How Laughter Re-Connects Families
Last Sunday I was invited by a lovely lady to hold a laughter session for her family. It was her birthday and she wanted her family and friends to reconnect and strenghthen their bond through laughter. She also wanted to bring positivity, warmth and heart to their relationships after a period of hardship.
As soon as I arrived, I was greeted with some great home-made food from India (YUM) and I started meeting members of the family. The daughters, two beautiful young women, were busy chatting about school and the latest updates, the young men stood to one side wondering whether they should participate, the men looked tall and a bit skeptical - as is often the case! - and the women were busy preparing food and drinks and reconnecting on past events, relationships and hopes for a great future.
The atmosphere was warming up, so I distributed colourful balloons and gave out smiley face stickers, which were promptly worn by the guests on their clothes and on their face (a particularly trendy style of wearing smiley faces is the smiley bindi style, recommended for future events!). There was something else that struck me about this family: they all deeply cared about a disabled son, whom they treated with respect, never letting him feel like he was different. This is how I think everyone should be treated: appreciated for their unique, special qualities and personality, without comparisons, without judgment, without competition.
This son was showing everyone what love really means! After a short time from my arrival, he came to me and gave me some incredibly powerful hugs. What made his hugs special was that he did it from the heart, and in fact he pressed me onto his heart, which amplified even more our heart to heart connection, beat per beat. There was no expectation, no embarassment, no difficulty. It was a simple, loving, welcoming gesture, given with spontaneity and without expecting anything in return. Oh how much we have to learn from wonderful people like this who act from their heart!
The sun had blessed us with a wonderful day, so I set up the space in the garden with colourful cushions and some music. Some women said it might be too hot, so I asked the universe: "can you help us?", and promptly some nice breeze came and the clouds covered a bit of the sky exactly for the duration of the session! We called everyone in, made a big circle and got started. Never underestimate the power of a circle! The circle allows for the energy to flow among it members, it allows all to see each other and interact within an intimate space where everyone is equally in the game, a space that allows for wonderful things to happen.
Our laughter session was intense, fun, and explorative. Laughter comes from a very deep place, and when we laugh, we are actually changing the world, because we are experiencing it with the power of play and positivity. Laughter is also a place of exploration, where we can explore our boundaries, our inner child, our inner spirit of joy, and we can do that to the extent that we allow ourselves to. It was so interesting to hear one particular generation of women reveal how unusual and interesting it was for them to look at men who were not part of their direct family in the eye, something they would not normally do.
Now, children teach us something important. They teach us that before all structures, cultures and conditionings put layers on top of us, we were once able to look into other people's eyes, play with them and interact as spontaneously as ever, no matter who they were, where they came from or what their story was. The good news is that we can do that as adults too, and laughter is one perfect way to re-connect and re-unite heart to heart as human beings, beyond any difference, beyond any division. And one reason we can do that is that laughter is one of the human basic emotions, which can be found and recognised in every single human being, even if they had never seen another human being before! How cool is that?
By the end of the session, everyone in the family was playing with joyful glee and sharing the vibrations of happiness and connection in a special way. I felt a sense of fullness, fulfilment and deep joy that vibrated all through my body and lightened my spirit.
This was a beautiful experience that I will always cherish in my heart. Thank you!
More pictures on "Eva Laughter Yoga".
Join the Meetup group: "Ride the Wave of Joy"!
And don't forget to like my new page "Eva Provedel"!
Keep sharing the smiles!
