? We are all wonderful, divine sparks of uniqueness and brilliance (yes, even you) and yet we are treated most of the time like we are naughty children. In fairness, that’s the way most of us are brought up. You just get on with it…until you no longer can. You bottle it all up, until you explode like an angry bottle of champagne. You keep on pushing and pushing and pushing…because that’s what we do with our lazy, bad selves.

Ouch! The weird thing is that everyone I have ever coached, and indeed everyone I have ever known responds much better to love, support, encouragement, empowerment than to being pushed to the point of exhaustion, snide comments and mean-ness. How about you? Do you respond better to loving, nurturing and confidence-building? Have you ever tried to do that with yourself? And with others? Think of a situation you are in, either just yourself or involving another person. What would love do in that situation?

And let me be VERY clear here. Love is not a pushover. Love is strong. Love is gentle but very firm. Love does not lie down and allow people to walk all over her. In an abusive situation, the most loving thing to do for yourself is GET OUT, and the most loving thing you can do for the abuser is to GET OUT. It is not loving to anyone to stay in a situation where one person is being abused and another is abusing. Love would let the abuser know that abuse is not acceptable. Isn’t that the most loving thing to do? It’s like setting boundaries with dogs, kids, friends and family. If they know your boundaries, they don’t have to try to guess what is appropriate and what is not. When strong boundaries are set (an act of love for ourselves and those around us), we can respect them (another act of love).

So what would love do in your situation? What is the most loving thing you can do for yourself today? What is the most loving thing you can do for another person today? Remembering that love is strong, gentle and wise. May love light your path ahead today and every day, may you be cradled in the arms of love all your life and may love flow through your heart, expanding your capacity to give and receive love and filling you with joy.

- Something to Play With -

In every situation you find yourself in this week, ask ‘what would love do now?’ And let me know what love would do for you – leave a comment below.

Love

Donna.x

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What Do You Wish To Let Go Of?

It’s Wishcasting Wednesday. There is power in wishing – putting your wishes out there sets mighty forces into action…

What Do You Wish To Let Go Of?

I wish to let go of the struggle! When I worked for a company and dreamt of working for myself, I had no idea that sometimes it feels so hard that you dream of a 9-5, easy existence, working for someone else, less responsibility, a predictable salary…aaaahhh bliss! And then I remember that the only person making it hard for me is me! Self-employment means there’s no one else to blame!! So, I wish to let go of the struggle of having a business and settle firmly into the bliss of it that I dreamed of all those years ago!

Get involved on Jamie’s blog, or leave a comment here. As you wish for yourself, I wish for you also.

Love

Donna.x

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Feel The Love

Do you have any idea how loved you are? Do you have any idea of the depth of love you are capable of? Most of us are not aware of either – we are constantly seeking love in entirely the wrong places! We expect other people to ‘make us feel loved’…but actually all other people do is open our heart to love – the love that is already within you.

And then when they go away, we close that door up again and believe that they took the love away with them. That would be like your schoolteacher taking away your intelligence when you left school. The love is already within you – no one can give it to you, and more importantly, no one can take it away from you. Other people can and do help us to open our hearts (as can animals, sunsets, music, poetry, literature, films) but to give them the power to close our hearts is to deny who we really are.

If you want to access the love, try this exercise. Close your eyes and take 3 deep breaths into your heart. Now feel the love you feel for yourself, now feel the love you feel for your family, your friends, your pets, now feel the love you feel for your neighbourhood. Now feel the love you feel for your country, now feel the love you feel for the world, now expand that love to encompass the whole universe (that’s the love you are capable of – wow!)

Now reverse the flow – feel the love the universe has for you, the world has for you, your country, your neighbourhood, your friends and family and pets have for you, the love that you have for you. This is how loved you are! If you really want to feel the love, do this EVERY DAY and feel how the love expands as you are opening up more and more to love. There is an ocean of love just waiting for you to tap into it.

Love (feel that?)

Donna.x

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A Friday Funny

In the spirit of the October Daily Practice of Laughter, I’ve been looking for old amusing things from the archives of my blog…and I found this little gem from August last year! Enjoy…

In Bill Ford‘s coaching newsletter this week:

One of my wife’s colleagues when she was working in the US was asked by a client in France to rush over to present at a meeting the next day. He got on a plane the same day and did not have time to pack. It was winter.

