Dancing for Fun

We all have things in life we love to do, some of these things we love more than others dancing is something that many of us, as we age, forget to make the time to enjoy. However, dancing is one of those simple pleasures in life that can also remind us to smile, to play, to spin around until we get dizzy, and most importantly to enjoy the simplicity of having fun without the worry of work, family, or finances getting in the way.

It costs very little in most homes to simply turn the radio on, draw the shades and dance. You can dance with your significant other, your lifelong partner, and even your children. You do not have to worry about anyone watching and if they are watching you should take pity that they are spending their time worrying about what you are doing rather than dancing around and enjoying life to its fullest.

Simply Dancing

Native Americans had the right idea when it comes to dancing. Let the beat be your guide and simply dance. They danced as a means of worship, to express submission to their gods, to exalt their gods, to display their joy, and as an outward expression of grief. They danced for love and they danced for war. Dancing to them was as natural as walking is to many of us and important means of expressing themselves not only as individual people but also as part of a larger and unified group.

If you have never danced for fun, it’s time to check out the various styles of dance and see what appeals to you as a style of dance. There are many types of dance and many different styles of music for those various styles.

Line Dancing

Line dancing is a style of dancing in which dancers line up and dance together by making the same dance steps at the same time. It has swept not only the nation but is quickly making its way around the world as an excellent source of dancing fun. It’s also a great way to socialize and meet new people. While line dancing was primarily limited to country music in the beginning it has quickly made its way into other styles of music as well. Many bars, dance halls, and clubs will offer line dancing lessons on slow business nights in order to encourage extra business. Line dancing can be enjoyed by both men and women.

Square Dancing

This style of dance has a rather long history and has experienced a good degree of evolution over the past couple of decades. While it was once reserved for hoe downs and such square dancing is quickly becoming a hobby for many people across America and a great way to spend an evening and get to know others who share this hobby. This style of dancing is best enjoyed by couples and can be such great fun if you let your hair down a bit while participating.

Belly Dancing

Belly dancing can be enjoyed by men and women though it is most commonly associated with women. Unless you include the appreciation that goes alone with watching rather than participating and in that case the men may actually outnumber the women. Belly dancing is a very exotic and erotic form of dance that is almost always an audience thriller. It may take years to perfect your belly dancing moves and many study this style of dance their entire lives but it is a great physical activity that is a lot of fun.

Dancing for fun is not only the best reason to dance by far, but it is far too often not the reason that people dance. People dance for competition, for exercise, and for many other reasons but not nearly often enough do we make the moves simply for the pleasure of doing so. If I could make one suggestion to everyone reading it is this. Go out and dance for the sheer joy of dancing.

Dancing for Fun

“ Smile , it is the key that fits the lock of everybody’s heart.”

Anthony J. D’Angelo

Back from Florida ahead of Hurricane Wilma, I asked my teenage son what he thought I should write about this time and he said ‘doughnuts’. I explained that although I found the topic an intriguing one (my mind immediately leaping to how I could link this into an interesting piece), it really needed to be more relevant to what I do, not what he would like to be doing! So his next suggestion was ‘Smiling’.

I nearly dismissed this until I remembered that while I had been working on the fourth module of my e-course today the topic of smiling had come up. It was in the context of self-confidence and how to develop it, in this case by meeting people with a smile and a friendly manner so as to engage and interest them. By asking people about themselves and really listening to their answers with a smile, not only will they feel comfortable and pleased to be around you, but your confidence will grow with each encounter. You will be remembered as much for your smile as who you are and what you do. As long as the smile is genuine and you use eye-contact you will come across as friendly and approachable – and confident. Smiling is such a powerful tool.

I couldn’t leave it there, so did a search on Google and came up with the following:

More facts about smiling

• A smile is a universal expression of happiness and recognized as such by all cultures

• A smile is the most frequently used facial expression It takes as few as five pairs of facial muscles and as many as all 53 to smile

• Regardless of the precise number of muscles used, smiling causes far fewer muscles to contract and expand than frowning

• Smiling releases endorphins and makes us feel better

• Even ‘faking’ a smile can lead to feeling happier

• People are born with the ability to smile (They don’t copy the expression, even babies who are born blind, smile)

• Babies reserve special smiles (Duchenne smiles of joy and happiness) for their loved ones

• A newborn shows a preference for a smiling face over a non-smiling face

• Women smile more than men

• Younger people smile more than older people. American males with high testosterone smile least of all.

