Laughter Therapy

Laughter Therapy

Once, a friend told me the following story: There was a person diagnosed with an incurable disease, who was given only a little while to live. He decided that if he was going to die so soon, he might as well have as good a time as he could until the end arrived. So he made a point of gathering around him all sorts of comedy movies, and began to watch reel after reel, a movie a night, sometimes more, determined to laugh all the way to the grave and to fill his last nights with enjoyment and pleasure, rather than fear and misery. Somehow, my friend told me, the laughter broke the back of the doom, changed something inside the man, carried off the pain and hopelessness, the heaviness and stress, lifted the energy of death off of him; somehow, the laughter lightened up his soul and cleansed his body, allowed life to have a second chance inside of him...
He shook, he cried, he howled, till he was healed by his new doctors: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Laurel and Hardy…

While "laughter therapy" is never recommended as a substitute for "proper medical treatment", it surely is a welcome addition to our tool kit of personal health resources. More and more, the interrelatedness of physical health and mental states is becoming documented and accepted by the modern medical establishment which once dismissed the wisdom of ancient cultures that always understood the connection between the body and the soul; between the flesh and the spirit. Within this rediscovered paradigm, laughter is now becoming increasingly recognized as a tremendous stress-reducer and as a restorer of the human life-force: as a power that can break us free of the grip of defeatism, anxiety and depression, which suppress the human immune system and breed illness; as a power that can stop the momentum of diseases that take advantage of our down-states and unrelieved gravity, and which can therefore tip the scales of health back in our favor...

In my own life, I’ve learned the value of a sense of humor, and the value of a good laugh. I’m quite sure they’ve literally saved my life. When a wounded man, when an overburdened man, dares to remain faithful to the beauty of life which persists even in the midst of sorrows and absurdity, and when he dares to express this faith with a laugh, the grim reaper stands back. The chi of humor puts balance back into the fading body; the falling soul is caught. With a sense of humor, well-exercised and well-fed, the body remains buoyant, it floats in the dark water of life’s disappointments, and does not sink. The heaviness does not congeal into illness, or persist as illness, because the sense of humor has carried it away...

Fully believing in the value of laughter therapy, I implore you all to counter that part of your sorrow which is unbearable (beyond that part that is necessary as the bringer of depth and wisdom), with humor; to seek out movies, books, comedy shows, and people who can help you to enjoy life, and to have a good time again...

excerpts from:rainsnow. org

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Embracing the Shadow

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Embracing the Shadow
by Altazar Rossiter, Ph D
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Light and dark are frequently used to represent the basic polarity of good and evil. The shadow is the indeterminate space between light and dark where one shades into the other, the deeper the shadow the darker the nature of what lives there. The shadow is also a term that originates in Jungian psychology and which refers to a nebulous unconscious repository of what we fear and dislike in ourselves..

Wherever there is a shadow it is cast by something standing in the way of the light. The brighter the sun shines, the harder the shadows. And when the light is really bright it can be difficult, if not impossible, to see anything beyond the intensity of the glare. When we want to see clearly in bright sunshine we seek the shade to look out from, and if we can't find any we create some with a hand to the eyes. So our physical experience of the phenomena of light and dark is that we can see things more clearly by standing in the shadow..

This is an allegory that is very useful for the inner process. The more the light of the soul shines through, the clearer will be the issues that inhabit the shadow, but we have to stand in the shade in order to see these clearly. We have to stop looking the other way..

The trouble is when we look into our shadow most of us see things we not only wish weren't there, but often things we are thoroughly ashamed of. Because of the intensity of the shame our automatic impulse is to bury its cause so deep within that this can never again see the light of day. This enables us to continue living with ourselves, but the truth lurks somewhere within and we know it..

What lives in the shadow is everything that we reject about ourselves, everything we refuse to love. This is every aspect of our existence that fails to comply with the ideal social specification of our self-identity. We are terrified it will be discovered and cause our downfall. We pretend it doesn't exist, but we know it's there, full of resentment for its denial, that's why there's such a widespread fear of the dark. But deep transformation occurs when we embrace what we fear..

A spiritually intelligent perspective understands that the shadow is the facilitator of our growth. Its very existence is a sign that there is a purpose to our being here, that we have a job to do. When issues begin to surface out of the shadow it's not a sign that something is wrong, but quite the reverse. It's a sign that we are holding more of our light. The light is simply showing us where it is still blocked. We are being guided to the next step in the process of self-empowerment. Convention says we must find an answer so the problem goes away, wisdom says the problem is my friend trying to tell me something I'm reluctant to hear..

Whenever the possibility arises that something we've consigned to the shadow in this way might be revealed to us - or worse, to others - we are likely to experience the emotional responses of fear and anger. Owing to the supreme efficiency of our denial processes, we are normally in a condition of blissful ignorance of what's been hidden in the shadow. Our emotional responses can therefore be intensely reactive. This is the surest sign that we've uncovered an aspect of ourselves that requires understanding and compassion - something that really is me but which is incongruent with the self-image I hold..

The key to transforming all of the issues lurking in the shadow is the principle of presence. By staying present with anything that arises, remaining aware of our breathing and letting any feelings express, we eventually feel the sadness locked into the part of ourselves we consigned to the shadow. We feel its mistrust, its fear and its abject loneliness. Simply allowing this to be is a process of acceptance, recognizing that it is all ok brings us a step closer to a realization of self-mastery. This is not necessarily easy, it takes courage and persistence..

From this perspective the shadow can be seen as the friend it truly is. It is only waiting for us to love it. The issues it will then show us are the keys to self-empowerment. This is its gift..

To be truly conscious we must embrace the potential of the shadow individually and collectively. For as long as we continue to deny it, it will keep manifesting destructively in an increasingly less convenient manner. The shadow provides us with the raw material and the opportunity to transmute fear into love. One of the greatest services we can offer is to engage with this process. Just opening up to the possibility that this is a valid assessment of the dynamic of the shadow is a huge shift out of the consensus rut. Giving intent to clear our shadow is the next step... Continuing this journey is to follow our own light, which will ultimately shine unimpeded!

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shapersofeducation. org
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LOVE & THANKS TO:



Lightworkersfor posting..

LoVe LoVe LoVe

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