Rabbi Pliskin recalls a school principal who had “an interesting school policy. His teachers had to promote laughter before giving tests. In his experience, the students invariably got higher grades when they were in a humorous state. Endorphins produced by laughter enable a student’s brain to work at optimal level” (Life Is Now, Chapter 26).
Your brain is busily working for you, manufacturing biochemicals called endorphins. Research has shown that those incredible little hormones infuse your blood stream and circulate through your entire body even when you act AS IF you were joyful, not only when you actually are happy. Think about it, says Rabbi Pliskin: your experience is totally imaginary, yet your endorphin factory, your miraculous brain, still produces a healthy doze of joy, entirely free!
Your homework for this month was to practice achieving ZERISUS (joyful state) by exercising Laughter Yoga. But how does laughter lead to success? How do you get from here
to here:
Get those endorphins going: recall at least one instance when you were successful in doing something. Picture yourself in that situation and feel some of the original pleasure. Share your story with us. Give each other high five! Watch the video of our April get-together to see this exercise in action.
Your homework for next month is to practice achieving success by visualizing yourselves having achieved it already. See you next month!
I hope you have practiced Laughter Yoga, Beautiful People, especially yesterday, on April 1st. You’ll share your fun with us tonight, at our get-together, where we talk, laugh, play music, and learn to make Tropical Salsa for Passover.
Here is your remote access information:
Tue, April 2, 2019 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Please join our meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
Have you figured it out, Beautiful People? Credit for this brilliant linguistic discovery belongs to a little cute French bistro (unfortunately not kosher) called Otentic.
Hanging right over the counter, facing you when you walk in, is a sign STRESSED IS DESSERTS SPELLED BACKWARDS. What better food idea for the Lasting Joy club March get-together than de-stressing while making this no-bake festive Purim dessert? My challenge in planning those get-together events is coming up with no cook, no bake, easy and fun to make dishes that could be tasted and enjoyed on the spot. This one, before Purim, had to be Hamentaschen – what else do you do on Purim but stuff yourself with these scrumptious stuffed pastries! But before we got to the yummies, we practiced the best de-stressing technique of all, Laughter Yoga. We started with the 10 benefits of laughter, taken straight from https://thepurplealmond.com, and we thank lovely Tamara, an awesome blogger who promotes and inspires all aspects of wellness and happiness. We are delighted to welcome the newest club members – yes, Beautiful People, this get-together was attended by 28 remote-accessers, in addition to “live” members sitting around my table.
10 BENEFITS OF LAUGHTER – SHARES BENEFITS WITH AEROBIC EXERCISE:
The movement of the diaphragm floods the body with oxygen.
Releases the same endorphins which cause the effect known as “the runners high” In fact, it has been found that endorphins increase by approximately 27%
Research shows that HGH (the anti-aging – human growth hormone) increased by 87% when subjects THOUGHT ABOUT watching a funny movie.
Reduces stress hormone levels, such as cortisol and adrenaline.
A good laugh burns 3 1/2 calories
Exercises the abs, as well as the shoulders
Laughing for 15 seconds adds 2 days to your life
Helps eliminate negative emotions such as fear, sadness, and anger
Improves circulation and cardiovascular health
15 minutes of laughter is equivalent to 2 hours of sleep
We followed the order of this get-together by Laughing Out Loud – practicing the four-step Laughter Yoga moves:
LASTING JOY CLUB MARCH GET TOGETHER
Dear Beautiful People, today we are practicing yoga – Laughter Yoga.
The Talmud says that “the Shekhinah rests on man neither through gloom, nor through sloth, nor through frivolity, nor through levity, nor through talk, nor through idle chatter, but only through a matter of joy in connection with a precept, as it is said, “But now bring me a minstrel. And it came to pass, when the minstrel played, that the hand of the Lord came upon him (II Kings 3:15).” (Tractate Shabbat 30b)
“Focusing on joyful ZERISUS while taking action is at the root of creating a happy, joyful, meaningful, and fulfilling life” (Z. Pliskin, Taking Action).