• There are 18 different kinds of smile used in a variety of social situations

• Human beings can differentiate between the ‘felt’ (Duchenne) smile (of joy and happiness) and the social smile – ‘it’s in the eyes’ (literally)

• A smiling person is judged to be more pleasant, attractive, sincere, sociable, and competent than a non-smiling person

• A person who studies laughter is called a ‘gelotologist’

Always have a smile and a word for others.

Can smiling help you to move forwards? Are you lacking in confidence and afraid to be noticed? Practice smiling. Think of what you can ask people about themselves and jot down some notes. Try it out on a family member, friend or a colleague that you trust. Think about those people who seem to always have a smile and a word for others. How do they make you feel? You can be like that too.

You can choose to be permanently grumpy or you can choose to cheer up and smile! Have you been putting off the smiles? By smiling you will be releasing endorphins in your brain which will make you feel better (see above). You can even trick your brain into believing you feel good by getting that smile on your face, even if you don’t feel like it yet. Do it long enough and you won’t have to fake it.

One of my favorite exercises is to have a ‘Smile Day’. From the moment I get up I decide that I am going to smile at everyone I see. It doesn’t matter if I know them or not, I will still smile, and often say ‘Hello’. It is amazing how many people will smile back. Sometimes you don’t get one in return, but most people are delighted to return it to you. By the end of the day I am much more happy and positive than when I started.

1. What makes you happy? 
2. What do you like doing? 
3. Where can you include more of this in your life?

Try and smile at at least one stranger each day. For the less confident this could be a challenge – but you can do it!

Happiness comes from many sources, including expressing ourselves creatively. What are you going to do this week to express yourself? I have planned a whole day of crafting, as I have been putting that on the back seat for quite a while. You don’t need to commit to a whole day, just what you can.

A smile costs nothing, however it brings great richness to the recipient.

Happy as You Want to Be

Almost everyone have heard the hit single ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy’ by Bobby McFerrin. The song has a very catchy way of conveying its message of being happy to everyone. Bobby Mcferiin’s simple message surely made a lot of people by telling them not to worry.

Living a happy, resilient and optimistic life is wonderful, and is also good for your health. Being happy actually protects you from the stresses of life. Stress is linked to top causes of death such as heart disease, cancer and stroke.

One of the better things ever said is – ‘The only thing in life that will always remain the same is change’, and in our life we have the power to make the necessary changes if we want to. Even if we find ourselves in an unbearable situation we can always find solace in the knowledge that it too would change.

Social networks or relationships are essential to happiness. People are different, accept people for who or what they are, avoid clashes, constant arguments, and let go of all kinds of resentments. If arguments seem unavoidable still try and make an effort to understand the situation and you might just get along with well with

To be happy is relatively easy:

Happiness is actually found in everyone, increasing it is a way to make a life more wonderful and also more healthy.

To be happy is relatively easy, just decide to be a happy person. Abraham Lincoln observed that most people for most of the time can choose how happy or stressed, how relaxed or troubled, how bright or dull their outlook to be. The choice is simple really, choose to be happy.

There are several ways by which you can do this.

Being grateful is a great attitude. We have so much to be thankful for. Thank the taxi driver for bringing you home safely, thank the cook for a wonderful dinner and thank the guy who cleans your windows. Also thank the mailman for bringing you your mails, thank the policeman for making your place safe and thank God for being alive.

News is stressful. Get less of it. Some people just can’t start their day without their daily dose of news. Try and think about it, 99% of the news we hear or read is bad news. Starting the day with bad news does not seem to be a sensible thing to do.

A religious connection is also recommended. Being part of a religious group with its singing, sacraments, chanting, prayers and meditations foster inner peace.

Manage your time. Time is invaluable and too important to waste. Time management can be viewed as a list of rules that involves scheduling, setting goals, planning, creating lists of things to do and prioritizing. These are the core basics of time management that should be understood to develop an efficient personal time management skill. These basic skills can be fine tuned further to include the finer points of each skill that can give you that extra reserve to make the results you desire.

Laugh and laugh heartily everyday. Heard a good joke? Tell your friends or family about it. As they also say -’Laughter is the best medicine’.