He got to the hotel in Paris with enough time to sleep. His suit was creased from the flight, so he turned on the shower and hung it in the bathroom to let the steam reduce the creases. He fell asleep. By the time he woke up the suit was sodden. So he hung it out on his balcony. He fell asleep again.

By the time he woke up, the suit was frozen. He had no choice, so he put it on and went to the meeting. As he was presenting he could tell that he was losing his audience as they seemed distracted. He asked what was going on and learned that there was steam coming off his suit. He explained what had happened, they fell about laughing, were impressed by his dedication and the MD suggested they go to lunch instead.

This made me cry with laughter and totally ruined me for doing any work until I’d sat in a corner for a bit calming down. I hope it brought you just half as much amusement. Happy Friday!

Love

Donna.x

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OnTheBeach – The Voice of Wisdom

This week, the beach card “Learn to listen to your intuition” inspired me to bring an article about listening to your inner knowing out of the archives – I hope it inspires you to listen to the voice inside you that knows. You know what I’m talking about – that voice that whispers to you in the stillness of your heart, beseeching you to listen to it. For example, as I was writing that sentence, the little voice inside me asked me to send an e-mail to a friend I haven’t seen in a while. I don’t know why, but I trust the voice of wisdom…and I hope you do too! And if you should get a feeling or a thought while reading this about someone you think needs to read it too, please listen to your voice of wisdom and share it! Thank you.

- The Voice of Wisdom -

Do you trust yourself? Do you know that you know the answers to whatever questions are plaguing you? Do you look inside for the wisdom that you know is there, and do you trust that what you are doing is the right thing for you, always? It’s an interesting phenomena that so few of us do trust ourselves to do the right thing.

Nor do we trust that we know what is best for ourselves. Our inner wisdom is an incredible gift, yet we often ignore it in favour of something which is bad for us because we can’t justify what the inner voice says. There is no logical reason for it, therefore it must be wrong. Personally, I think logic is a daft reason to do anything, but that is another story.

Let me give you an example of this inner wisdom – several years ago, I decided to go to Australia backpacking. I ‘knew’ that it was the right thing for me to do at that time. I couldn’t explain ‘why’ and I couldn’t give ‘reasons’ – except that I knew it was right. The sensible thing at the time would have been to go for promotion, buy a house, settle down – and I ‘knew’ that was not the answer for me.

Most people thought I was barking mad, and that I would never do it, but I ‘knew’. I consider myself very lucky, because that was the first time that my inner wisdom asserted itself, and now I know exactly how it sounds. I know that my inner wisdom doesn’t need logic or reasons – in fact, I know if I am giving reasons, I am trying to justify something to my wisdom, rather than the other way round.

What about you? Can you recognise the voice of your inner wisdom? Here’s a tip – your inner wisdom doesn’t think you’re an idiot! So, what do you ‘know’ about your situation? Think of something that you are struggling with, something that you need to sort out. What does your inner wisdom say to you? Don’t think of reasons or justifications, just get in touch with what you know.

Your inner wisdom is a huge resource that often gets ignored – maybe because it’s impractical to follow your intuition. And here’s the thing – if you give it a chance, that still, small voice within will give you the strength and the practical steps you need. By listening to what it is saying to you, you also give it the opportunity to help you do what you need to. So, what does the still small voice within say to you today?

- Something to Play With -

What does the voice of your inner wisdom sound like? How do you recognise it? What is it saying to you today? Want to share your thoughts on this article? Leave me a comment below.

Love

Donna.x

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Wishcasting Wednesday: What Do You Wish to Make Time For?

It’s Wishcasting Wednesday. There is power in wishing – putting your wishes out there sets mighty forces into action…

What Do You Wish to Make Time For?

I wish to make time for the things that will help me help more people, serve my purpose and expand my business. Right now, day to day stuff keeps getting in the way, and I wish to change that and make those projects, inspirations and ideas more of a priority so that I can reach more people and help them live with purpose, passion and joy and express their gifts and talents in their unique and beautiful way.