THE BENEFITS OF RUNNING WITHOUT HAVING TO RUN, IN FOUR STEPS
Tomorrow is the big day, and we are going to have fun, Beautiful People! We are going to laugh ourselves silly and make delicious chocolate no-bake pastries.
To give you a little taste of tomorrow, ponder this:
The image, as well as some other materials for this get-together are coming from a wonderful blog https://thepurplealmond.com, produced by lovely Tamara, who has embarked on a project Stress Relief.
To put yourselves in a joyful mood, you can already start laughing with Bobby McFerrin. And here are the requisites for free remote access:
Tue, Mar 5, 2019 8:00 PM – 9:30 PM EST
Please join our meeting from your computer, tablet or smartphone.
Happiness is trendy. Life coaches are insanely popular. They tell us that we must be happy and they teach us how to live happy lives.
Everyone seems to remember that the word HAPPINESS has been written into the Declaration of Independence. Hardly anyone seems to remember that it reads “the Pursuit of Happiness,” rather than happiness itself. In a dictionary, “The pursuit of happiness is defined as a fundamental right mentioned in the Declaration of Independence to freely pursue joy and live life in a way that makes you happy, as long as you don’t do anything illegal or violate the rights of others” (www.yourdictionary.com). Is there a difference between happiness and joy?
Good advice, but psychology tells us that “happiness tends to be externally triggered and is based on other people, things, places, thoughts and events” (https://www.psychologies.co.uk). Oops! So no matter how we pursue this elusive state, anyone or anything has power to rob us of it at any time, simply grab it and run – go pursue!
Wait, but doesn’t it clearly state that pursuit of happiness means to pursue JOY! Joy is an attitude; “it comes when you make peace with who you are, why you are and how you are” (ibid.), and the interesting part is that one cannot be happy without joy. How in the world do we manage to do that? Here is Rabbi Dr. Zelig Pliskin who “found a missing link”:
Imagine that you have your own personal life coach who has been extremely effective for you. Says Rabbi Pliskin, “We all have times that we have access to our inner knowledge and wisdom. And we all have times when we speak and act without this wisdom. When you have a dialogue with a wise virtual coach, you gain access to your subconscious wisdom” (Life Is Now, p. 209).
In any situation, when external circumstances threaten your happiness and you are about to lose your cool, ask your inner coach, “What should I do in this situation?”
Take a deep breath, switch emotional gears, and wait.
Response will come from within your joyful subconscious self!
Please note the change of address and day and time of our monthly get-togethers. As usual, requisites for remote access will come in a separate post tomorrow.
We are meeting the day after tomorrow, Beautiful People, and I am so very excited about it! If you are planning to make those yummy chocolate treats with us, you need:
1 cup of leftover cake, crumbled up, or any cookie crumbs
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon butter substitute or real butter, if you want to make it dairy (we will use Smart Balance)
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
Sugar or xylitol to taste
1/4 cup minced nuts of your choice (we will use walnuts and cashews)
1/4 cup minced pitted Medjool dates or prunes
Candy sprinkles or toasted shredded coconut for garnishing
This is a no-bake recipe, but make sure you have a mixing bowl, spoon, board, and knife ready.
Isn’t it fortunate that we did our “August in September” get-together, since September is a Self-care Awareness month! As all 28 of you, Beautiful People, who joined us by remote access, have experienced, this is exactly what we did; we engaged in self-exploration.
It isn’t always easy to talk about ourselves, so to make it easier, we had a “cheat sheet” called Just Be You.
Watch the video to follow our explorations. Hopefully, it will inspire and motivate you to engage in your own self-awareness discovery process.
It is a rather long video, not broken into segments, as I usually do, so you might want to take a break or two and read a beautiful post by a great blogger Kamal.
Due to Sukkoth holiday, we’ll have our next get-together in the beginning of October. Stay tuned for further announcements and don’t forget to do your homework: use the chart above to become aware of these qualities that you already possess and actively seek a joyful state by using them to benefit others.