Express your feelings, affections, friendship and passion to people around you. They will most likely reciprocate your actions. Try not to keep pent up anger of frustrations, this is bad for your health. Instead find ways of expressing them in a way that will not cause more injury or hurt to anyone.

Working hard brings tremendous personal satisfaction. It gives a feeling of being competent in finishing our tasks. Accomplishments are necessary for all of us, they give us a sense of value. Work on things that you feel worthy of your time.

Learning is a joyful exercise. Try and learn something new everyday. Learning also makes us expand and broaden our horizons. And could also give us more opportunities in the future.

Run, jog, walk and do other things that your body was made for. Feel alive.

Avoid exposure to negative elements like loud noises, toxins and hazardous places.

These are the few simple things you can do everyday to be happy.

And always remember the quote from Abraham Lincoln, he says that:

“Most people are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”

 ’Don’t Worry, Be Happy’

Our Dublin Workshop 

The fun and laughs started on Friday when Sharyn and Niall picked me up at the train station, I recall searching through my bag for my money to pay for food, what sprung to mind was the exercise “No Money Laughter” we had a few giggles about that and then the roars of laughter when the missing purse showed up it was like winning the lottery.

The real fun began on Saturday morning when people began to arrive to the class, Sharyn and Nialls group Maya, David and Lulu were in top laughter form and were well seasoned laughers who were ready to immerse themselves in two full days of child like silliness in order to become laughter leaders. Then came Roisín, Iwona, Marianne, Sheila, Nora, Fionn, Marian and Eoin. The Laughter group were now ready to begin to take laughter seriously.

There was a lot of giggling smiling  and laughing sharing and fun for the whole week end, some louder than others and the saying ” fake it until you make it” turned into howls of  real belly laughter. 

All these wonderful Laughter Leaders were successfully Certified by Sunday and headed off on their merry way to spread the laughter and joy.

Laughter can keep the weight off

 Giggling for just 15 minutes a day burns enough calories to shed up to 5lbs of fat over a year, work shows.

Laughter burns calories

Giggling for just 15 minutes a A big belly laugh uses about the same energy as walking more than half a mile, the US study in the International Journal of Obesity suggests.

Laughing makes the heart beat faster and works many different muscles.

The researchers measured the number of calories expended by 45 adults as they watched different TV programmes, including nature and comedy shows.

“ 15 minutes of laughter over one year may translate into annual weight loss of 4.5lbs ” 
                                                                                                Lead researcher Dr Maciej Buchowski

Happy – Genuine Happiness Comes from Within

Life isn’t the sweetest candy. Sometimes, when I feel like the world is just too heavy, I look around and find people who continued to live fascinating and wonderful lives. And then thoughts come popping into my mind like bubbles from nowhere – “How did their life become so adorably sweet? How come they still can manage to laugh and play around despite a busy stressful life?” Then I pause and observed for awhile… I figured out that maybe, they start to work on a place called ‘self’.

So, how does one become genuinely happy?

Step 1 is to love yourself.

My theology professor once said that “loving means accepting.” To love oneself means to accept that you are not a perfect being, but behind the imperfections must lie a great ounce of courage to be able to discover ways on how to improve your repertoire to recover from our mistakes.

Genuine happiness also pertains to contentment. When you are contented with the job you have, the way you look, with your family, your friends, the place you live in, your car, and all the things you now have – truly, you know the answer to the question “how to be genuinely happy.”

When we discover a small start somewhere from within, that small start will eventually lead to something else, and to something else. But if you keep questioning life lit it has never done you any good, you will never be able to find genuine happiness.

I believe that life is about finding out about right and wrong, trying and failing, wining and losing. These are things that happen as often as you inhale and exhale. Failure, in a person’s life has become as abundant and necessary as air. But this should not hinder us from becoming happy.

How to be genuinely happy in spite all these? I tell you… every time you exert effort to improve the quality of life and your being, whether it is cleaning up your room, helping a friend, taking care of your sick dog, fail on board exams and trying again, life gives you equivalent points for that.

Imagine life as a big score board like those which are used in the NFLs. Every time you take a step forward, you make scoring points. Wouldn’t it be nice to look at that board at the end of each game and think to yourself “Whew! I got a point today. I’m glad I gave it a shot.”, instead of looking at it all blank and murmur “Geez, I didn’t even hit a score today. I wish I had the guts to try out. We could have won!” and then walk away.