Get involved on Jamie’s blog, or leave a comment here. As you wish for yourself, I wish for you also.

Love

Donna.x

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Don’t Curse the Dark, Light a Lamp

Today while working on my daily October practice of Laughter, I came across a video from Dr Madan Kataria, the founder of Laughter Yoga, in which he talked about the ancient Indian wisdom which says ‘don’t curse the dark, light a lamp’. Most of us have a tendency to curse the dark, to complain about our lives, to see only what is missing in our life, to see only what is bad in the world. Our media compound this on a daily basis by behaving like Chicken Little and insisting the sky is going to fall in. (it never does)

We curse and rail against the dark…but for most of us, what we yearn for is light. We ache to be joyful, to fall deeply in love with our lives, to dance through life with a carefree heart and a smile on our face. But guess what? Cursing the dark is not the way to get that. Complaining about life does not help our life improve (identifying where improvements can be made is good, constantly going on about the problems is not). Finding people to blame for why the world is going to hell in a handbasket doesn’t help us to feel good, to be joyous, to be full of gratitude and appreciation for the wonder and beauty of life.

Looking for the light, the beautiful, the wonderful, the good, the joyous, the fabulous, the happiness in life DOES help us to enjoy life. How do you light a lamp in your life? Laughter, exercise, fresh air, doing things you love to do, taking care of yourself, focusing on the positive, gratitude, fun, inspiration, dancing, singing, getting in touch with our inner wisdom, working towards our most exciting ambitions and goals, hanging out with ‘light’ people, being silly, recapturing our childlike enthusiasm for life…and there are so much more.

When you next find yourself cursing the dark, remember to just light a lamp. Just a small spark of light can take away the dark…

Love

Donna.x

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Friday Fun – Gis a Push

In honour of the October Daily Practice, here’s my favourite joke:

A man and his wife were awakened at 3 o’clock in the mnorning by a loud pounding on the door. The man gets up and goes to the door where a drunken stranger, standing in the pouring rain, is asking for a push.
“Not a chance,” says the husband, “it is 3 in the morning!” He slams the door and returns to bed.
“Who was that?” asked his wife.
“Just some drunk guy asking for a push,” he answers.
“Did you help him?” she asks.
“No, I did not, it is 3 o’clock in the morning and it is pouring with rain out there!”
“Well, you have a short memory,” says his wife. “Can’t you remember about three months ago when we broke down, and those two guys helped us? I think you should help him, and you should be ashamed of yourself!”
The man does as he is told, gets dressed, and goes out into the pounding rain.
He calls out into the dark, “Hello, are you still there?”
“Yes,” comes back the answer.
“Do you still need a push?” calls out the husband.
“Yes, please!” comes the reply from the dark.
“Where are you?” asks the husband.
“Over here on the swing,” replied the drunk

Utter GENIUS!

Happy Friday!

Love

Donna.x

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Worry When it Happens (And Not a Moment Before!)

I first wrote this blog post back in 2008…and the sky is STILL falling in. Allegedly. So my thanks to the news crews who appear to be making my point for me!

With all the uncertainty in the financial world at the moment, there is a lot of worrying going on. The news programmes seem to be doing their absolute best to provoke panic, fear and stress. From what I can tell they are succeeding in this aim with a lot of people. However, some of us have a memory…and I remember this year that the stock market has ‘crashed’ according to the news 57 times. Actual number of crashes…zero.

Whenever someone (even a highly respected newscaster) says ‘this could happen’ or ‘this could mean’, I always think ‘and the sky COULD fall in, Chicken Little’. Forgive me, but I am not going to worry about something that could happen…for a start, the possibilities are endless, I’d be in the nuthouse by the end of the week! Worrying about something that could (and equally, could not) happen is a total waste of energy…and if you ask me, is part of the problem for the financial markets because everyone is panicking!

If the current news makes you think ‘hmmm…perhaps my finances aren’t as secure as I thought – I am going to educate myself and make it better’ THAT is all to the good. But if you are watching the news, and believing that the sky is falling…how is this helping you? Don’t get me wrong, of course the sky COULD fall down. But I shan’t be worrying about it until it happens (and not a moment before!)

Love

Donna.x

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