Genuine happiness isn’t about driving the hottest Formula 1 car, nor getting the employee of the year award, earning the highest 13th month pay, or beating the sales quota. Sometimes, the most sought after prizes in life doesn’t always go to the fastest, the strongest, the bravest or not even the best. So, how do you become genuinely happy? Every one has his own definition of ‘happiness’. Happiness for a writer may mean launching as much best selling books as possible. Happiness for a basketball rookie may mean getting the rookie of the year award. Happiness for a beggar may mean a lot of money. Happiness for a business man may mean success. So, really now, how do we become genuinely happy? Simple. You don’t have to have the best things in this world. Its about doing and making the best out of every single thing. When you find yourself smiling at your own mistake and telling your self “Oh, I’ll do better next time”, you carry with you a flame of strong will power to persevere that may spread out like a brush fire. You possess a willingness to stand up again and try – that will make you a genuinely happy person.

When you learn to accept yourself and your own faults. You pass step 1 in the project “how to become genuinely happy”. For as long as you know how to accept others, you will also be accepted. For as long as you love and know how to love, you will receive love ten folds back.

Again, throw me that same question “how to become genuinely happy?”. I’ll refer you to a friend of mine who strongly quoted- “Most of us know that laughter is the best medicine to life’s aches and pain. But most of us don’t know that the best kind of laughter is laughter over self. Coz then you don’t just become happy… you become free.”

Genuinely Happy

It’s No Joke, Laughter is Awesome Medicine!

You go right ahead! Laugh and cackle to the point of losing your breath! Laughter has enormous amounts of health benefits ranging from affecting diabetes to lowering risks of heart attacks and everything in between!

In this modern world that we live in, full of medicinal remedies and medical breakthroughs, who would ever dream that something as simple as laughter could induce such amazing benefits to your health that could rival highly scientific compounds found in drugs of today?

The idea that laughter may have some serious benefits to our health may have been what spurned on many scientific research projects pertaining to the benefits of laughter on our bodies. Over the years, countless experiments have concluded with scientific data that laughter has one of the most astounding benefits for your health. We have heard about the positive impact animals and clowns have had on nursing home and terminally ill children. Scientists have taken that idea a step further. Experiments have been conducted on such things as type II Diabetes which is an increasing problem for many Americans today. A study done in Japan at the Foundation for Advancement of International Science, Bio-Laboratory, found that laughter helps regulate gene expression to help control type II Diabetes. This is a huge discovery. This means that laughter has such a homeopathic effect on even the gene expression on our DNA that perhaps if we were a happier sort the gene that causes type II Diabetes may possibly never be expressed. Granted, it will likely not take the place of insulin therapy, but it may be key in helping to prevent the disease.

Studies also suggest that laughter positively affects rheumatoid arthritis by affecting the level of the condition as well as psychological benefits in controlling stress and stress related conditions. Perhaps the biggest discovery, published by S. Karger AG, Basel, is that laughter is now being proven to alleviate some of the lasting effects of heart attacks such as less medication and fewer repeat attacks with humor therapy of just thirty minutes per day. Can you imagine the impact?

Go ahead and laugh. Point and giggle, do it with pride and do it for your health. You may be preventing Diabetes when you cackle aloud. You could be keeping yourself from having a heart attack or stroke when you belly laugh to the point of tears. It’s ok! It will be contagious and soon everyone around you will be laughing too. Life can sometimes be serious and tiring, but if you look around and can draw some laughter out of what may seem mundane you could possibly be helping your health. Learn a new joke and tell it to everyone you know no matter if you are a good joke teller or not! Join a Laughter Yoga class at your local ‘Y’ even! Go ahead, laugh! Your health can truly depend on it!

Laughter has enormous amounts of health benefits

The Importance of Laughter and Tears

Ron grew up in a household where laughter and tears were never expressed. Anger was the main feeling expressed by his mother, while his father was mostly withdrawn. By the time Ron was eight years old, he had managed to shut off both his laughter and his tears to avoid feeling rejected by his parents and controlled by his mother. Shutting down was his way of protecting against being invaded by his very controlling mother. He became a serious child – a controlled and controlling child.

Ron grew up, went to college, became a successful lawyer, married and had three children. Yet nothing, not even his deep love for his children, managed to break through his rigid, controlling way of being.

Ron reached out for my help because he was not only very unhappy, but was often in physical pain. All he could say about the physical pain was that he hurt. “My body hurts. My chest hurt, my stomach hurts, and my back hurts.” He had been thoroughly checked out by a physician and learned that nothing was physically wrong. The doctor told him it was stress.

Ron told me that he spent much of his non-working time daydreaming because when he was present with himself in the moment, all he felt was pain. He had learned to daydream to avoid the pain.

However, Ron was now 48 years old, and the daydreaming was no longer working well. The pain was breaking through, especially in the form of debilitating back pain, so Ron decided he needed some help.

The issue behind Ron’s pain was that his primary intention in his life was to control. He wanted to control how others felt about him. He wanted to control how well his employees worked. He wanted to control how his wife treated him, as well as how well his children did in school. He particularly wanted to have control over not feeling the pain of rejection and the fear of engulfnment that he had felt so much in his family.

Ron’s control had worked for him to a certain extent. He was financially successful. He had all the material things a person could want – a beautiful home, a vacation home, a boat, and all the electronics a person could ever use. He had a wonderful family, and he had good health, other than his pain. Yet he was often miserable.

The problem Ron was facing was that having control was far more important to him than being a loving person with himself and with others. As a result, Ron felt empty inside and was constantly looking to others to fill him up. He had no interest in taking responsibility for his own feelings – his own pain and joy. He wanted others or things to make him happy.

Imagine how a child would feel if you put him into a box and told him he could never laugh or cry. This is what was happening with Ron. His Inner Child – his feeling self – was in a box, not allowed to laugh or cry. Laughter and tears are our natural ways of releasing feelings. Without the God-given gifts of laughter and tears, our feelings get blocked up inside, eventually causing our muscles to go into painful spasms. This is what was causing Ron’s pain. He could no longer put a lid on his feelings without feeling physical pain.

It was a tough battle for Ron. At those moments when he let go of control and opened his heart to love, the pain went away. But his terror of being rejected or controlled was generally more powerful than his desire to be loving with himself and others, and he would close up in the face of his fears. He feared that if he opened to his feelings, he would be weak and would be seen as weak, which he feared would lead to both rejection and engulfment.

Ron wanted something he could not have – the illusion of safety that being so controlling gave to him, while not suffering from the physical pain of being so controlling.

After much hard work, Ron finally saw that being loving to himself by letting himself experience his laughter and tears did not cause weakness, nor the rejection and engulfment he feared. In fact, by being more aware of his feelings and allowing himself to express them, Ron learned that he actually felt safer and more powerful than when trying to control everything.

Laughter and tears are great gifts that allow us to release our feelings in healthy ways.

Did you realise that laughter can heal?

The experience of laughing has been proven to be an extremely potent tool for self healing. If you have watched the DVD “The Secret” then you will have seen a very good example of this. A woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer laughed herself back to health. She watched funny shows and wouldn’t allow any stress into her life. At the end of three months the cancer had totally disappeared!

Why and how did this happen? Is it really possible to laugh your way back from sickness to health?

Well it has been observed by the medical profession that when you laugh, there are certain chemicals released in your body that relax you and allow your body to do what it does best – repair itself!

However, when you allow stress to take over and live your life from a very serious standpoint your body does not release these highly beneficial chemicals, your muscles tense and even natural bodily functions like digestion become harder for your body to regulate. As your body has to try that much harder to regulate your normal functions it takes its toil and aging can occur.

So if you try to see the funny side of things in life (and there always is one) you are actually helping yourself stay healthy and young. Using humour is not just great for your physical health; it can also keep you healthy emotionally and mentally. The best way top stay happy and humorous is to redirect your focus and thus change your perception of things.

If you constantly dwell on feelings of negativity you are not allowing yourself to see the humorous side of life and are robbing your body of much needed chemicals and a state of relaxation.

Here are some hints if you want to take advantage of the positive effects of humour.

1. Do things that you really enjoy and find funny.

2. Watch comedies that make you laugh.

3. Read a magazine or funny book.

4. Repeat the jokes you like to friends and family. Their laughter will have you laughing again.

5. Share funny stories that have happened to you.

7. Seek out the company of people you find funny.

8. Ask friends and family to tell you about their funny experiences.

You should to have a good belly laugh at least once a day. Why not laugh your way to a healthy youthful body?

Laughing has tremendous power. Not only can it make you feel joyous and put others at ease but did you know that it can also heal?